Grounding When Triggered

Here are a variety of grounding ideas for times when triggered by something or someone.

Be compassionate and patient with yourself

Bite into a lemon to use the sour taste to force you into the here and now

Call a friend who knows about your trauma and triggers and is a safe person

Call your therapist

Carry a small object (such as a colorful/irregular rock), and use it for tactile and sight grounding

Create a safe place in your mind, then utilize it when triggered

Deep breath

Find a physical activity to participate in

Focus on the here and now the best you can

Have supportive person remind you its a flashback and not happening right now—its a memory

Hold on to something cold like a bag of vegetables or an ice cube

Identify and name things you touch

Identify and name things you hear

Identify and name things you see

Identify and name where you are physically—what building, what room

Look at the date and time on your computer

Keep a small container of play-doh available to smell and manipulate

Play with your jewelry

Play or pet your dog or cat

Pray

Put a cold cloth on your face or neck

Put on soothing music that is from today, not the past, or loud music that will bring you into today

Remind yourself this will pass—its a memory

Replace negative statements that you identify with some positive ones

Smell perfume or a candle or another scented object

Snuggle a stuffed animal

Squish a stress ball

Suck on a piece of hard candy

Take a shower (hot or cold)

Take time to recover

Try to identify the trigger so you can address it specifically

Try to avoid blaming yourself for what you did or did not do during the trauma

Try to move your arms and legs instead of staying dissociated and stuck

Try to remind yourself the worst is over because the trauma was the worst

Use positive affirmations

Use a lot of self-talk—remind yourself that you are safe now

Use visualization to regroup and focus on something besides the triggers

Use your creative skills—draw, write, scribble, etc.

Wear something all the time that is from the present only, not from the past, and then touch it and remind yourself its from the present.

Wrap up in a blanket, mimicking someone holding you

Reprinted with permission.