Finger Breathing Grounding Exercise

This is an exercise that you can use anywhere to ground you in the physical sensations of the breath and body (without other people even knowing you're doing it). It's a great tool in particular in the midst of anxiety and panic. I noticed that I say "index finger" twice, just know that the second time I'm referring to the ring finger (I'm sure you'll get it). I hope you find this helpful!

Transcript

You might do something I call finger breathing,

Where you trace the sensations of your fingers in your mind and you count from one to ten,

Going up and down each finger.

So it would be one,

Feeling the sensations up my thumb,

Two,

Back down the other side of the thumb,

Three,

Up the index finger,

Four,

Down the index finger,

All in your mind,

And so on,

Up until ten,

At the outer bottom of your pinky.

And then you could go backwards,

Or you could repeat on the other hand,

Or you could just stop there.

So go ahead and pick which hand you're going to use,

And find a place for it where it feels really settled,

Or you can just leave it where it is right now.

Or you could even hold it up right in front of your face if you want to really get curious about it.

So pick however you want to have your hand positioned.

And we'll begin at the outer bottom of the thumb,

And then trace the sensation all the way to the outer bottom of the pinky.

And you'll hear a bell to start and finish this one.

You can pay all of your attention to the sensations of the hand as a whole right now.

What does it feel like?

And then we're going to sync up this tracing of the sensation of the fingers with our breath.

So the in breath will trace up a finger,

And then the out breath will trace down,

And then up and down.

And so starting with the outer bottom of your thumb,

On your next in breath,

You'll trace up the sensations of the thumb.

So that would be one.

And then out breath tracing down,

Two.

And then in breath tracing up the index finger,

Three.

Out breath down the index finger,

Four.

This is all in your mind.

Up the middle finger,

In,

Five.

Down the middle finger,

Six.

Up the index finger,

Seven.

Down the index finger,

Eight.

Up the pinky,

Nine.

And down the pinky,

Ten.

And I realize it might be a little awkward to do that with me guiding you through it.

So try it one more time on your own.

So breathing in,

Going up the finger,

And then out down the finger as you count one,

Two,

Three.

And then up to ten on the outer side of the pinky.

So give that a try right now on your own.

And you want to continue.

Alright,

So that's just one tool to use as an anchor.

The finger breathing can be pretty useful because you can do it anywhere in the midst of anything and no one knows that you're doing it.

And you can easily tell if you've lost track of your counting and then you can just start back over and do it until you get all the way through one time.

And by getting all the way through you'll pretty much have guaranteed to have changed your experience of the situation at least slightly.

And I look forward to seeing you next time.

Have a great day.

Reviews

Amazing tips for grounding in the midst of a crazy day

He is so clear, calm and focused. And has such a peaceful grounded tone to listen to. Plus the music always helps me get more immersed and his tracks usually have welll chosen background music.

Never heard this one! Very cool somatic style practice

I love your natural and authentic way of guiding. Thank you.

This is really helpful, thanks insight 🙏

Such a great focusing exercise. Gives me something to do anytime, anywhere! Love it!

This is a fantastic, easy technique for relaxing the mind, and easy to do anywhere. Thank you!

That is a useful technique, easy to use and discreet

I had never heard of this practice and it is so easy to do. This could be useful to help calm a busy mind. Thank you! 🙏💖

Loved it! Really allows you to become internally aware. Great way to welcome focusing at the start your day ! 🙏🏾

I’m glad to come across this before I fly out tomorrow morning. Flying can trigger my anxiety and now I have another tool to help me keep calm.

This is a great tool / technique. Thank you very much.

That was excellent. What a great tool to use for me and my fluttering mind. Thank you so much for this. 💕🙏🌻

Nice way to slip in a little meditation without taking away from your trajectory. Thanks

This is fantastic! A completely new technique for me. And it’s so easy and effective. I will practice it on my own as my breaths are longer. Wonderful. Thank you.

This is a great technique - I’m going to borrow it for a meditation class I’m teaching this summer, thank you!

Easy and a great way to ground myself and use anywhere and I others would not know what I was doing.

Loved it! Short, sweet & simple while very useful. Thank you 🙏🏻

Wow, I love this simple exercise - it’ll be very helpful at work. Thanks Charles!

So simple, but so bountiful a tool!

Update: Today I turned to this meditation not knowing if it would help or not. I sometimes have tremendous pain in my hands from a fall. Today is one of those days. At first I was running through the meditation because my breathe was so fast because of the pain. I must have done both hands (alternating hands) five times each before you started walking us through the actual meditation. But as time went on I was able to slow my breathe and by the end of the self guided round, I was in sync. My pain is less!!! Thank you Charles. Though I often use meditation to ease my systemic pain, I would not have thought to use directed to my fingers/hands only had I not done this meditation of yours a few weeks ago. 🌻