Maybe you’re one of those people who wakes up on a Monday morning feeling peacefully energized and laser-focused. You find it effortless to reconnect with your center and frequently check-in to see how you’re feeling. If so, skip this blog because you seem to have it covered! For the rest of us, it takes more dedication and effort to achieve internal stillness and balance.

What is Grounding?

Grounding means recentering and reconnecting with Mother Earth. It’s about refocusing and reestablishing yourself to a state where you feel centered, whole, and complete in who you are, what your life path is and where you are in this very moment in your life. It is a way to become re-rooted to your physical self, by reconnecting with the physical world – the Earth. The easiest way to describe grounding is actually in a feeling –  you are grounded when you feel calm, peaceful, and centered in where you are. You feel solid, rooted, and stable like a tree in an open grassland plain, unmoving and perfectly content.

When Do You Ground?

If you find yourself daydreaming, getting overwhelmed and preoccupied, or in a high-stress environment, it might be that you are being pulled away from the connection to your life source or Earth’s energy. When you feel off balance, unaligned, emotional, on the fritz, confused, dazed, foggy, or stressed to come back to your “centered” place. It’s likely that in today’s non-stop society, it’s easy to get knocked off balance. You can prep yourself by becoming grounded before an event that will require your full attention or practice re-grounding when you feel triggered or emotionally/spiritually/physically drained and challenged.

Benefits of Grounding

• Instant stress reduction
• Increased emotional and mental clarity
• Improved ease at standing your ground
• Enhanced ability to speak your truth
• Counteract any negative emotions or thoughts
• Reduce anxiety and panic attacks
• Heightened feelings of peacefulness and calm
• Increase energetic awareness

Grounding Techniques: 4 Steps to Finding Your Center

Step 1: Prepare Yourself

• Turn off all electronics
• Find a quiet place where you can be alone for 5-10 minutes. If you can, get outside!
• If you’re inside – sit in a chair and place your feet firmly on the ground or sit directly on the ground.
• Close your eyes and place your hands on your lap (palms up).
• Take a moment to make sure your body is comfortable.

Step 2: Focus on Your Breathing

• Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
• Breathe in through your nose, slowly and deeply. Exhale and feel your stomach relax.
• Focus on breathing this way for a couple of minutes until it becomes rhythmic and effortless.
• Notice if you have fallen into any distractions and return your awareness to your breathing.

Step 3: Begin the Visualization

Method 1: Tree Meditation

• Visualize yourself sitting on a tree trunk.
• Focus on the energy in your body flowing downward to the earth. The tree has become an extension of your body, extending through your feet.
• Continue to imagine this tree trunk traveling down through Earth, until your trunk finally reaches the center of the Earth.
• While you are breathing, let any negative feelings escape your body. Leave any feelings of pain, frustration, anger or bitterness in the centre of the Earth.
• Push your energy upward. Imagine Earth’s energy flowing back up through your trunk.

Method 2: Mountain Meditation

• Visualize a beautiful mountain. Picture its various details and stable, unmoving presence grounded in the earth.
• Bring the mountain inside yourself. Envision yourself becoming the mountain.
• Imagine yourself sitting in stillness and in calm, simply observing and resting unwavering as the various weather patterns, storms, and seasons pass before you.
• Feel yourself rooted in stillness amidst the constant change of your internal and external experience.

Step 4: Come Back to Stillness

• Before opening your eyes, rest in the feelings of centeredness and calm for a few moments.
• When you feel ready, bring your mind back to your body and open your eyes.
• Any time you feel unfocused, close your eyes and visualize the connection that you have shared with Earth.

The more you practice grounded meditation, the more automatic it becomes. By taking a few moments each day to practice, you’ll not only have a better energy in your daily life, but you’ll be able to re-focus yourself so you can find inner calmness and peace wherever you are.