When we’re feeling nervous, anxious, worried, moving too fast and thinking too much, all our energy is focused in our minds and we’re not really in our bodies. We may feel harried, frantic and even panicky. If we’re having this kind of experience, we can be pretty sure that we’re disconnected energetically from the earth, and the various energies that are flying through our systems are not grounded.
Our bodies and energy systems need a strong, reliable connection to the earth, just as a house needs a lightning rod for grounding. The purpose of a lightning rod is to conduct excess electrical charge into the earth, because the earth can take care of it. Here are seven ways that you can get yourself grounded. Using them regularly will help you to maintain a solid, fundamental connection to Mother Earth, and that reliable connection will help you stay calm and clear. This can be very helpful when there’s a lot going on in the world around you (think thunderstorms, tornado warnings, floods…).
- See a line running from the base of your spine to the center of the earth. Make it a cord or rope or steel cable if you like, and attach it solidly at both ends. Feel it. Intentionally send all those flying energies down the cord to be neutralized in the earth. Do this frequently, so that it becomes habitual.
- Use the Earth Mudra (hand position): Join the tip of your thumb to the tip of your ring finger. Extend the other fingers. Do this with both hands. This mudra (called the Prithivi Mudra) recharges the root chakra, aligning it with earth energies.
- Use flower essences. FES (Flower Essence Services) and Bach/Healing Herbs essences for grounding include Canyon Dudleya, Clematis, Corn, Lady’s Slipper, Rosemary, Shooting Star and Vervain. (Each of these addresses a different aspect of grounding.) There are also essences for fear, obsessive thinking, worry, anxiety and the other feelings that may be part of your ungrounded experience.
- Use TAT (Tapas Acupressure Technique)® or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or any energy psychology technique you know to address your ungroundedness and to bring you into the calm, centered state you want.
- Inhale at the top of your head, and exhale at the soles of your feet. Do this a number of times. Then inhale at a point above your head and exhale at a point below the soles of your feet. Do this a number of times. You should feel your center of gravity moving down more and more.
- Greet the Earth Mother and ask her to make a strong connection from her center up to your feet and legs, to the base of your spine, and from there up through your other energy centers. Call on that connection for support, strength and nurturing.
- Walk on the Earth, sit on the ground with your back against a tree (or against a horse’s front legs, if you have a friendly and cooperative horse). Hug a tree. Tell a flowering bush how beautiful it is. Enjoy having a body. Salute a sunrise or a sunset. Celebrate the experience of being a human on this amazing planet!
