Grounding

I always seem to realize the importance of grounding when I fail to do it over a sufficiently long period of time, so that my energy is imbalanced and erratic within me. Grounding is so simple and takes so little time; it's a wonder that we ever allow ourselves to become ungrounded, and yet we do.

There are many ways in which we can ground ourselves. All of them are simple and immediate.

We can ground ourselves into the world by taking a moment when we are outside to focus on the natural world around us and literally feel its energy and align our energy to that which we feel. I can easily do this when I am standing or sitting still outside; it is difficult, but not impossible, for me to do this when I am moving.

We can ground ourselves into the Now by taking a couple of deep breaths and bringing ourselves into stillness, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. I also find that simple tasks like rinsing out a cup or dish, washing my hands or putting away yesterday's clothes can ground me if I bring mindfulness to the task and immerse myself in the simplicity of the moment.

We can ground ourselves into our bodies, always a good thing these days, times being what they are. Stretching exercises of your own, or another's, design, hatha yoga, resistance training, aerobic exercise - all of these will bring you back into your body and your breath if you have flown off somewhere else and need to ground. I also love to walk - either quickly, as for an aerobic workout, or slowly, communing with the natural world around me and taking the time to feel the muscles in my legs, to perhaps walk with my arms out-stretched to the world as I move along for awhile. The point is to get back into your body and feel and ground yourself into the immediate experience of the body being in the world.

Another wonderful way to ground is to tone. When conditions outside allow for it, I love to sit somewhere and just tone my being into the air around me. There's no one around to hear, so I don't have to worry about how it sounds. Toning forces us to breathe deeply, which is always beneficial, and to express energy and feel the vibration of the tones as they emanate from us. Toning seems to me to embody the energy through these vibrations and I find that incredibly grounding. We can also tone indoors. The presence of the natural world surrounding us outside adds to the grounding experience of toning. Indoors we don't have that, but we do have the wonderful vibrations of the tones running through our bodies. We do have the experience of the Now as we tone and the opportunity to wordlessly express energy. We also have the benefits of the deep breathing that accompanies toning.

I find that writing in my journal grounds me. I am brought into myself and must ask the question, "What am I feeling now?" so that I can express it in my journal. Journal writing uses words, which seem incredibly limiting to me these days and a bit too much in the head rather than the heart, but being brought back to my feelings, my knowing, my experience of the Now, grounds me in my Being none-the-less. Anything that brings you into yourself in your truth will help you to feel grounded.

What is it that takes us out of our grounded being in the world? All that is of the head and the whirling, shifting, chattering thoughts of the mind. Flitting about on the internet - much as I love it - it is not a very grounded space. Working with, or even just being with, other people - as we are becoming multi-dimensional and more empathic, we tend to go outside of ourselves to encounter their reality, their feeling, their truth - and lose sight of our own more than we would have liked to. Even when we are on our own, when we are moving into multi-dimensional experience of the various levels of consciousness and being, we tend to leave our bodies behind and it's good to know that we can come back to them, can maintain that balance between being off in the etheric realms somewhere and being fully present in our bodies here in 3D. Taking on the vibrations of mass consciousness, of the fear and anxiety that energetically permeate our awareness sometimes, can bring us into imbalance. It's not easy to know what is ours and what is not, and often what we are experiencing energetically is not ours at all. Grounding brings us back into our truth and we can then distinguish between what is ours and what is not. Grounding helps us to rid ourselves of vibrations which are not ours.

The ultimate grounding exercise is to stand or sit in a quiet place with the full intention of grounding and to then consciously send energy down into the ground, releasing it from your body and your consciousness, your energy field and your vibration. My feeling about this way of grounding is that it unnecessarily burdens the earth with this energy which it doesn't need any more than we do. I don't ground that way anymore; it just doesn't feel like something I choose to do these days. I use the methods outlined above, sending the energy out into the world at large from whence it came. It will clear eventually, I reckon. And in any case, there's nothing inherently 'bad' or 'wrong' about the energy - it's just not ours, or it's very much of the mind and we're clearing it out so that we can feel from the heart and from the wisdom of the body, from the truth of our selves in the moment.

We are constantly being pulled out of ourselves, especially as we become more and more highly conscious. Grounding brings us back in to feel. Feeling is the currency of the times in which we live. Vibration is our way forward shown to us in the moment. Resonance, a word much in use these days, is our feeling of and with the vibrations that surround us. Being grounded helps us to navigate this new energy.