ON SOLID GROUND: A Key Skill FOR HEALTHY HELPING
What does it mean to be “grounded”? The term has a few different meanings. Electricians, for example, practice grounding as a non-negotiable safety procedure where electrical equipment is connected to the earth to protect people from stray currents. In the aviation industry, grounding refers to making an aircraft safe by keeping it on the runway instead of in flight. In psychology, it refers to practices that help with orientating away from overwhelming thoughts and sensations to any neutral or calming stimuli in the ’here and now’.
Having practiced as a physiotherapist for over 20 years, I tend to describe everything in physical terms. What would you do if you were standing on a boat in rough water. How could you make yourself as stable as possible to prevent yourself from falling down or being tossed overboard? You would probably use your body to:
Get as low to the ground as possible
Make yourself as wide as possible (i.e. by setting your arms, legs and fingers wide apart)
Find something stable and hold on tight
Make yourself into a heavy object
Stay somewhat flexible/supple to be able to absorb shock and impact
A basic understanding of physics helps to promote safety. The larger the base, the more stable the object. It’s what toddlers do when they are learning to stand for the first time. Sumo wrestlers do the same. If things get really contentious, they may even fully lie down like a starfish on the boat deck (there is zero chance of falling once on the ground!).
Psychological safety follows almost identical principles (note to my fellow science nerds: you can imagine my excitement when I realized this!). Instead of grabbing onto a railing or a piece of the hull, you might hold firmly to ideas that anchors you (values, memories and beliefs). The “getting low” part might look more like “getting out of your head” by noticing the bodily sensations in the parts of yourself that are most connected to the ground (your feet, if you are standing, or your butt if you are sitting).
Sometimes, ‘growing a bigger base’ involves reaching out for an anchor. Stability can be ‘borrowed’ from another weighty object. In psychological terms, this could look like reaching out for reassurance from someone who loves you (it’s maybe worth mentioning that toddlers also do this quite well). Making a wide base could be about stabilizing your physical body to stimulate pressure receptors and provide more sensory inputs into the nervous system to trigger a natural balancing reaction and a subsequent sense of control and calm. As a bonus, these strategies also work when experiencing hair-raising turbulence on an airplane (you’re welcome!).
Grounding can also be achieved by moving internal structures in a downward direction. How does that work? If you have the good fortune of being able to breathe on your own, then you could potentially move your centre of gravity downward simply by taking a deep breath. When this happens, air rushes into the lungs as the diaphragm descends, pushing the abdominal contents a bit closer to the earth. At the deepest point of a relaxed inhale, this can be sensed as a slight pressure into the feet or butt (or whichever surface you happen to be resting on). It is so subtle that it can easily be dismissed, but it can give a sense of being more steady.
As the container for the nervous system, the physical body matters to the work that helpers do. Learning to stabilize the body during a turbulent moment in an airplane is also a way to manage the stress, anxiety and frustration that comes with helping work. Thus, grounding is an essential skill for anyone in a helping role.
HELPING GREAT PEOPLE GROW
If you are a helper and you’re ready to build a better base for the work that you do, reach out for a no-cost 20-minute consultation to see how we can work together.