Serenity Wellness Podcast E10: Be Here Now

In this podcast with Nicole, learn about connecting to the now, how it impacts your system, a mindful technique called grounding, and a handful of easy tools to add to your wellness toolbox. I’ll take you through a meditation to root you and bring inner stillness and strength. Thank you for sharing space with me.

Transcript

Hello,

Welcome to Serenity Wellness Podcast.

My name is Nicole White and I'll be your host.

This podcast is dedicated to helping you tap into your full potential of how you can heal and balance your mental,

Emotional,

And physical wellbeing.

Together,

Let's explore our inner self,

Connect to our strength,

And manifest your true nature,

One full of love,

Purpose,

And passion.

Welcome to episode 10,

Be Here Now.

Thank you so much as always to all of you who continue to join me each week and for ongoing words of encouragement and support.

And as always,

Sharing my podcast with others you think might also find it useful.

And welcome to those of you who are new.

Thanks for joining us today and spending some time and space with us.

I hope you all are finding additional time and space in your life to find that balance and begin to tap in and build your wellness toolbox with the tools that we're learning that you find useful for you,

As well as tapping into those things that you're passionate about that help to fill that joy center and feed your soul.

I'm happy to report I finished my recent certification in that mental health integrative medicine provider course that I was taking.

And so I'm really excited about some future podcasts and what I'm going to be able to share with you in terms of what I learned there.

So really cool stuff.

I hope also that you have begun to see how these tools that we're learning just start integrating within themselves.

You start seeing how they start to build upon themselves and start to become a way of being,

Especially with those daily mindfulness practices.

So we've been learning about our breath and how we can hold tension in our body,

How our thought loops and thoughts and words that we say can really manifest into some emotional as well as mental and physical ailments that we experience.

And we've also begun looking at the science and the research on how that truly does affect us on both a mental,

Emotional,

And physical level.

Today,

We're going to learn a little bit more about connecting to the present moment with a mindfulness tool called grounding.

I'm going to explain to you a little bit more about what grounding is,

How it can help you.

And then I'm going to give you some super easy tools that you can use in your everyday life when you think that you might need this grounding experience to get back to the present.

In the last episode,

We talked about worry thoughts,

And we talked about how these cycles can pull us away from the present moment,

Can increase our emotions.

It has to do with that amygdala center that we've talked about,

Especially when we went over that.

I don't remember what episode it was.

Maybe episode two,

The anxious body cycle.

And we talked about that area that I call kind of the trauma center that a lot of us with PTSD can get activated in that area in the brain,

But also even with just anxiety and holding tension in our body and when we're chest breathing and all those areas that we've been working on and how those worry thoughts and some of those things we've been talking about can really elevate that as well as pull us away from the present moment.

So elevating those emotions,

Pulling us away from the now,

And at times can almost make us feel hijacked within that cycle,

Within the thought loops and the physical tension holding and how it affects all those systems and areas that we've been talking about and learning about throughout this podcast,

Throughout these episodes.

So in terms of grounding,

The things that we have been working on and learning in a lot of these podcasts are about pulling us back to presence.

So we've been working on the breath as that tool.

We did the half smile as even that way to pull back into presence of body and the internal happiness that we can bring in an emotional regulation situation that we might need it in.

But also we have been looking at ways that we can get into daily mindfulness.

We looked at taking that shower mindfully,

Drinking coffee or tea mindfully,

Having a conversation mindfully,

Listening to music,

Et cetera.

And so we've been talking and building upon these tools about daily mindfulness and those are ways to pull us back and be present and connect to the now and how we've talked about all those areas that it starts to really help to integrate into this synergetic system we have as a whole being.

The slight difference with grounding is it does all those things too,

But in addition,

It really helps us to calm the emotion center.

It pulls us back to where are we at,

What are we doing right now in this moment.

So with grounding,

It kind of brings us back to the now because with it in some of the techniques and tools that I'm going to teach you here today,

You're going to see what I mean here.

But with it,

It brings us back to the present moment in a more concrete way because when we do some of the things I'm going to explain to you in grounding,

As you learned when we went through that multitasking experience with the ABCs and 123s,

How we can't do both of them at once and it causes all this confusion in the brain.

With this and with that confusion that you experienced,

If you went through that technique with me,

With the grounding experience,

What we saw as we did in those 123s and ABCs with this grounding experience,

It really helps us in a very positive way because it pulls us back when we're doing some of these tools.

It pulls us back to the now and to the present so we can't get into those worry thought loops.

We can't get into that catastrophic thinking or the fortune telling or the mind reading,

Going back before,

Going up ahead and really pulling us away from now and how when we go from the back and the forth,

How it really hijacks us,

It increases those emotions,

It pulls us away from presence.

We start believing those stories and before you know it,

We're kind of hijacked up in it and we feel like it just has taken over and sometimes we can't get out.

Kind of how we talked about,

And again I apologize,

I can't really remember what episodes I talk about these things in,

But it was when I talked about the trees and how we start at that ground level with one or two thoughts or sentences and then how we begin to build those tree trunks and tree branches and the emotional rooting within it and we can get kind of wound up and lost within it.

So grounding and these tools that I'm going to tell you today or talk to you about today,

It helps to decrease those emotional elevations.

It helps to get us back into more of a centered place.

It's not telling us we shouldn't have those emotions or ignoring them.

We're just regulating.

We're trying to regulate these emotions that we have,

These experiences so that we can get more into a place that we can process them more effectively.

If you've ever been in an anxious thought cycle where you might even get into an anxiety attack or panic cycle,

You might realize and notice that it's not really an effective place to be in problem solving,

In really anything.

I don't know,

Like being as anything because as you've started to learn in these podcasts,

It affects us in a million different ways.

It's not just that we feel that anxious energy,

All the ways that we've been learning about what it does to us on a physical level,

On an emotional level,

On a mental level,

How it stores within the body.

I haven't really got too much into that yet.

I'm going to be diving much deeper into that piece down the line about the storage of emotion that we don't process,

Both ours as well as others,

And what it does to our full body system,

Especially physical ailments in the body.

But anyway,

I'm going to get off topic if I go too much further there,

And that will be for a different episode.

So with this,

As I mentioned,

It does all those things,

But it also calms down the nervous system when we do some grounding.

It soothes areas in the brain.

And then as mentioned,

It's a great emotional regulation tool because we're not ignoring emotion,

But we're regulating so we can process and work through them in a more effective way.

It really comes in handy too if you are one who experiences higher levels of anxiety and panic or those of us who have PTSD.

And if you ever have flashbacks or get into a moment where you're kind of in your mind or experiencing your trauma or anything like that,

These tools and techniques are a go-to because they pull you back in the present moment.

We have flashbacks and stuff.

It's about,

Part of it is about time stamping where our trauma isn't quite time stamped.

So the flashbacks,

They feel and seem so real and can again,

Hijack the system.

So these things I'm going to tell you,

I'm going to give you a couple of different ones here.

It's a great emotion regulation tool in general.

And then especially if you have any of those areas that you feel more panicked,

Anxiety or trauma related if you're working through some trauma.

So I'm going to now move us ahead into the skills.

And some of these skills that we're going to learn today are just skills you could do in your everyday life,

Wherever you're at,

Whatever you're doing.

And then at the end,

I'm going to take you through a short guided meditation to root your body system.

So the first one is a five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One about focus.

When you do this technique,

It allows you to focus in the present moment.

And what it is,

Is it's a five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One countdown.

But with each,

You're going to pull in your senses.

So for example,

In this focus experience of grounding,

Five,

Five things I see,

Four,

Four things I feel,

Three,

Three things I hear,

Two,

Two things I smell,

One,

One thing I feel within me that connects me to my strength.

So five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

The next is a I Spy.

Have any of you played the I Spy game?

Something I've certainly played,

Especially with my daughter when she was younger,

You know,

I Spy road trips,

Great go to.

So the I Spy and how you use this in grounding is you're going to choose 10 things in the room,

10 shapes such as squares,

Or 10 things of the same color,

Such as red.

So in the I Spy and grounding,

You're going to reconnect your present moment and your present experience by choosing 10 square things and looking around the room and finding 10 things that are square,

Identifying them in your mind's eye,

Or 10 things that are red if you choose color.

Explore would be the third one.

Find a picture,

A piece of art or an object,

Explore it,

And describe it in detail.

So for example,

I have a piece of art in my office that is a little cabin that's by a river.

It has some snowy mountains in the background,

Lots of trees,

Lots of ripples in the water.

And it's a grounding technique that sometimes we pull in in sessions when I'm working with people,

Or I use it as the example as I'm doing right now,

I'm teaching you guys.

And so what you would do in that is you pause and you explore.

So in that example,

You would explore the piece of art.

How many ripples are in the water?

How many trees?

How many mountain peaks?

How many boards are in the small cabin?

Windows?

What do I see?

And so I'm going to connect and I'm going to explore and describe in detail what I see within the piece of art.

So you can again do that with a picture,

You can do it with an object,

You can do it with really anything.

It's just about reconnecting and grounding.

Another example would be connect and grounding.

And so with this,

You can have a small trinket or something in your pocket that you can carry with you all the time.

I have a little trinket I carry,

Or I pretty much always have crystals on me.

I usually keep them in my bra.

I don't know,

That might be too much information,

But that's where my crystals are.

So those of you who like crystals,

That's a good place.

But anyway,

Crystals are a little trinket of sorts and so it's something that you can carry with you that in a moment where you need grounded,

You pull it out and you explore and connect.

And so you're going to feel what it feels like.

Maybe it's something that has some texture,

You know,

You could connect with the texture,

The different feelings of the texture,

The sensation of holding it,

The temperature if it's a little chilly or a little warm,

Etc.

So you're going to connect with it fully.

Another example is to move.

Move and grounding,

Right?

That might sound a little like not connected as we're grounding.

But yes,

Movement is a beautiful grounding tool.

Mindful movement and grounding would be things like taking a mindful walk.

A walking meditation is something we'll explore and talk about later in more detail.

But when you think of taking a mindful walk,

It's about connecting to everything around you through all of your senses.

But you can also do the walking meditation where you're taking slow,

Mindful steps,

Connecting to the feeling of each step as your heel touches the ground,

As the sole of your foot begins to connect,

And your foot gently begins to lift off the ground with the toes then lifting completely.

As the other foot then drops down,

Connecting to that heel,

The internal arch of your foot,

The ball,

And the toes,

And then gently lifting off the ground.

So that would be an example,

Just as a brief little description of how to take a mindful walk fully connecting through all of your senses all around you.

Or you can also do that walking meditation where you're not only connecting to all the senses but you're connecting to the full slow rhythm of your step.

And so when you're doing a walking meditation you're really taking slow,

Connected steps.

You can also do movement through grounding with dance,

As I've mentioned in some previous episodes.

That's one of my favorite things to do because in that movement,

In dance,

It's truly grounding,

Connecting,

You're connecting with your body,

All the different feelings within your body as you move.

You're connecting with the vibration of the music that you're moving to.

You're connecting with the interchange or synchronicity between your body's movement and the body movement and vibration of the music.

At least that's what I like to do.

So that would be an example of using movement in dance.

And then you can also use movement in terms of your throat and humming and connecting in the movement within the body when you hum because it creates that little vibration and so it actually kind of awakens the body and reconnects you.

An example of how I use the hum is I do not really like driving in the snow and sometimes if I have to do that for whatever reason I'll hum when I drive.

Oh,

Speaking of snow,

It's snowing here right now and on cue a snowplop just went by in case you heard that in the background.

So we've got some beautiful snow happening right now in State College.

Anyway,

Where was I?

Humming,

Yes,

Humming,

Snowing,

Driving,

I will hum.

It calms down my nervous system and lets me relax a little bit.

I also used it as a technique.

I've gotten much better at this but I am originally from Coatesville,

Pennsylvania which is there's a lot of traffic down that way and you kind of have to be a little bit more of an aggressive driver when you're on certain roadways and highways and things like that just because of the congestion and people are a little busy.

They're a little busy and rushed,

I'll put it that way,

And so tend to be in a bit of a hurry to get places.

So when I first moved here it was an adjustment for me.

I've been in the State College area for,

I don't know,

Over 20 years I think.

I'd have to do math right now and I'm not going to pause you for me to do that.

So it's been a while.

When I first moved here it was an adjustment because it kind of brought my road-rege-ness energy with me and humming was a way to calm down my system and now again I don't really get that way anymore.

Sometimes when I'm on my way to work I'll get stuck behind a farm machinery of some sort that causes a little bit of a traffic build-up and I just like smile because I'm like,

Wow,

All right,

I will take this traffic build-up versus like this Google Expressway kind of traffic.

If you're from that area you'll know what I mean.

Anyway,

Yes,

So movement,

Grounding,

Mindful walk,

Connection in walking meditation,

Humming,

There's the plow again on cue and how I used humming and driving,

And dance if I haven't mentioned that already again.

And then another technique would be rooting and you can do that through a guided meditation or guided imagery and that's the experience I'm going to take you through in just a moment to give you an example of that.

So again,

Some grounding techniques,

How they can kind of help cool down emotion,

Bring in as emotion regulation technique,

Calms the nervous system,

Soothes the areas of the brain that we've been talking about and learning about and that really deep emotion regulation if you're needing to incorporate that feeling of safety and grounding if you have higher anxiety,

Experience anxiety attacks,

Panic,

Or are working through trauma.

Ah,

Thank you for listening through all of that and I am looking forward to now taking you through a brief guided meditation.

Before we do that though,

I just want to first mention a few things and the first is to tell you about on the week of March 11th through 14th at Serenity Wellness Center,

We have our free week of balance.

So with that,

We have a free yoga on Monday night at 5.

30,

Tuesday at noon another yoga class,

Tuesday at 6.

45,

Free group meditation,

Yoga Thursday at noon,

And then our free Ricky Circle Thursday at 7.

So check out our website,

SerenityWellnessCenter.

Com,

That's C-E-N-T-R-E for more information about those events and to register,

Space is limited,

So please register if you plan to join us.

And then that following week,

We'll be opening up our eight week series of classes as well as some really cool workshops coming your way for the spring.

Another announcement is our first guest will be on our next Mindful Monday series on March 11th.

I'm going to have Kevin Briggs as a guest on the podcast.

He's not only an awesome human and friend,

But he also practices meditation and yoga and is currently writing a dissertation about the way that teachers experience self-compassion as a mindfulness-based intervention program.

He's going to talk a bit about the research he's doing,

And then he's also a teacher in the Belfont School District,

So he's going to talk a little bit about how they're already starting to incorporate that in the school district and working with teachers as well as students.

He also writes about and performs music all around Centre County,

And so he's going to be able to share a little bit more about mindfulness in relation to music and how as a musician,

It's really part of that sharing and experience of music in his life also.

So I look forward to having him on our podcast on March 11th.

With that,

We are now going to move into our meditation.

So you can go ahead and start just getting comfortable where you're at,

But for this meditation I'm going to ask you to sit in a chair if you can with your feet on the ground.

So that that's possible.

This is going to be just a short grounding meditation and it will be helpful if you can be in that position.

So getting yourself comfortable and seated if possible with your feet on the ground.

And begin to just breathe.

Taking a nice deep inhale,

Breathing in relaxation.

And as you exhale,

Breathing out relaxation.

Not changing your breath at all,

But just simply connecting within.

Getting to that gentle rise and fall of your body as you inhale and exhale.

With each inhale,

You can feel your body begin to fill with relaxation.

And each exhale,

You can feel your body releasing any tension,

Any busyness it's trying to hold onto.

Simply letting go and being here now.

Breathing in relaxation.

Breathing out relaxation.

If your mind begins to wander,

Simply allow your thoughts to float away and gently connect back to your breathing or back to my voice.

Starting to just gently scan your body from the top of your head all the way down,

Just checking for any tension you'd like to let go of.

Allowing yourself to further relax in this space.

Releasing any tension in your jaw,

Behind your ears.

Releasing the space between your eyes,

Your brow and your nose.

Letting the tension drop down from the back of your neck,

Your shoulders,

Your arms and hands trickling that tension off into the earth.

Further feeling your back release,

Your abdomen,

Your lower back,

Your hips and thighs and shins,

Your ankles,

Soles of your feet,

Off your toes and into the earth.

Allow your mind's eye to imagine that connection that your feet are finding with the earth.

Letting them breathe it down,

Securely connected to the earth's energy below.

Feeling this grounding,

Connecting energy root your feet deeply into the earth.

You can begin to feel this grounding energy enter your whole body.

Feeling rooted like a tree as this calmness enters through your feet.

You can feel it swirling around your ankles,

Up your shins,

Your knees and thighs.

Feeling this calm,

Grounding,

Rooted connection with the earth below supporting you.

Continuing to follow this calming energy as it continues to fully embrace your body system.

Feeling it up your hips,

Your waist,

Feeling it embrace your stomach and your lower back.

Feeling through your fingers,

Up your arms and your shoulders.

Feeling the full energy run up your whole system as it calms and ground you.

Your upper back,

Your chest,

Your shoulders and your neck.

This calming surrounding your face,

Your jaw,

Your cheeks,

The back of your head and allowing it to go up beyond the crown of your head,

Embracing above you.

Continuing to grow this rooted energy all through your body system.

Feeling it root,

Embrace,

Connect,

Relax.

Soothing your whole system as the earth below supports and roots you.

Growing like a tree through your whole system,

Allowing you to feel stability and calmness.

Feeling all the way up through you,

Growing beyond you to connect to the energy above,

Allowing it to nourish you as you are grounded below.

Feel this calmness.

Know it is always there within you.

Any moment you need,

It is here.

All you need to do is reconnect to the awareness by simply connecting with your feet on the ground.

It will allow you to connect to this rooting,

To this earth energy supporting you,

Growing through you and connecting above.

It is always there.

Allow yourself to gently begin to connect to your breath,

The gentle rising and fall of your body as you breathe.

Simply beginning to gently wiggle your fingers and your toes,

Bringing with you this calm awareness of your ability to root to the earth whenever you need it.

Taking a moment to stretch and move and as guided,

Opening your eyes if they happen to be closed for this and reentering our space or your space,

Wherever you're at today with me.

I hope you found that to be a little calming to your system as we kind of reenter our space together here,

Maybe just taking a moment to mindfully check in to see how you feel right now.

Seeing if your body maybe feels a little more grounded,

More rooted,

More calm and again remembering that this is something that's always there and if you practice this a little bit then you really can just kind of,

If you're feeling that need,

Just sit down for a minute,

Put your feet on the ground,

Close your eyes for just a minute or two and reconnect to those roots,

Those roots in the earth,

That tree growing within you,

That stableness it brings up beyond you and connecting to above that energy it provides in support and balance.

Thank you all of you for joining me today.

I hope you found it useful in some of these tools we went over and helping you to further understand some of how these things build together and how they're there as an everyday tool you can bring in and connect to whenever you need it.

Our next podcast will be this Wednesday where we'll continue to build upon our wellness toolbox and explore further the science and research on how all of these tools working together can help us to balance our mental,

Emotional and physical well-being.

And then also on March 11th we'll have our first guest on our podcast,

Kevin Briggs,

Who's going to talk to us further about his work in his dissertation related to teachers' experience with self-compassion and how some mindfulness programs are being used in the schools now for teachers and students in balancing themselves.

And then also how we can use mindfulness in music and he'll share with us a little bit about his mindfulness practice with being a musician.

Thanks so much everyone for joining me today.

I look forward to sharing some more time and space with you again in the future and continue to give yourself permission to tap into your wellness toolbox and do things that fill your joy tank and feed your soul.

Have a good one.

I'll talk to you soon.

Reviews

So many useful tools for grounding, I’ve found them extremely useful during my exam period while stress and anxiety levels are high. Thank you 🙏🏻

Great talk! Very helpful! Thank you!

A lovely talk.
Thank you 🤗