Hey there,
I'm Nikki.
And today,
I want to share a fun and easy distress tolerance skill.
Called rainbow grounding.
It's a skill that you can use anywhere,
Anytime.
That you're feeling stressed.
Or anxious.
And you want to feel more calm and centered.
And so without further ado,
Let's jump right in.
You guys may remember in school this acronym.
Roy G.
Biv It's the colors of the rainbow in that order.
And that's exactly what we're going to do.
We're going to start at the color red.
And in the environment that you're in,
Whether you're sitting down or laying.
You can scan your environments.
It can be inside or it can be outside your window.
And you're going to pick between one and three items.
That represent each color and move your way through the rainbow.
So I'll walk you through.
I found some items in my environment that represent red.
I've got a little handheld game here.
Some tea that I enjoy.
And the tip of a pen that I love to draw with.
And then we're going to move to the color orange.
And so you can see orange in the poster there.
I've also got it in this beautiful gift that a recovery friend made for me.
It says victorious,
In case you're curious.
And my favorite tea.
Orange spice.
And then we're going to move to the color yellow.
I've got some yellow in my shirt.
I grabbed this from the refrigerator,
Which is a feelings wheel.
Got yellow.
And my fun little friend's prickly pear.
Is bright yellow.
All right,
We're going to move to the color green.
And I've got green in my shorts.
This little Lego piece,
It's got green.
And a fun little Rubik's Cube.
I just had to do that.
Alright,
Now we're going to move to the color blue.
So I've got.
.
.
The color blue here is the background.
It's a picture of my son.
And.
.
.
I've got my little squishy here.
He's got some blue on him.
And then.
.
.
A ring.
That was my mom's that's got the color blue.
So as you can see,
I'm mixing it up.
And.
.
.
Finding items,
Again,
In your environment.
And your surroundings,
Taking your time.
If you need to do some deep breathing,
That's great,
In between.
And let's move to the color indigo now.
It's a little bit harder.
I've got a lavender stick that my dad's sweetheart and I made.
Scott Indigo.
I've got indigo right here on this box.
And.
.
.
I've got indigo there on the play-doh lid.
And then the last thing is purple or violet.
And I've got a purple agate that my recovery coach gave me.
And I've got a beautiful little jellyfish keychain.
It's got some violet on it.
And then lastly,
A whip it.
That's what I call it.
It's a little affirmation that I made and it says,
Nikki,
You deserve.
Alright,
You guys.
That's the rainbow grounding skill.
It's something that you can do.
When you're feeling anxious or stressed.
And I'll recommend two things.
If you are having kind of a spike of stress and anxiety.
I would probably use.
Three items per color.
To help give you time to really ground and calm yourself.
And decrease the anxiety and the stress that you're feeling.
As you move through the rainbow.
And also,
If you are in some place and you can't find an item that represents that color,
You can choose a different shade.
You can skip that color and go to the next one.
And this is something that I've been able to use to help myself.
In moments of distress.
I hope it's something that helps you as well.
Try to have fun with it.
It will help you.
Be able to regulate and again downshift your nervous system when you're feeling dysregulated and out of your window of tolerance.
Alright,
That's it you guys.
I hope that you enjoyed this video.
Please let me know how this skill works for you.
I would love to hear.
In the meantime,
Take good care.
Be well.
And I'll see you next time.
