Managing Anxiety Through Grounding Strategies

Written by Kritz & Bianca Sciessere, The Big Sister Experience

Kritz & Bianca will present at the Diverse Learners Symposium and the Wellbeing for Future Focused Schools Conference on 16 & 17 June 2023 in Melbourne and 4 & 5 August in Brisbane.

1 in 5 males and 1 in 3 females will experience an anxiety condition in their lifetime, according to Beyond Blue 2021. As educators, we don’t need yearly statistics to show us the increase of mental health and wellbeing issues amongst our young people.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, these issues have been magnified and we often find ourselves in a classroom of anxious students unable to navigate their feelings or implement coping strategies to self-manage. It falls on us as the educator to support; but with a classroom full of students it can be near impossible to dedicate appropriate  time and attention to those students’ experiencing anxiety. This is where self-managed grounding activities can be highly effective.

But first, what is creating this spike in student anxiety?

Often anxiety can be driven by a replay of events from the past or an anticipation of the future - these imagined scenarios need not necessarily be true or rational, but are often distressing in nature. With the recent upheaval of all that is normal, it is easy to see why we are seeing more students presenting with feelings of anxiety. It’s normal to worry from time to time however when we get stuck in a repeated cycle of worry about the past or future, we lose touch of the present moment and our thoughts and feelings can quickly spiral out of control. t is in these times that we need a circuit breaker to pull us out of these thoughts and bring us back to the present moment. Grounding activities can be highly effective tools to empower your students to self-manage their anxiety and feel more in control of their anxious feelings. 

What is grounding and how do you ground yourself?

Grounding is the process of resetting yourself in terms of your physical, mental, emotional and energetic state.

Grounding yourself is a circuit breaker strategy focused on getting you out of your head and back into the present moment. Grounding yourself means taking a moment to neutralise elements of your physical, mental, emotional and energetic state, and balancing these out. Not only is this an effective anxiety coping strategy, but it is also highly discrete which makes it more enticing for young people to use. This strategy incorporates all the senses and is simply focusing and listing in your head (or out loud if doing it with someone)

5 things you can see

4 things you can touch

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

We encourage you to have a go now to see how this strategy works. While engaging in  this activity it is very difficult for your mind to be wandering and thinking other thoughts, your concentration  forces you to be in the present moment; aware and observant of your environment. This is a quick and efficient strategy to empower your students with.

The power of breath work

Despite it seeming somewhat obvious, when feelings of anxiety kick in, breathing is often the first thing to be forgotten. When our Amygdala is triggered, extra adrenaline is coursing through our body and our nervous system kicks into a Sympathetic state. The Sympathetic Nervous System connects the internal organs to the brain by nerves and when stimulated it prepares for fight or flight. Heart rate increases, blood flow increases to the muscles and our skin can perspire. Subsequently, this can cause our breathing to become erratic, short and sharp or can even cause us to hold our breath for long periods of time. Implementing a breathing strategy can help to return our nervous system to Parasympathetic, undoing the work of the Sympathetic Nervous System. Our heart rate returns to normal, and breathing can reregulate.

The 4 x 4 x 6 breathing technique must be done through the nose for a minimum of three rounds to shift our nervous system back and it is simply as follows:

Breathing in through the nose for a count of 4

Holding for a count of 4

Breathing out through the nose for a count of 6

If breathing is highly erratic or you have a younger person, the counts can be adjusted to suit. Any breath work where the exhale is longer than the inhale and is performed through the nose will have the same impact on our body and return it to a calm and regulated state. If after 3 rounds the effects are not felt, continue with this technique for as long as required to bring the body and breath back to a normal state.

Allocating a designated ‘Worry Time’

When feelings of anxiety start to take over, become constant or interfere with our day-to-day life, implementing a designated ‘worry time’ can be a highly effective way to manage this. Allocating a time of the day dedicated to sorting through our worries can allow us to acknowledge our feelings, set them aside and tackle the task or situation at hand knowing we will come back to this later. Setting a worry time and not allowing ourselves to get caught up in our worries as they arise does take practice, which is why we suggest starting with the assistance of an app. We suggest ‘WorryTime’ by Reachout - a free app specifically designed for allocated worry time. This app allows you to set a time each day to ‘worry’. Throughout the day you lock away your worries that arise, allowing you to engage grounding activities if needed, until it’s time to focus on the worries experienced throughout the day. When it’s ‘worry time’,  you are encouraged to sort through your worries in a rational and deliberate process that gives you clarity and power. This app also allows you to keep track of how many times you think about the same worry. Not only is this app a great way to track your worries and identify any triggers but it is also establishing a healthy strategy for dealing with worries and feelings of anxiety. The aim is to start implementing these behaviours with the assistance of an app and then shifting towards using them mentally without any assistance.

So what should we focus on as educators?

Ultimately, we  want to encourage strategies to cope with the anxiety that our students are feeling, rather than encourage avoidance of the situations and thoughts that bring on anxiety. The idea is to create a toolbox full of resources that our students can turn to and use any of their tried and tested strategies to self-regulate in moments of heightened anxiety. The fact that anxiety is so prevalent in today’s society means that there are always new studies, tools, information and strategies for us to implement and try - so assist your students to add as many resources and techniques to their toolbox to help them feel more in control. If something doesn't seem to be working, suggest a different strategy or approach and remember that successful strategies might not always work for the same student every time - this is the power of building up that toolbox.

And lastly, the more we learn and empower ourselves as educators, the more we can teach and empower our students. The Big Sister Experience has a range of resources and professional learning sessions available for educators and families designed to give the confidence needed to guide and connect with students while they navigate these overwhelming and intense feelings of anxiety. But the fact you are reading this article alone means you are doing an amazing job. It’s challenging to juggle all the needs of all the students within your care, and in the school community, so give yourself a pat on the back - you are doing such important work!

Register now to hear from Kritz and Bianca at the National Education Summit Melbourne on 16-17 June 2023 or Brisbane on 4 - 5 August 2023.