Touch & Ground
Restore your natural relationship with the physical world
Quick Start
Restores your natural relationship with the physical world by deliberately practicing engagement and release.
A room with various objects (table, chair, walls). Ability to move around and touch things.
When anxious or scattered. After stressful events. When feeling disconnected from your body or surroundings.
The Exercise
Physical Touch & Ground
- 1 Stand in the room and look around. Choose an object - a table, wall, door, anything solid.
- 2 Walk toward the object deliberately. As you move toward it, notice: you are choosing to approach this.
- 3 Reach out and touch it. Feel its surface - temperature, texture, weight if you can move it.
- 4 Let go. Withdraw your hand. Step back.
- 5 Pause. Notice the space between you and the object.
- 6 Choose another object. Repeat: approach, touch, release, withdraw.
- 7 Continue for 10-15 minutes with different objects.
Mental Touch & Ground
- 1 Sit comfortably. Close your eyes.
- 2 Think of a concept or idea - something neutral at first. Perhaps "trees" or "music."
- 3 Reach toward it mentally. Put your attention on it. Consider it. Engage with it.
- 4 Withdraw from it. Let the thought go. Come back to just sitting.
- 5 Reach again toward the same or different concept.
- 6 Continue alternating between reaching and withdrawing.
Wall Drill (Intensive)
A more intense version for significant grounding - particularly effective for panic, overwhelm, or dissociative episodes.
- 1 Face a wall. Place your palms flat against it.
- 2 Press into the wall. Feel its resistance. It's not going anywhere.
- 3 Step back until your arms are fully extended, hands still on the wall.
- 4 Walk forward until you can press your palms flat again.
- 5 Repeat for 5-10 minutes.
Signs It's Working
- The environment feels more real, more present
- Anxiety decreases
- You feel more grounded in your body
- Objects become more "interesting" - textures and qualities stand out
- You feel more in control of your engagement with the world
Why This Works
Much of anxiety and disconnection comes from stuck engagement patterns. We're either:
- Over-reaching: Grabbed onto things we should have released (relationships, ideas, grudges)
- Over-withdrawn: Pulled back from things we should engage with (life, people, opportunity)
This exercise restores flexibility. You can approach. You can release. Neither is stuck.
The physical world is here. When you touch it deliberately, acknowledge it, then release it, you remember: you're here too. You exist in relationship with this world. And that relationship is under your control.
Want guided practice?
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