Grounding

To ground yourself, sit or stand comfortably, and breathe into your belly. Imagine that you’re gathering warmth and light in your belly, and as you breathe out, imagine that your breath and light or warmth are moving down through your body and into your chair (if you’re seated). Breathe in again, and imagine that light as a cord that’s moving down into the floor beneath you, into the foundation of the building you’re in, and down through the layers of soil and rock beneath your building. Breathe in again, and continue letting this light and warmth make its way downward. Just ground the circuit and thank your sadness.

Imagine your breath and that light moving down and away from you, as if you’re reaching down under the ground with a very long pole. Feel your grounding cord moving ever downward until it reaches the center of the earth, however that looks to you. Anchor your cord (rdzeń) in some way; you can imagine your cord connected to the center of the earth on a lighted chain with an anchor, you can see it as the roots of a tree that wrap themselves around the center of the planet, or you can imagine a bright waterfall that creates a pool at the center of the earth. Any image that works for you is the correct image. Keep breathing normally.

If it disappeared, please breathe in, imagine gathering light and warmth in your belly, and breathe down to the center of the earth again. But this time, imagine wheels or use some other imagery or felt sense that will allow your sense of grounding to move with you.

We need our logical intelligence to help us make sense of things, but when we’re accessing our emotions, we also need to rely on imagery, our intrapersonal intelligence, and our empathic abilities.

Here’s an exercise that utilizes your free-flowing fear and sadness: Focus yourself and breathe normally. Feel the connection between your body and the center of the earth and bring your calm focus to bear on your interior state right now. If you’ve got any tension, confusion, or emotional upset inside you, breathe into that area and envelop it with your breath. Gather the tension, breathe it downward, and let it slide down into the ground. Try that again. Breathe into your area of tension (wherever it is), gather that tension, and exhale it down and into the ground. Let the tension ground away from you, and sense the relief your body feels when you let things go. If you need help, move your hands down your body and your legs, and describe grounding to your body in a literal way. Maintain your calm focus, and let your body tell you when it feels done. When you use your sadness and fear together, you won’t release too much or exhaust yourself; your fear will help you remain focused and alert. Use this technique as often as you like; grounding helps you release tension consciously.[7]

 If you can breathe in, gather your confusion or tension, and then send it down into the earth, you can refocus yourself. Grounding helps you remain centered in the outer world by giving you a way to cleanse and stabilize yourself in the inner world.

When you can ground your tension and any intense emotions, you won’t need to blast other people or repress everything and become flattened.

Some pointers: Grounding restores healthy flow to your body, and healthy bodies need to move. Remember: this process is not about perfection; it’s about wholeness, which means it encompasses peace and turmoil, grace and clumsiness, competence and incompetence, and the whole range of life experiences.

Additionally, any time spent by a body of moving water (or with calm animals) is naturally grounding. Finally, any art form (dancing, singing, painting, ceramics, playing music, and so on) that helps you express yourself and focus your attention on creation will help with both centering and grounding. Art heals!