Katie Sammann Psychotherapy

This coping skill is a simple one that honestly you don't even need to practice. When you're feeling overwhelmed, grab an ice cub and hold it in your hand until it melts. The temperature change can help to regulate your nervous system. Some people take a cold shower for the same effect. Pretty cool, right? (sorry, couldn't help myself 🥶)

Rainbow grounding is a fun, effective, and easy-to-remember exercise to help manage big emotions. It’s especially good for younger kids, but really it can help people of all ages! Grounding exercises help you to focus on the present moment when you feel overwhelmed.

For rainbow grounding, you draw attention to your surroundings by identifying objects around you of each color of the rainbow. Take your time, when you pick an object of each color spend a little time considering what it is, what version of that color it is, its texture, its purpose, where it came from, etc. Then move on to the next color and repeat. Usually people go through ROYGBIV but sometimes kiddos like to add in other colors like pink, black, periwinkle, or whatever colors they love!

To learn more about it, check out my blog post: psychotherapistaustin.com/blog/rainbow-grounding