When you have an attack of anxiety, usually at the most inopportune moment, the advice is to try and ‘ground’ yourself. It is a method of trying to calm your mind, usually by connecting to the world around you. The idea, from my understanding, is that you try to focus on the world around you, to help get you out of the mental spiral that anxiety can cause.

There are many different ways to ground yourself, and different things work for different people. The top things that work for me, are:

• Listen to music- I regularly make up playlists with different songs. A mixture of music genres, metal, punk, dance, ska, pop, anything. Normally something that can make me tap my toes, or sing along with the lyrics. It distracts me from whatever is going on.
• Deep breathing- Honestly, this does not work all the time. But, I have a ‘breathing’ app on my Apple Watch, which has helped me when I get panicked when I am out in about. I have frequently went into a cubicle and done breathing exercises which have helped calm me down.
• Fresh air- Going out for a walk helps me calm down. I think it involves taking myself away from the situation helps calm my mind down. I can look at nature, or even simply watch cars drive past. It’s a distraction.

To me grounding myself is about getting my mind out of whatever funk that is causing my anxiety. I understand that to a lot of people, the definition may be somewhat different. But, the world is about making things relevant to yourself, so that you can use it. Life is about seeing things in way that helps you deal with your day and make things a little more bearable. And it is a journey, it is progressive, a thing that changes over time. And, that’s okay.