Feeling anxious or overwhelmed? Try grounding techniques

How to return to the present moment.

We’ve all been there.

You’re doing something, whether it be going through your workday or playing a sport. And in an instant, anxiety hits. You feel your chest tighten. Your palms become a bit sweaty. Your mind and heart begin racing.

You might have anxious thoughts. You might simply be overwhelmed or overstimulated. Or maybe you’re just distracted.

The issue: You are not in the present moment. You are anywhere but the present moment.

You might be thinking: Present moment? Ugh, this is cheesy snake oil. I’m clicking out of this newsletter post.

Wait!

Acknowledging a concept like the “present moment” isn’t going to automatically turn you into a Buddhist – not that there’s anything wrong with that – or transport you to a silent meditation retreat. No, it simply is just a fact. Sometimes we’re present, and sometimes we’re not.

It can be as simple as tuning out while a friend is talking or as serious as experiencing negative thoughts when you’re about to face a batter who has homered off you four times in your last eight matchups with him.

What good does it do you to begin thinking about the pitches he hammered 425 feet when you’re about to face him again? Ideally, you should’ve learned from those pitches, gained valuable intel and committed it to memory for the next time. In the moment, you should not be thinking about that. You should solely be focused on letting your subconscious mind – fueled by years of repetition – help you execute the next pitch, then the next one after that.

Or if your boss yells at you, you might scramble. You might fear you’re getting fired. You have tasks, but suddenly you’re a ball of anxiety and you can’t focus.

Or maybe you’re worrying about something that’s in the future instead of focusing on what’s directly in front of you.

How do we bring ourselves back to the present moment?

Try grounding techniques.

In grounding, we’re simply using some sort of “anchor” – something in the present – to keep ourselves in the moment. There are different strategies.

A few:

• You can breathe deeply and focus on your breath, keeping a slow and steady pace that you control.

• You can feel your feet on the ground and wiggle your toes or flex your calves.

• You can use your senses. For example, find three things you see, three you hear or three you smell – or all three one after the other.

• You can go through a stretching routine.

Obviously, certain techniques work better for some than others. For example, I wouldn’t recommend a pitcher or hitter go through a stretching routine while on the mound – pitch clock violations galore. But pitchers or hitters often try to control their breathing in big moments as a way to slow the game down and stay in the moment instead of thinking about a billion other things that could come to mind.

If you have five minutes at work, you might try a breathing exercise. Or you could take a walk around your office and pay attention to the sounds of the different birds or the colors of the different trees.

If you’re working out, you can try to pay close attention to each rep and feel yourself completing one after the other. Feel your muscles flexing and stretching. Feel the weight and the resistance.

If you’re stretching, the stretches give you a perfect avenue into the present moment because you can feel your body stretching and moving in different ways. You will feel the stretch or the burn.

In my role as a beat writer covering the Braves, I often balanced multiple tasks and projects daily. I had to write pregame. I had to write off the game. I had to do a newsletter for Friday. I did one to two podcasts per week. I appeared on podcasts and radio shows. Oh, and I had to talk to a bunch of people to do the reporting to be an expert on the topics I covered.

As you can imagine, some days were, um, hectic. One that comes to mind: One day in Boston, the Braves called up Vaughn Grissom at around 10 a.m. I wrote that story and didn’t stop working until around 2:30 a.m. the next morning. I had written five or six stories that day. I still remember that our terrific night editor, Mike Luck, sent me an email after my I filed my final story. His message, more or less: Don’t burn yourself out. Take it easy.

Eventually, I learned to handle the moments better. Instead of focusing on all three tasks, I knocked out one at a time. If I became stressed or overstimulated, I would take a moment to do a breathing exercise. Before big phone calls, I would take a few deep breaths and stop thinking. Sometimes, I would get to the ballpark early and meditate before the clubhouse opened to media and before other reporters filled the press box.

Am I an expert at being present? Not even close. But it’s become a bit easier with effort. You just have to find what works for you.

Let me get one thing straight before we get out of here: Entering and remaining in the present moment isn’t easy. It takes practice, practice, then more practice. Mindfulness – recognizing the present moment without judgement – is like a muscle. The more you try to be present, the more natural it will become.

That doesn’t mean it’s always a cakewalk. We all have tough moments, bad days and erratic emotions. We’re human.

Next time you find yourself becoming anxious or overwhelmed, try a grounding technique or two. Focus intently on what you’re doing – be it deep breathing or something else – and wade back into the present moment.