Indirect and Spiritual Forms of Grounding
It was Claire’s first time vending at a psychic fair. She arrived early, set up a card table and two folding chairs, and carefully stacked her business cards neatly on top of an old scarf that she was using as a tablecloth. It didn’t look very fancy next to the professional booths of the other psychics at the fair, but it would have to do. She stood back to proudly snap a photo of her first business setup and then wandered around to introduce herself to each of the other psychics at the fair. She was excited but a little nervous. What should she expect? Were the people there going to be nice or rude? Would she have fun or feel awkward?
“It’s exhausting,” a woman wearing a beautiful purple head scarf told her. “Don’t be ashamed to leave early if it feels like too much. I love seeing new faces here, but it’s so rare to have a new psychic come back after the first time. We have a really high turnover here.” Claire was about to ask why, but the woman shrugged and turned to pull a bagel with cream cheese wrapped in plastic out of her purse.
Good idea, Claire thought. Time to eat something grounding. Claire was relieved that she had learned some grounding techniques that would keep her from feeling overwhelmed and exhausted during the long day at the psychic fair. She returned to her booth and retrieved some salted peanuts from her backpack. The salt would help her ground this jittery excess energy, as would making a connection with the earth, if even through the cement floor of the auditorium.
Claire kicked off her shoes underneath the card table and pressed her bare feet onto the cold floor. She was on the second floor of a building on a university campus, but she closed her eyes and imagined the whirling, chaotic energy in her body traveling through the floor, dripping down through the interior structure of the building, and seeping into the cold dirt beneath the foundation. She imagined the earth as if it were humming with energy. The entire planet was ripe with energy that she could consume as needed. She imagined it rising like sap in a tree, filling her body.
For a moment, Claire heard the bustling around her and wondered how many more minutes there were until the start of the fair. Refocusing on her breathing, she pushed all other thoughts from her mind. This moment was important. She could always sit with her eyes closed a few more minutes. She allowed her body to relax and tried to note any places of tension. She stretched her legs out underneath the table to allow the energy to freely flow. How do I feel? she asked herself. She felt relaxed, refreshed, and eager to begin her first psychic fair. Claire opened her eyes and was ready to work. She knew that any time she felt overwhelmed she could take a few minutes to repeat this process. It might be a little embarrassing to have to take a break, but no more embarrassing than running out of steam and having to leave early.
Grounding without Touching the Earth
As you’ve learned, grounding is the process of connecting with the earth to reach a state of energetic equilibrium—that is, you feel calm and relaxed, yet energized and alert. While there is a scientific basis for grounding through direct physical connection to the earth, there is also a very real result that can be achieved by grounding away from that direct contact. These kinds of practices may not involve contact with the earth, but they can still help us remotely balance our energy in a grounded way. Indirect and spiritual forms of grounding, as demonstrated in Claire’s story, are what I will discuss here. These techniques can be used to add a connection to the earth into your daily life, no matter where you find yourself.
In order to notice the benefits of grounding, it’s important to know what an excess or lack of energy feels like. Think of how it feels when you have too much energy. You may feel anxious and even jittery, like you’ve drunk too many cups of coffee. You might feel irritable and snap at people for saying or doing things that you would normally ignore. You might feel unable to sleep, troubled with insomnia or the feeling of being so overtired that you are awake. You might feel tense feelings in your body, such as knots in your shoulder muscles or eyelid twitches. I was always a hyperactive child, and I’m still that way as an adult, so when I have too much energy I often feel restless, fidgety, and will pace instead of being able to sit quietly. Think about your own nervous “tells.” Everyone is different. What sorts of feelings in your body tell you that you have too much energy? To what sorts of behaviors do you naturally resort when you’re feeling an excess of nervous energy?
Now think of how it feels to have too little energy. Tiredness is one obvious sign. You might feel sleepy or you might simply feel a sense of inertia or mental exhaustion that stops you from enthusiastic action. Some people who have low energy will experience it emotionally as sadness. You’ll feel a lack of motivation if you’re low on energy. You might feel less likely to notice things because you’re turned inward and paying attention to your feelings or, conversely, you might feel oversensitive because everyone else’s energy is overwhelming. Think about what sorts of things you do when you start feeling low on energy. What sorts of physical or emotional feelings do you have when you’re drained?
Now that you’ve thought about the energetic extremes, you can hopefully paint a picture of what your life is like when your energy is at the sweet spot, just perfect. Think back to a day when everything seemed to be going right, and you had the energy and motivation to tackle anything. Perhaps you were going for a walk in the beauty of nature or snuggling up on the couch with a cup of tea and a good book. You probably felt joyful yet peaceful, alert yet calm. When properly grounded, your mind neither races nor feels dulled.
Everybody grounds themselves naturally to reach this state. It’s an automatic process that you possibly do without even noticing. However, if you find yourself frequently in either of the above states of unbalanced energy, it’s important to consciously learn to ground yourself. Even people who are naturally great at grounding should learn proper grounding techniques to use during stressful situations in which one’s natural grounding might be forgotten or inhibited. Before we get into common methods for grounding and the method behind how it works, think about how you try to naturally achieve this ideal energetic state. You might do this by sitting down and petting a cat, going for a walk outside, or lying down and taking a nap. Grounding makes the process into a skill that you can perform anywhere, at any time, without significant disruption to your life.
Grounding Mentally and Spiritually
There are many different techniques to perform grounding, but all of them have three steps in common, and the first and the last steps are to check in with your current energy levels. That’s because you really have to fine-tune your knowledge of what is the perfectly grounded feeling for you before you make adjustments. In between those check-ins, you make a connection with the earth for a while until you suppose that you are at the right energy level. If you feel like you’re wrong after you check in with yourself, then you can perform the grounding again. The way that grounding is done is through intention with your mind. You can do this by visualizing the energy exchange as a picture in your mind’s eye or by feeling it moving in your body like a buzzing, a warmth, a pressure, or some other sensation.
Exercise: Grounding Meditations
Here is a very common visualization example for grounding. Visualize yourself as a tree. Your roots are extensions of your toes, and they bury themselves deep into the earth. Sometimes this can be aided during the grounding visualization by taking off your shoes before you close your eyes to visualize. As your tree roots reach deep into the earth, they release any “toxins” as excess energy that flows harmlessly into the earth. The roots can also draw in fresh energy from the earth, creeping up through the trunk of the tree like water or other nutrients. Some people choose to imagine the branches growing and connecting with the sky at this time.
Any visualization will do. You can imagine energy as a fluid in your body, like water or smoke. You can visualize columns of light or pools of darkness. However energy moves and works in your mind will be right. Practice your visualization until it seems like a real vision in your mind’s eye. At first, it’s okay if the process is slow. Take your time seeing every part of the process. Then, stop to check in with your body and energy level. Still too much or too little energy? Start over and see the whole visualization play itself out in your mind again.
The hardest part to practice is performing the grounding until you’re at the perfect energy level. As a beginner, it’s easy to quit before you’re quite at the right place mentally or emotionally. Be patient with yourself. You may have to start paying attention to your natural energy levels in order to remember what being alert but relaxed really feels like. Try keeping a log for a day, writing down how you felt at each hour. If you’re a morning person, perhaps you’ll feel naturally grounded at that time. If you’re a night owl, you might feel a rush of energy from the earth around midnight. Try practicing your grounding at different times in the day. Is it easier to ground at one time than another for you? Getting the feel for your energy levels is definitely the most challenging part about grounding, so be gentle with yourself as you’re learning. Experience will make the process easier, quicker, and more effective.
The process of grounding itself, either by the visualization above or by sensing energy in your body in any other way, is an excellent way to be mindful of your connection with the earth. While you are performing the energy exchange you are like a child of Mother Earth, connected by an unbreakable spiritual umbilical cord. These grounding meditations can enhance a sense of significance and oneness with the divine. This can be especially needed if you usually go from home to car to office and back without time to spend out in nature.
Additional Grounding Ideas
Grounding can fit into your lifestyle however you choose. In this section I’d like to present you with a collection of ideas on how you might ground during moments when you don’t have the option to physically connect to the earth. This is meant to be an array of choices rather than a list of rules that you have to follow. Choose what works for you and remember to practice grounding frequently; this is, hands down, the most important grounding tip I can offer. Practice is the only way that it becomes a honed tool that you can deploy at any time.
Food: Eating food is a classic grounding technique. Heavy food, especially salty food, is very effective for grounding. You can eat a big meal, but even a small saltine cracker will do. In a pinch, you can even put a bit of salt on the tip of your tongue for effective emergency grounding. Eating food can sometimes feel too grounding before meditation, especially trance meditation, so save this tip until afterwards so that you don’t accidentally fall asleep when you’re trying to meditate.
Sex: Any sexual activity is very grounding because it brings you into the here and now and connects you with your body. Sex with a partner can be mutually grounding, but self-pleasure is just as grounding for yourself on its own. Taking a shower, with or without sex before or during, can also be a grounding experience. Let yourself feel the water pouring over you and washing any excess energies down the drain, deep into the earth.
Bare Feet: A great passive grounding tip is to simply go barefoot whenever you can. Even if you’re indoors, the act of sensing your bare feet directly on the floor can be especially grounding. Get in the habit of removing your shoes and socks before meditation time. Feel the soles of your feet on the floor as a tactile reminder of your connection to the earth.
Holding a Rock: Another passive grounding technique is to hold a rock in your hand. The rock acts as a symbol of the earth and may have properties that help absorb your energy. Some people choose rocks that are especially good at this, like hematite. However, any rock will do. This is a handy tool that you can keep with you in a pocket or a bag for when you need some subtle help.
Visualize Connection with Nature: Open a window. Listen to the sounds of nature, feel the breeze, and smell the fresh air. Even if you can’t directly connect with nature, visualizing can be key. I even ground myself on airplanes that are thirty thousand feet off the ground by visualizing my connection with the earth.
I hope that this has helped you understand how grounding can be a resource in your everyday life and help you mindfully connect with the earth. Grounding can be in your metaphysical first- aid kit and your meditation tool belt, ready to be deployed at any time it is needed.
Sarah O’Brien
is a second-generation fortuneteller, a third degree elder high priestess of British Traditional Wicca, and the queen of a coven. As a professional psychic intuitive for over a decade, she serves thousands of clients in the Seattle area and globally through her website. She is certified in tarot and has been interviewed on National Public Radio and other major media outlets. Alexandra is currently pursuing a doctoral degree, lives in Issaquah, Washington, and can be found online at SeePsychic.com.
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