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This is Week 9 of our 12-week Workbook Wednesday series. You're welcome to start here or find earlier posts in the archive — every one is here whenever you need it.
There are moments when the ground seems to disappear beneath you. When anxiety, grief, fear, or overwhelm arrive all at once and the present moment feels very far away. In those moments, what you need is not a lecture or a list of affirmations. What you need is a way back.
Grounding techniques are exactly that — simple, practical tools for returning to the present moment when your nervous system has taken you somewhere else.
This week, the Keys to Felicity workbook focuses on grounding exercises that are accessible, evidence-informed, and designed to be used anywhere — in a parking lot before a hard conversation, at a family gathering that's gotten tense, or at three in the morning when sleep won't come.
What Grounding Actually Does
Grounding works by interrupting the activation cycle we talked about in Week 8. When you're activated — when your brain's alarm system is firing — the part of you that can think clearly, perspective-take, and problem-solve goes a little offline. Grounding techniques use sensory input, breath, and attention to send a signal to your nervous system that you are safe in the present moment.
They don't erase what you're feeling. They create enough space that you can be with your feelings rather than be swept away by them.
Three Grounding Practices from the Workbook
The 5-4-3-2-1 Technique Using your senses, slowly name: 5 things you can see 4 things you can physically feel (the texture of your clothes, your feet on the floor) 3 things you can hear 2 things you can smell 1 thing you can taste
Work through this slowly, with genuine attention. The goal is to pull your awareness back into the present, sensory moment.
Bilateral Tapping Cross your arms over your chest. Alternately tap your left and right shoulders in a slow, steady rhythm, like a heartbeat. This simple technique activates both hemispheres of the brain and can have a noticeably calming effect within a few minutes.
The Cold Water Reset Run cold water over your wrists and the back of your neck, or hold ice briefly in your hands. The sudden sensory shift interrupts the activation cycle and can create an almost immediate moment of return.
A Reflection Prompt
Think about the last time you felt overwhelmed or unmoored. What did you do — or what do you wish you had done? Which of the techniques above feels most accessible to you right now?
This week, you might practice one of these techniques even when you don't need it — so that when you do need it, it already lives in your body.
The Keys to Felicity workbook includes grounding exercises with guided reflection space — a wonderful resource to have close by during times of stress. You can find it at keystofelicity.com.
A Reminder
Grounding techniques are real, researched tools — but they work best when practiced regularly, not just in moments of crisis. Think of them the way you'd think of physical stretching: the more consistently you do it, the more available your body is when it matters.
📚 Resources That Complement This Week's Work
These physical and sensory tools can extend your grounding practice beyond the page and into your everyday environment:
A weighted blanket — The gentle, even pressure of a weighted blanket has a naturally regulating effect on the nervous system — many people find it one of the most immediately settling tools available, especially in moments of high anxiety or sleeplessness.
An aromatherapy or essential oils set — Scent is one of the most direct pathways to the nervous system; having a small set of calming essential oils on hand gives you a portable, sensory grounding tool you can use almost anywhere.
A grounding techniques book — A dedicated resource on grounding practices gives you a wider repertoire to draw from — particularly helpful for finding techniques that suit your sensory preferences and life circumstances.
We'll see you next Wednesday for Week 10, one of the most relational weeks of the series: building your Circle of Trust.
This is the foundation of what we will be building together in the Keys to Felicity Founding Cohort—a 12-week therapist-led community experience centered on emotional understanding, reflection, and connection.
If you’d like to be the first to receive registration details when enrollment opens, you can join the interest list here:
👉 https://forms.gle/12AZZRdMpqPD5uzR9
Felicity Counseling provides trauma-informed therapy in Saint Louis, Missouri, and virtually across Missouri, Texas, and California. If you're looking for additional tools and support, we'd love to connect. Visit felicitycounseling.com.
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