The Practice of Grounding
THE PRACTICE OF GROUNDING
ANCIENT WISDOM & PRACTICAL GUIDANCE TO GROUND YOURSELF IN ANY LIFE WEATHER. USE ONE OR ALL OF THESE PRACTICES TO RETURN TO YOUR BODY, LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT, AND REST THE MIND.
5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 GROUNDING PRACTICE
RETURN TO YOUR SENSES
This practice is commonly used by coaches, counselors, and healing professionals to guide you to return to the present moment through each of your primary senses. Ideal for easing anxiety and calming the relentless thoughts of the mind.
Sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor with open hands
Close your eyes & take three long, deep, full breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Open your eyes and look around you, naming aloud:
5 things you can see (in the room or out the window)
4 things you can feel (around you or perhaps your hair, skin, or the fabric of the clothes you are wearing)
3 things you can hear (the ticking clock, the white noise in the room, the traffic outside, the birds chirping, the wind, etc.)
2 things you can smell (the essential oils in the diffuser, the lingering scent of breakfast, the restaurant down the street, the dog at your feet. Hopefully it’s a great smell)
1 thing you can taste (the hint of coffee in your breath from your morning cup, the lingering scent of your toothpaste, your last kiss, or something you just ate. You can also grab a small snack before this practice and begin eating it now, really savoring its flavor.)
Close your eyes again, taking three more long, deep breaths with open hands, allowing gravity to hold you in the chair or on the floor.
Open your eyes and observe how centered you are in your body and senses in this moment. Take a deep breath to end. Onward into your day.
CONSCIOUS CHOICE PRACTICE
RETURN TO YOUR POWER OF CHOICE
This practice is guides individuals back into their bodies through breath and choice. Ideal for those who desire to move from the feelings of emotional survival to safety.
When feeling disempowered or overwhelmed, pause.
Observe your body and the signals it is giving you.
Then your focus to your breath. Just breathe. In & out.
From this deep pause, allow choice to surface.
Consciously reclaim your inherent power of choice. Reclaimed choice doesn’t take away the fear; it changes our relationship to its presence.
Witness the choices before you.
Respond in alignment with your conscious courage.
Observe how your body feels as you make this conscious choice. Does it feel expansive, peaceful, at ease, etc.?
BOX BREATHING PRACTICE
RESET YOUR RHYTHM OF BREATH
Commonly used by the US military and athletes to ground themselves during times of peak performance or when navigating intense, high-stakes situations.
This traditional breath work practice clears the mind, sharpens the focus, and relaxes the body.
Ideal for anyone feeling stuck and fighting against tumultuous thoughts, emotions, and feeling far from their center.
Sit comfortably in a chair, couch, or on the floor with upright posture. Close your eyes, open your palms.
Breathe in through your nose while counting to four slowly. Feel the air enter your lungs.
Hold your breath inside while counting slowly to four. Try not to clamp your mouth or nose shut. Simply avoid inhaling or exhaling for four seconds.
Slowly exhale for four seconds.
Repeat steps 2 to 3 at least three times, approximately for four minutes or until ease settles into your body.
With palms still open on your lap, slowly open your eyes.
ENERGETIC BOUNDARY PRACTICE
OBSERVE RATHER THAN ABSORB
A powerful grounding practice regularly used by intuitive coaches and energy healers to guide clients in learning how to observe the energy around them without absorbing it through the channels of empathy.
Ideal for highly empathetic individuals who regularly feel overwhelmed by the energy around them and/or cannot separate their own energy from that of the external world.
This practice can be completed in one specific physical location that is considered a safe sanctuary for you or you can simply imagine your sanctuary of choice even if not physically there. Example: I regularly go to the beach for this practice even if only in my imagination.
Return to your designated space for practice, resting comfortably in the heart of the space.
With your hands closed on your lap, close your eyes and take three long, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.
With your eyes and hands still closed, observe your body as you continue to breathe. Notice how your body feels, where it aches, labors, and the weight of your emotions.
Draw to the surface the core emotions you feel.
Name them in a whisper aloud to yourself, one by one.
Continue to breathe as you name each emotion that surfaces.
Then slowly open your palms on your lap, releasing every emotion from its proverbial grasp.
If you feel so inclined, offer the following to Spirit: “I release these emotions, this energetic weight I’ve been carrying to you. May you guide me now in strengthening my energetic boundaries so I may observe with love and without absorption. And may your divine Light transmute and repurpose this energetic weight for the greater good of all.”
Following this release of energy, take three, long deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Then imagine a hula hoop-like boundary dropping down around your body, encasing you with a border of protection. You may also imagine a cloak or scarf wrapping itself around your body too. If you love auras, focus on reinforcing your aura energy fields. Imagine what works best for you here.
The point is to envelop your body with an intentional sheath of energetic protection to lovingly engage with the world without becoming a sponge to the energy of the world. Empathy without energetic boundaries is not empathy; it’s attachment.
With your eyes closed, open hands facing upward, offer the following to Spirit: “Thank you for cultivating my empathy with energetic boundaries. May I have the strength to return to this place when I begin to feel overwhelmed. May I feel my feelings while releasing all attachment to them. May I learn how to listen actively without taking on the emotions of others. May you guide me to engage, love, and live from a truly empathetic place.”
Continue to breath for a few more minutes, observing your body’s presence and growing strength as it rests within this sheath of energetic protection.
Open your eyes to the sanctuary and step further into your life, trusting yourself to return to this place for reinforcement when desired.
ACCEPT & RELEASE PRACTICE
ALLOW ALL TO PASS THROUGH
When we practice releasing attachment to our thoughts and feelings, we allow all to pass through us like clouds in the sky. We resist no thought or emotion.
We accept everything yet hold onto nothing. We simply witness, feel, and release. This practice has forever changed my own life.
Feel your feelings rather than trying to manage them. Feelings actually persist and find ways to pour out of us when we push back against feeling them.
Accept what is. Resist nothing. Resistance causes suffering, anxiety, and creates an unconscious attachment to the very thing we are resisting.
Observe what you feel and think. As much as we love to wrap our identity around our thoughts, we are not our thoughts. Our thoughts are just…well, thoughts.
Allow all to pass through, releasing attachment.
When you catch yourself holding onto a pervasive thought, return to your breath, your body, and focus on being the loving witness to the thought. This reframe is the beginning of detaching from it and allowing it to pass through you.
When acceptance feels out of reach, remember that anxiety does not live in the present moment—it lives in the past or the future—so return to the present moment.
Accept the beautiful moments, the joyous ones, the hard ones, the brutal ones. Then release them, choosing to actually live in the only moment we have — this one.
Accept and release takes conscious practice. Give yourself grace as you begin learning. With time, you’ll notice that you are feeling your feelings more honestly, openly, and with less resistance because you are no longer identifying with them. Returning to the present moment becomes more habitual as well.
ADDITIONAL GROUNDING PRACTICES
COMMON WAYS TO GROUND WHILE LIVING DAILY LIFE
Practice Daily Meditation: Guided or Complete Silence
Move Your Body: Walking, Hiking, Swimming, Dancing, Yoga, Free Weights, Running, Etc.
Listen to Music | Sound Healing: You choose the rhythm and style. Sound healing is a powerful practice for grounding too. It helps immensely if you sing along or at least hum along to stimulate and support your vagus nerve (vagal toning) too.
Drink Cool Water: The rush of cool water helps us rehydrate, recalibrate, & recenter our bodies.
Reconnect with the Elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Spirit
Consistent Sleeping Habits: Supporting our natural circadian rhythms supports natural harmony.
Make Love: Sex is a powerful grounding practice, bringing the deepest of thinkers back into their body, particularly when the sensuality & foreplay is prioritized.
Energy Healing: Energy healing is a beautiful practice that opens & expands the core energy that grounds us. Home energy clearings are also a fabulous way to clear unwanted energy for grounding. We offer these every spring season.
Patchouli Essential Oil: Patchouli offers a grounding, earthy scent and supports us in bringing our thoughts and ideas into the physical realm within our bodies. Rub on temples, wrists, and key pressure points on the body as needed or diffuse into a room when feeling anxious or overwhelmed by persistent attachment to thoughts.
Lavender Essential Oil: Lavender is widely known as a grounding scent that cultivates harmony and ease within one’s body. Commonly used for relaxation, lavender also fortifies our practice of releasing attachment to emotions and outcomes.
KEY PRACTICE TIPS
TANGIBLE TOOLS TO SUPPORT YOUR GROUNDING PRACTICES
Allow gravity to truly hold you as you practice. Release trying to “hold yourself up.” Soften into your chair, floor, or sanctuary of choice.
Engage in Mother Nature. Engage in environments which support your grounding practices. Being in nature is a key way to reground yourself quickly. Even a screenshot of nature on your phone can help if you are in the heart of the city.
Returning to your body is key to grounding. It brings us back to the present moment like nothing else.
We often unconsciously hold our breath when moving through our daily activities or when caught up by life’s challenges. Simply recognizing this and taking one deep breath can be a powerful way to return to ourselves.
When we are reaching for comfort in some way, we are actually reaching for acceptance in some way. Observe the difference you feel when you begin choosing acceptance as a means of comfort.
SEVERAL WIDELY KNOWN ANCIENT WISDOM PRACTICES DEPICTED HERE HAVE BEEN ADAPTED BY THE COURAGE PRACTICE FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES. A FULL RESOURCE LIST AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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