Mindfulness-grounding mash-up

Mash-up, that's a thing right? I'm so cool *rolleyes* lol.

Anyway....I just wasn't entirely sure what to label it as it's a random mixture of the two.
Actually they're very similar anyway... and I'm really not an expert, hence my confusion. As far as I understand mindfulness is about general awareness and aceptance. Grounding is still about awareness but tries to focus you on a specific here and now sensation whilst moving away from others. Mindfulness would suggest allowing yourself in experience pain in a not judgemental way whereas grounding wants to move away from it. Something like that.

As I've said before I'm not a professional in any way, and any techniques I describe are just things that work for me personally and not necessarily recommended. That being said, let's progress.

I posted the other day about my experience of dissociation. It was a hideous experience and one I don't want to repeat.... so in its way it's had an upside. I try to be more aware of when I'm drifting and find ways to return to the present and the real world (and more importantly I actually use them lol).

One of these is to have something, a particular object, that I keep with me and can use as a 'base' to come back to when everything feels off. I have it with me always so it has continuity and it's something of significance so it's more real.

The specific item is almost irrelevant, I've had a few. At the moment it's a necklace I bought in new York... it's a cheap little charm I bought in a bead shop and threaded onto a chain but it's small enough and discreet enough to be worn all the time even at work. It has significance because of where and when it was bought amongst other things. It's also quite tactile.

In the past I've had things like small crystals. I don't believe in the idea particularly but again they're tactile and small. They also allowed a starting point 'this it Rose quartz is a symbol of love and I carry it with me at all times, I can feel how it's hot from being in my pocket I can feel the chip from where I dropped it the other day' (I never had Rose quartz I dunno why that's the only example I can think of!).

That's it basically, exploring the object and working outwards from there. This is a real object, I know it's real, I can feel it and explore it and notice the different shapes and textures. If this is real then that thing I associate with it must be real. If a is real then b is real. If I can feel the real thing and see the red spot where the real thing has sat on my chest and feel my heat had warmed the real object then I must be real.

It's not really grounding because  grounding is about pulling yourself back to the present and staying there, not exploring the past But it serves the same purpose and it works for me.

Ah this post was meant to be a lot more coherent! Ironically my brain is drifting today lol (but in an ok enough way so that's cool). Must be bed time, night. X