Grounding techniques, mindfulness, and self-care can all help reduce stress.

Why is this important? Stress impacts our bodies in different ways. You might feel your heart rate increase or your body become tense.¹ According to research, high levels of ongoing stress may lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, addiction and/or obesity.¹ 

Here's how grounding techniques in particular can help you ease the stress in your life.

Grounding Techniques At a Glance

What are grounding techniques?

Grounding techniques are simple exercises that help you refocus on the present moment, providing a distraction from anxious thoughts, stress, or depression.² Grounding is defined in the dictionary as “giving or relating to a feeling of being mentally or emotionally balanced due to a peaceful, practical, and realistic outlook.”³

Grounding is based on positive and negative charges. Our bodies have a positive charge, and the earth has a negative charge. The positive energy in our body that builds up can be released by physically connecting to the earth.⁴

What are the benefits of grounding?

Grounding techniques work by shifting your attention away from stressful or anxious thoughts and toward what you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch in the present moment.

While more research is needed to fully understand the impact of using grounding techniques the research that is available shows that grounding has the potential to reduce inflammation, pain and stress.⁴ There is some evidence that practicing grounding for an hour a day can promote relexation⁵ and that grounding may improve mood by decreasing depression and fatigue.⁶

What are examples of some grounding techniques?

Grounding techniques involved the 5 senses of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. Below are 20 great examples of different techniques for using your five senses.^7,8

Sight

• Name things you can see from a particular category. For example, look around you and say out loud everything that is red.
• Count or name all the items in your space. For example, if you’re at a desk count everything that is on the desk or name all the items (i.e., notebook, pen, water bottle, keyboard, etc.)  
• Read something either out loud or in your head
• Play a word game like a crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search, etc.

Smell

• Use essential oils that are associated with positive memories or experiences. For example, if you love being at the beach find an ocean-scented oil that you can smell or use on your body.
• Light a candle with a scent that makes you feel good.
• Name out loud everything you can smell (i.e., rain, laundry detergent, dinner cooking, etc.).
• Smell something strong like peppermint.

Sound

• Listen to your favorite music, song, or nature sounds like birds chirping or the rain.
• Read something out loud like your favorite book, poem, or blog.
• Talk out loud about what you’re doing, what you can see or hear.
• Call someone you care about.

Taste

• Chew on some gum or suck on a mint.
• Eat or suck on something sour like lemon or lime or spicy like hot salsa.
• Savor a food you love by noticing the smell, texture, appearance, and taste.
• Put a small piece of chocolate on your tongue and let it melt. Notice how it feels in your mouth.

Touch

• Put your hand or foot in water or hold something cold like an ice cube.
• Drink something that’s hot, like hot chocolate, or cold like a glass of lemonade.
• Touch something like a blanket, towel, or a piece of your clothes, focusing on how the item feels, is it soft, cozy, rough, etc.?
• Name everything you can touch or that your body is touching.
• Use a fidget or pop something like bubble wrap.
• Tighten or clench a part of your body like your fists and then unclench or release the tension.
• Move a part of your body like wiggling your toes, or circle your ankles or wrists.

How to get started with grounding

Like all self-care strategies, making grounding practices a habit takes time, patience, and grace.

Start with small specific goals like, I will engage in one grounding technique every day for the next two weeks, to help you begin. As you become more practiced in these techniques, you can expand your goals and reap greater benefits.

Photo copyright Peggy Roth Major for NCOA use only

Sources

1. Harvard Medical School. Understanding the Stress Response. Harvard Health Publishing. Found on the internet at https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-aging-and-longevity/understanding-the-stress-response

2. Healthline. 30 Grounding Techniques to Quiet Distressing Thoughts. Found on the internet a https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques

3. Dictionary.com. Grounding. Found on the internet at https://www.dictionary.com/browse/grounding

4. Health.com. Can Grounding Improve Your Health? Found on the internet at https://www.health.com/grounding-7968373

5. Gaétan Chevalier. The Effect of Grounding the Human Body on Mood. Psychological Reports. April 2025. Found on the internet at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/06.PR0.116k21w5

6. Gaétan Chevalier, et al. The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Bodyworkers’ Pain and Overall Quality of Life: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Explore. May-June 2019. Found on the internet at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830718302519

7. Matthew Tull, PhD. Grounding Techniques for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. VeryWell Mind. March 4, 2026. Found on the internet at https://www.verywellmind.com/grounding-techniques-for-ptsd-2797300

8. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations. Grounding Techniques. Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. Found on the internet at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207188/box/part1_ch4.box5/