The importance of grounding is often seen as the least glamorous side of spiritual practice, but in actual fact grounding is THE most important thing that you can do in your practice, and without it, you may find yourself spiraling into negativity, finding it incredibly hard to focus, with no idea why, and even lose the direction of your life completely. Many spiritual aspirants often forget or skip this vital part of any practice. When you are ungrounded you can feel a mixture of these, or worse still, all of them:
You feel lightheaded, dizzy, feeling spaced out
You feel hyper active, or are carrying too much nervous energy
You can’t sit still, feel stressed, have a short fuse
You feel overwhelmed
You are experiencing frequent restless dreams and nightmares
You are self-critical, self-loathing, apathetic, having racing thoughts
You are experiencing an inability to concentrate, confusion and feel unfocussed
You are forgetful, missing appointments, losing items, frequently late
If you are an empath (defined as a person with the ability to perceive the mental or emotional state of another individual) and or/highly sensitive you will need to ground even more often, perhaps three or more times per day. And if you have high levels of stress and anxiety, these techniques will really help you to let go of these uncomfortable feelings.
You can ground yourself so easily in a few simple steps, and to get focused and get things done on this material plane, won’t take more than a few minutes each day. Life will feel so much easier and more manageable. You will find yourself being able to connect to the present moment without getting lost in thoughts or emotions. You will start to understand your inner connection to earth.
You don’t need to do all of these, but pick one that resonates with you the most and you find the most effective, and stick with it – you will feel a change in your energy almost instantaneously and will feel cemented and rooted to mother earth. The irony is the more you let go of control, and connect back to your inner rhythms the more power whereas the more control you seek the less power you have.
Try a simple heartbeat meditation, practice it everyday by simply listening to your heart beat, your “inner drummer” the continual comforting beat of your beautiful heart. Place your hand on your heart, and feel the rhythmic beat. This will connect you back to nature and the inner rhythms that we are all composed of. Know that there is an ocean of infinite love within you.
Focus on your breathing, consciously slow the breath down. Breath deeply down to the navel and hold for a few seconds before releasing the breath and holding for a few seconds. Repeat this until you feel your mind start to quieten.
Stand on the earth or the grass barefoot, slow your breathing and ask the new world mother earth to connect to the souls of you feet, imagine roots going deep down and connecting you to mother earth, and as you connect feel the energy travelling back up your roots until it meets the souls of your feel, and they start to tingle, then imagine this energy continuing to travel up your legs into your hips and root into your navel, feel how cemented and solid you now feel on this earth, your head will clear and you will feel more centred. Breathe deeply and stay here for at least 5-10 minutes, longer if you are able. You will notice a huge difference in your energy.
Plant a seed or a bulb in the ground, use your hands and get them into the earth and feel the connection to nature.
Try some gentle exercise moves, t’ai chi, yoga or gentle walking, imagine that each step you take each foot you plant, you are connecting deeper and deeper to the earth, if you can do this barefoot, great.
Listen to some classical or calming music
Create saliva in your mouth and swallow a few times, or sip some water – this activates the water element within us, and helps us to leave the fight or flight mode by slowing down your digestive system and activating your body’s relaxation response
This is my favourite one J- eat a square of dark chocolate (70% cacao or higher)
Practicing gratitude, bring your body down onto the ground and move into child’s pose (very basic yoga posture) and allow your head to touch the earth. Invite the earth to support you, and feel super connected to mother earth and send her love and gratitude for all she does for us.
Spend time in nature, try sky gazing, daydreaming, watching insects, closing your eyes and listening, breathing in the smell of nature, feeling the energetic vibration of the trees, plants and birds around you
Take time for yourself, and really learn to love yourself unconditionally. Make one of these simple meditation practices part of your daily routine, it can take an average of 66 days to make something a habit, but after 18 days it will certainly become easier, and you will start to find that when you don’t do it you will really miss the beautiful feeling of being totally connected and rooted to our gorgeous mother earth.