by Amelia Vogler
What do you think of when you hear the term grounded? For some, an image of a great tree with deep roots appears – a metaphor for a sturdy and supported life. For others, individuals come to mind that embodies the nature of a grounded person. Grounding is more of a state of being than a label, and it is one that most are striving for. A grounded person is reliable, steady, honest, trustworthy, approachable, kind, and they seem to radiate a more profound peace and come with a healthy perspective.
Consider the times in your life when you have felt a deep sense of contentment, peace, and okay-ness. What do these moments have in common? It’s likely you are deeply connected to your authentic, wild self. In these moments, you are not hiding parts of yourself (or you're hiding less of yourself than usual), and you can just be. Grounding practises help you cut through the noise in your modern life and return to your quiet core.
Often, grounding is thought of as a practice of going outside and placing your bare feet on the earth. But, in truth, there are grounding practises for every dimension of your life - your physical, emotional, mental bodies and in support of your connection to a Higher Power or your own energy system.
There are two main grounding families: physical grounding and spiritual grounding. Physical grounding practises support issues that have to do with our everyday earthly life or our material life (our life of matter). These might be how to keep one's overall wellness, cultivate a relaxed mind, and soften emotions. Spiritual grounding practises help issues related to our connection to Higher Power, our creativity, and our subtle energy system, which is like the Spiritual template for our physical existence. Together, all these practises support you feeling sturdy and supported – like that deeply rooted tree, especially when life gets messy, loud, and destabilising.
Add these grounding practises to your self-care toolbox!
Grounding Techniques
Physical Techniques
These techniques support your physical body's overall health, mental clarity, and emotional balance.
Earthing is a body-specific grounding practice that intentionally connects your physical body to the ground. You can walk or stand barefoot; or lay on the ground. This stabilising and nourishing practice is gaining popularity in research and has decreased stress and pain, increased immune function and sleep, and even reduced inflammation. The premise is that the electromagnetic system of your body is connected to the more expansive electromagnetic system of the earth, and electrons are passed between. As a result, the earth has a strong negative charge which normalises the body's overall balance and supports wellness.
Alternate Nostril Breathing is an easy breathing technique that promotes relaxation, a calm mind, and physical wellbeing. This yogic alternate nostril breathing practice has been widely studied to lower stress, lower blood pressure, improve lung function, and invoke a relaxation response.
The steps:
Note: This practice is not for individuals with heart or lung issues. Please stop if you feel any adverse effects like dizziness from the practice.
- Sit with your left hand on your left knee.
- Hold up your right hand, palm facing your nose.
- Exhale completely.
- Close your right nostril with your right thumb
- Slowly inhale through your left nostril and then close the nostril with your fingers.
- Exhale through the now open right nostril.
- Slowly inhale through your right nostril and then close the nostril with your fingers.
- Exhale through the now open left nostril.
- This is one cycle.
- Continue this breath for about 5 minutes.
Turn Down the Emotion Dial is a visualisation technique that can support softening strong emotions. There will be times when your emotional reaction is bigger than it needs to be. I remember when I was grieving in advance of my father's death (anticipatory grief), and I just couldn't hold it together. Feelings are great teachers, but this immobilising grief wasn't appropriate at that time. My father was alive, well, and, yes, ageing. This grief helps us process but doesn't need to overtake us. When I was mindfully aware that I was flooded with my emotions, I visualised a volume dial and connected it to my emotional reaction. I simply watched as I turned that dial down. Slowly following that connection, my emotions softened, and I could find myself in a state where I could interact and process my feelings rather than be overrun by them. Imagery works at the level of embodied consciousness. It has been researched to show the mind-body connection and how the physical body – such as heart rate, breathing pattern, and blood pressure is affected.
Spiritual Techniques
These techniques support your relationship to a Higher Power and your subtle energy system, which is the system of your inner light and essence.
Ground in Beauty is a simple grounding technique that connects us to awe, beauty, and wonder. Studies on awe and wonder show us that wonder brings us beyond self-focused thinking into a state of appreciation of something larger. Awe instils a sense of expansion and almost a mystical experience that transcends everyday life. These are the experiences often associated with being connected to a Higher Power, something, or someone larger than our everyday experience.
So how do you ground that larger experience into your everyday one? Staying open to beauty and really taking it in, appreciating it, can offer you momentary experiences of awe and wonder. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; for some, it is a beautiful painting; for others, it may be a flower blooming on the way to the mailbox; the perfect baseball pitch, or the smile of a good friend.
Grow your Energetic roots is a standard energetic grounding method that involves visualising yourself as a beautiful tree. Your energy system is the template for your physical body; it contains all the information needed to become you! Consider the acorn containing all the data when planted (or grounded) can grow into a beautiful oak tree. The design and wisdom of that growth are carried in the energy of that seed. You also have that same energy and grounding in this process which allows you to deeply connect to your own grand design.
The Steps:
Note: Take yourself outside in nature to enhance this technique.
- First, stand up and feel connected to the floor or ground below you.
- Imagine yourself as a tree. Your head and arms are part of the leafy tree canopy, your torso and legs represent the trunk, and your feet are like the roots beginning to grow deeply in the ground.
- Feel yourself standing as part of Mother Earth and notice how it feels to be supported by her below you.
- Imagine your feet beginning to grow and extend like roots deep into the ground.
- Realising that Mother Earth has an energy that grows the trees and blooms the flowers, allow that energy to flow up into your own imagined (etheric or energy-based) roots.
- Imagine how energy flows all the way up into your ankles, legs, torso, arms, and up into your head.
- Allow yourself to stand fully supported by this energy.
- Revisit this connection frequently, especially when you feel disconnected from your own Higher Self.
Grounding practises, in essence, bring you home to the more profound truth of who you are. The you who remains like that great tree, standing sturdy and supported, can withstand the storms of life regardless of what type of storm it is – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or energetic. Each practice supports you in coming home to a healthier baseline, a baseline that is your authentic and natural way of being. You were designed to be healthy, have mental clarity, emotional balance, spiritually inspired, and energetically connected. These practises, especially done over time, will support you coming home to the light that you are.
About the author:
Amelia Vogler is a Grounding and Energy Medicine Specialist, internationally respected teacher of energy medicine, life coach and meditation guide. She embeds essential energetic practices in her meditations and teachings to support the betterment of humanity. Her goal is to help individuals who don't feel whole, reclaim the parts of themselves that have felt lost. In addition to her teaching and meditation work, she has an international private practice. In her 15-year career, she has helped over 7,000 individuals re-pattern or transform self-limiting negative beliefs through grounding practices, intuitive insight, and advanced energy medicine. Her practice expands around the globe, serving clients in Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Canada, and the United States.
