Week Eighty-Nine: Getting Grounded: The “Five Things” Exercise

More than ever, most of us need ways to get bring ourselves back into the present moment when we get caught up in our busy lives, and in the stresses created by uncertainties about war, terrorism, and the economy. As I’ve moved through my daily life recently, I’ve found my attention moving toward collecting, remembering, and retooling grounding processes I’ve discovered over the years. I’ve also become extremely grateful for the years of practice I’ve done in learning grounding and centering techniques, as they are coming in very handy these days.

I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and one of the therapists there reminded all of us of a wonderful grounding exercise I’d like to share with you. It is called “The Five Things Exercise” and was created by Betty Erickson (I apologize if I have remembered her name incorrectly). Her husband was Milton Erickson, a psychiatrist who taught a form of hypnosis that has revolutionized hypnotherapy approaches.

The “five things” exercise may be used anytime you find yourself moving out of your body, getting ungrounded or uncentered, for any reason. If you notice that you’re dissociating, constricting into fear, shutting down, experiment with the following process and notice what happens.

First, look at five things in your environment. Then, touch five things, noticing their textures. Next, listen to five sounds.

After you’ve done this, look at four things, touch four things, and listen to four sounds.

Then, look at three things, touch three things, and listen to three sounds.

Next, do this with two of each and, finally, one of each.

By the time you’ve gotten to seeing one thing, touching one thing, and listening to one sound, you’ll most likely be back in your body and fully present.

During these times of uncertainty, grounding processes are more important than ever, and I’ll be offering more from time to time. With this one, play with it and notice when and where it helps you to reorient and recenter yourself. The nice thing about it is that you can do it anywhere and no one needs to know what you’re doing.

As with all the experiments, allow curiosity to be your companion as you discover what happens as you focus on the “five things”. The power of practicing these kinds of grounding approaches before you need them is that they are then much more likely to be readily available when you really do need them to help you recenter and reground yourself..

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