Ground, Center and Shield. What do these things mean and why should you do them?
Whether you’re working with energy for a specific purpose (prayer, casting a spell, doing healing such as with Reiki, etc.), or just going through daily life, you may want to ground, center and shield as a practice of habit and self-protection. This is especially true for those people who are empathic or are sensitive to energy or work with it.
Large crowds, people who project harmful energies, places, things of that nature are all around us, and whether we realize it or not, it affects us. By keeping ourselves grounded, centered and shielded, we keep ourselves on a steady foundation and help to minimize the influence of other energies over us. We certainly can’t block everything out, but we can keep out as much as possible.
• Grounding is where you project down into the center of the Earth and up to the center of the Universe and bring those energies into the pit of your stomach to ground yourself.
• Centering (done after grounding) is staying grounded and putting your energy field into balance through energy work. This can be accomplished through meditation, working with the chakras and the Kundalini or a multitude of different ways, although those are the paths I choose to use.
• Shielding is just that…shielding. It’s where you block out as much of the harmful energies that you can while still letting the harmless energies in. I suggest a multi-layered shielding so that you can add or remove layers as needed. For example, if you are too shielding, then you won’t be able to work with energy for healing.
While the techniques are as varied as the stars in the sky, the fundamental purpose of them is the same. I recommend that you find and adapt your own techniques for grounding, centering and shielding. Whatever works best for you is what is right for you to use, so experiment until you find what fits. There are many fine books and websites offering a variety of techniques from which you may start your research.
You can ground, center and shield as often as needed throughout the day, and I highly recommend doing so as part of a meditation session each morning and each evening. In my personal practice, I do Japa meditation in the morning and Om meditation in the evening, which works for me, and it may work for you. Again, find what works and use it.
