How to Ground Yourself and Be Present

It’s common to hear phrases like “be present” and “ground yourself” but there is never any direction on how to actually do those things and I’ve always wished for someone to lay it out.

But when I figured out how to be present and ground myself I realized why no one has really tried to do so, it’s hard to put actionable items to something you ultimately have to feel.

However, in this blog post, I’ll try to give some tangible tips on how to get started on grounding yourself and being present.

Ground Yourself:

This is a tip often used to calm anxiety or panic attacks but it’s an exercise anyone can do whenever you want to slow down for a moment.

Basically, list out 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste.

Since the exercise is based around your senses it’s a way to take note of your environment and have a moment of stillness in the day

Grounding yourself and stillness goes hand in hand, being aware of yourself or your surroundings can assist in achieving this.

For example, a pause before taking a sip of coffee, or sitting in you car for an extra second before getting out, you can add little moments of stillness throughout the day

The key is to do it intentionally.

Intention is the other key component of being present.

Being present:

The easiest way that I’ve found to be present in a moment is to romanticize it.

I did the romanticize your life challenge for the blog a few months ago and talked about doing things intentionally while inflating it in your head to be bigger and more special than it may seem at first glance.

So take the tasks you would normally do, let’s use coffee as an example again, and be more aware of your movements and romanticize it.

For example, when making your coffee in the morning instead of moving automatically, try to take account of your actions and romanticize them in a way that fits for you. Maybe you’re the protagonist at the start of a movie or a youtuber vlogging your morning routine, whatever you want to imagine to make that action more enjoyable or important.

I realized I was able to do things with more intention when I romanticized the moments and that in turn helped me become more present in them.

Of course, there are times when doing this is hard. For me May felt a little bit like a blur because I was so busy and did things one after another. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments I strongly recall but it felt like I was simply moving from one thing to the next.

I noticed a difference in June when I set out to be more present and ground myself more so I felt more connected to the things I was doing instead of just moving through them. The moments of stillness where I paid more attention to my surroundings and making my morning commute more enjoyable by trying to romanticize it helped in achieving those goals.

I hope you can try some of the things I mentioned, it’s hard to describe a feeling, but I hope it helps in providing some kind of guideline! Thanks for reading!