A three-minute grounding practice for the worst moments

For the moments when everything is too loud, too fast, too much: a simple sequence you can do anywhere, no experience needed, no one even has to know.

This is the practice I teach in first sessions, the one clients tell me they've used in parking lots and hallways and the middle of hard conversations. It asks three minutes of you. It works because it speaks the body's language, not the mind's.

The sequence

First minute: feet. Press them into the floor, actually feel the press. Notice the chair or the ground holding your weight — you don't have to hold yourself up right now; something is already doing it.

Second minute: breath, with a longer exhale. In for four, out for six. The exhale is the brake pedal of your nervous system — you're not forcing calm, you're just tapping the brake, gently, over and over.

Third minute: eyes. Let them wander the room and land on three things that are just… fine. A doorknob. A patch of light. Let your body register the ordinary, boring safety of the room you're actually in.

If it doesn't 'work'

Some days the volume only comes down ten percent. That still counts. Grounding isn't a light switch — it's a hand on the shoulder of a scared animal, and some days the animal needs longer. Be the patient hand anyway.

About the author

Imani Brooks, LMFT

LMFT · Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Imani is a trauma-informed somatic therapist in Austin. Her writing, like her sessions, moves at the body's pace — gentle, practical, and permission-giving from the first line.