This is an excerpt from an article I wrote on Grounding for the Esoteric Library in 2009. I am including it on my page because it is one of the most important techniques I know and is even more inportant with all the increase in energy on our planet these days. (I also go into more detail in my book Essential Mysteries: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century Mystic.)
There are many good ways to ground. I will not touch on all of them by any means. I will pass on to you one form of grounding I personally use and enjoy. I hope you enjoy it as well. I teach grounding from the first chakra because that is the energy center that relates to physical reality. The first chakra contains information on how to survive and thrive in this reality, and since this is where we have our physical experience and where we want our healing and magic to manifest, I have found grounding from the first chakra to be a sound practice.
Technique
- Sit comfortably in a straight-backed chair or on the couch (as long as you don’t tend to nod off to sleep). Have your hands and feet apart and feet flat on the floor.
- Close your eyes (this helps you to focus inward).
- Take three nice deep breaths, breathe down into your belly and soften your belly as you breathe. It can be helpful (although it is not essential) to breathe through the nose, while keeping your tongue resting lightly on the roof of your mouth. This practice is from certain yoga traditions and is said to help encourage the flow of energy through your system.
- Relax as you breathe, noticing how you feel, how your body feels.
- Be aware of your first chakra. This is simply an energy center (vortex) that is located in the general area near the base of the spine. The center is usually near the area between the ovaries (the chakra positioning doesn’t change if you have had your ovaries removed) or slightly lower in the body associated with the testicles. (Note: If your gender is fluid or in transition you can adjust that first chakra to whatever feels right for your body, as chakras can be adjusted.)
- Be aware of this area, and allow a cord of energy to flow downward from your body, through the chair you are sitting in, through the floor and down through the building you are in, through the foundation and into the deep earth beneath. Allow your grounding to flow down into the earth past all the rocks and layers of the planet, past the water, deep, deep into the earth, into the heart of the Mother, until it reaches the center of the Earth.
- Allow your grounding cord to connect securely into the center of the planet. Be aware of your grounding cord being securely connected also to your first chakra.
- Breathe and relax and experience your grounding, your spiritual connection to this beautiful planet. Give yourself time.
- Notice how your body responds to your grounding and becoming more present in it. Release tension and discomfort down your grounding; allow it to simply drain away.
Your grounding belongs to you, you can create it in any form you like. Experimenting with the form can make it more yours.
- Change your grounding into a waterfall, flowing and cascading from your first chakra down through all of physical reality to the center of the earth.
- Experience this. Release and relax; breathe. Take your time.
- Next, change your grounding into the supple and strong root of a tree, allowing it to grow from your first chakra to the center of the earth.
- Notice how this changes your experience. Breathe. Enjoy.
- Now shift your grounding so that it is a laser beam of light, shining through everything straight down to the center of the Earth.
- How does this feel? Be with this for a moment or two. (Remember you can use any of these groundings at any time; they are simply different ways to experience this connection.)
- Now change your grounding once again. This time create your own grounding, flowing from your first chakra to the center of the earth. It can be any one of the three you used before, or something completely unique; it’s up to you. This is your very own grounding.
- Breathe, relax and experience.
- Use your breath and release down your grounding cord any tension, distractions or discomfort. Notice how you feel as you do this.
- Be still, as you ground and relax. If you have questions, this is the time to ask and listen for the answers. Or simply allow yourself to be.
When you are done, open your eyes, bend forward and touch your hands to the floor, as you relax your neck, and release any built-up energy around the head and shoulders into the earth. Slowly sit back up. If you journal, this would be a great time to record your experience. If not, then you’re ready to go on to the rest of your day or evening.
It’s useful to update your grounding now and then. To do this, simply release it and recreate it, allowing it to be whatever you need for the present moment. This is amusingly similar to upgrading a computer. As you need to process more energy (which happens as you meditate and work with your energy), you need more processing power (more grounding). It’s very simple. Say to yourself internally, I am letting my grounding be right in present time, right in the here and now, current for all that I need
Since grounding brings you present as spirit, you are able to know your own path, feel how you are feeling and be in alignment with your own energy regardless of the activity around you in the world. You can be in the world but not totally affected by it.
Grounding is a very simple and very powerful technique that brings your spiritual awareness into your body and connects you into this reality, where you are living and creating. Grounding helps keep the body (your sacred temple) a safe place for you to inhabit and experience life through, and prevents it from becoming overly stressed. It helps to keep your energy system safe when you begin to be more fully present in your life. It also helps a great deal when doing any kind of spiritual, meditative or magical working in general. It acts kind of like an electrical ground—it keeps you from getting zapped by an overload of energy. The act of grounding also brings power to your work because it aligns you as spirit with your physical body, so that you can be present and attend to what needs to be done. In addition, it increases spiritual and energetic awareness. It allows you to be senior in your own energy space. Another way to say that is you get to be the executive and make the decisions, responding rather than reacting based on past habits fears or beliefs.
Enjoy your exploration with connecting into this planet by grounding. Remember, as with anything, that the experience will change with time. Bring your willingness to explore and allow yourself to be open to your own deepening awareness.
Aloha and Blessings, Erika Ginnis