Rainbow Grounding

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!

Let’s do an example, take a look at this picture.

Let’s find a red object.  The armchair is red.  It’s bright red, looks comfortable.  I bet it’s good for reading in.  I wonder if it feels velvety?

Okay, now to the orange object.  The basketball.  It’s got little nubs all over it to help you grip it.  It looks new, like it hasn’t been used that much.  I can kind of imagine the smell of it too.

Yellow object - Pizza!  The cheese is yellow, looks melty and delicious.  I can almost taste it, I think I’m kind of hungry.  That dog definitely wants to grab it off the table.

Green.  The leaves of the plant are green, a few different shades of green: forest green, kelly green, pale green.  Looks healthy, someone has been good about watering it.  It reminds me of a rainforest, I wonder if it’s a tropical plant.

You get the idea, try it out with blue, indigo, and violet.

This is helpful for kids dealing with anxiety, fear, anger, or any other big emotion that feels overwhelming.   It’s a great idea for parents to help kids practice rainbow grounding when they’re feeling calm so they can get comfortable with the concept.  Then, when they’re feeling scared, mad, or nervous they’ll have an easier time using the grounding activity, and it’ll be more effective.  The first several times the child uses this grounding activity to cope with intense emotions, parents should help guide the exercise.  Eventually they’ll be able to use it on their own when they become overwhelmed.

Try this out and see if it helps with your or your kiddo’s overwhelming feelings!  For more coping skills, follow me on Instagram - I post one every Monday!