Episode 40: Grounding
Today, we’re taking a deep dive into the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 method, which is a grounding technique meant to support you through stress, anxiety, and panic, hopefully guiding you back to the present moment. You begin by identifying 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. In addition, the poem incorporates some box breathing. As if tracing a box, this practice involves breathing in for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds, and holding for 4 seconds (repeat as many times as needed). In the poem, we put a bit of a spin on the word ‘grounding’ by using these mindfulness techniques to follow the journey of a seed being planted and growing into a flower.
I’ll share it with you now:
All I see is the ground coming fast:
a tree trunk cavity, the blur of a bare
April garden, human palms, fingertips
disappearing like split salad tongs,
& dark, nutrient-speckled topsoil.
I feel rigid—stone like & cold—
buried alive by minerals,
humus, and worms, in this
rich, chilled world.
I hear my body & my neighbour’s breaking,
creaking open like an old book, burrowing space &
humming the sound of a hand brushing cloth.
When I smell lukewarm rain, I soon
smell my world. We’re alive! Spine, go up!
There’s water to taste, but nothing for it to wash down.
Breathe in: Here I’m ready.
Hold: Here safe with you.
Release: Here safe with you.
Hold: Here I’m ready.
The tip of my buds taste ultraviolet.
I breathe in laundry & gas,
& quickly climb past.
I can hear car horns, chained dogs,
and many closing—
slamming—doors.
I feel a multi-temperature breeze,
a soft stroke, a shoe
sole, and a retracted knife.
I see a pair of eyes—one gold & one white—
among a blue field of birds & unharvestable cotton.
I stretch & slip between two bolls until my stem is parallel;
until I can bend it like a back & let them stitch to it,
helping me fly as if my leaves were feathers.
Breathe the words in. What do they make you feel or think? How did they connect with your senses? What colours or symbols did you notice? What meaning did you draw? Metaphors? Interpretations? Clarity? Messages?
