I Spy... a Lamp

Hey, Cadre family doctor Kerry here. Today. I want to talk about a grounding technique. This specific technique is called the 54321 technique and it was not developed by me. I'm not going to take credit for this. It's actually used by a lot of therapists in trauma focused therapy. And for me specifically, I used it when I was going through EMDR therapy. And it's really helpful to use in therapy, but also outside of therapy is really what they developed this technique for, because the whole point of it is to get your logical brain back online.

So the best time that I have found to use this technique is actually when I've been experiencing a flashback or I've been triggered by something pretty significantly. Because what happens when your body is triggered and you experience a flashback is actually that your brain goes offline or your logical brain goes offline. So you're having a amygdala response. The part of your brain that's responsible for emotional inputs becomes flooded and you can actually no longer think logically. So a lot of times people describe this as feeling like they just completely dissociate or escape.

I definitely have had that experience multiple times with flashbacks. And your brain is trying to process some, something, usually a traumatic experience with a trigger or a flashback. And what happens is your brain is actually going into sympathetic nervous system activation, which is when you're preparing for fight, flight or freeze. So there's no logic and you basically feel like you're in an unsafe situation because your brain is doing that to protect you. So this grounding technique helps get your brain back online so you can remember that you're in the present and that you are safe and you can actually kind of talk yourself through whatever it is you need to go through at the time.

So for me, when I use this grounding technique, it's usually when I'm triggered or have a flashback. And the reason it's so powerful, it's so simple is because it gets your senses activated. So it's using your five senses. And what that does is it actually brings you back into the present because it makes you input that sensory information from right now, right here, right now into your brain so that you can start processing things again. So I invite you to try it with me. We're going to do it together.

Number five starts with number five is five things you can see. So when you get this response, you feel like you're flooded, you know, you're triggered, you're starting to dissociate. Whatever it is, look around and find five things you can see. So I'm going to do that right now with you. And I see a lamp, I see a pillow. I see a faucet on my sink. I see a decoration hanging on my wall. And I see a mug sitting on my counter. Right now, five things I can see right within my general view here. I didn't have to go anywhere to look for five things.

It can also really help if you say them out loud. If you're in a public place, you can, you know, whisper this under your breath, but say, I see this, I see this, I see this. Kind of like that. My spy game, I spy game, I spy this. So five things you can see. The next things are four things you can feel. So right now, I feel my feet are on the floor. I feel this soft sweater against my arm. I feel a little bit of goosebumps. My hair is raised because I'm a little bit chilly right now. And I also feel a slight breeze because my fan for my h vac unit just kicked on, which is why I probably have those little goosebumps.

So I feel four things right now. Three things you can hear. So right now, it's pretty quiet in my house. I can't hear a lot, but I definitely can hear my refrigerator making that low humming noise. I can hear occasional cars driving by, and I can feel. I can hear my dog whining in her crate in the bedroom every so often. The three things you can hear. The next is two things you can smell. I don't have a lot of smells right now in my house. I definitely can smell the faint bacon grease from cooking two days ago.

And I can smell the candle that I have lit right now, that sandalwood smell. And then the last one is one thing you can taste. So this one is a little bit harder to accomplish right now. I can taste my bad breath from the tea that I had this morning. But it also can be really helpful to actually induce this sense because it makes your brain focus on, oh, that's right. I need to actually, like, swallow something right now. So whether it be taking a sip of water, having hard candy to suck on, or putting a piece of gum in your mouth, that can actually be a really powerful grounding technique just to even do that one simple thing, doing the one thing you can taste.

So I hope this was helpful for you today. I hope you're able to do it with me, and I would invite you to try it when you're experiencing something traumatic, a trigger, a flashback, or you just really want to get that grounded feeling, because as you're doing this, you really have to focus. And it makes your brain focus on something that's calming and that's in the present. And you remember that you're here today. It's 2022. I am safe, and my brain was trying to hijack me for a little bit there, but I'm not going to actually let it do that right now.

So hope this was helpful. Let me know how it worked for you and if there are specific situations that you find it more helpful in others, I would love to know what those are, too. Thanks for tuning in with me today, guys. God bless.