Grounding
Grounding is a foundational practice to most spiritual, psychic, and healing exercise and promotes mindfulness, peace, focus, and a strong connection to your intuition and discernment. Many of us struggle with an overactive mind, especially with worrying about the past, present, and future, which can pull our energy all over the place. Grounding practices help you recall your energy and awareness back to the present moment and allows you to anchor your energy back into your body which benefits you on a mental, physical, and spiritual level. Most importantly, grounding promotes a strong connection the love, truth, and strength of your spirit which can help you overcome your fears, insecurities, anxiety, and depression.
Grounding is also incredibly important for spiritualists and developing psychics to have a safe experience as they learn about the spirit realm and connect with different energies. Without grounding, you run the risk of falling into spiritual psychosis which I describe as a loss of rational thought and a disconnection from reality which can feel a lot like real spiritual experiences in early development. Outside of spiritual work, grounding is especially helpful after doing healing work like shadow work and diving into your inner child wounds because it will help you call your awareness back to the present moment and help you settle any emotional distress caused during the healing work you’re doing. All in all, grounding practices are what makes healing and spiritual/psychic development sustainable which is why I consider it one of the most important spiritual wellness practices.
WHEN TO GROUND
Grounding is an important first step to many practices like meditation, divination, spell work, and any psychic or energy work. This is because when you come from a grounded and present place, you’re able to focus your energy on whatever you intend to do next without it being pulled all over the place. This can also be helpful first thing in the morning to help you start the day of more centered and can be a helpful practice when your struggling with your emotional or mental state. I rarely suggest for something to be a daily practice, but grounding is one practice that can only benefit you the more you do it.
SIGNS OF NEEDING TO GROUND
Hyperactive or Muffled Intuition
Hyperactive/Impulsive Behavior (rambling, can’t settle, etc.)
Emotionally Imbalanced (to much and to little)
Anxious/Intrusive Thoughts/Paranoia (overthinking past, present, future)
Feeling disconnected from body or present moment (viewing life like a movie)
Loss of rational thought/Disconnected from reality (Mainly associated with spiritual psychosis)
Disclaimer: Spiritual health practices are intended to be in addition to standard mental/physical health care. Please tend to your physical/mental health, first and foremost.
GROUNDING PRACTICES + RECOMMENDATIONS
You ground yourself any time you choose to feel the sun on your skin or the wind on you face. Any time you take to connect with yourself or the present moment around you, you are grounding yourself and your energy, but being intentional about will definitely amplify that effect. We are all inherently magical beings and the tools recommended below are only meant to help empower you more, but aren’t essential to the grounding practices. The only thing you ever really need is you and the power you already have within you.
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Mindfulness is the practice of being fully aware of your present moment, including your thoughts, feelings, and surrounding moment without judgment or criticism and is a vital practice to living a grounded, present life. The intention of this practice is to approach life with radical acceptance of your reality on a moment to moment basis so you can remain present and observe your thoughts and emotions from a more detached and understanding point of view. This allows you to connect with your body and mind more deeply, helps you to flow with your emotions more easily, and supports you in overcoming toxic habits, coping mechanisms, and other behaviors that aren't serving you.
You can begin practicing mindfulness with meditations where you can practice connecting with your breath, releasing your thoughts, and calling your awareness back onto yourself. This also gives you the opportunity to practice observing your thoughts and emotions without judgment or attachment. You can practice this throughout your day like when you tend to your daily responsibilities to begin integrating this practice on a deeper level as well.
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Getting outside and connecting with nature is an easy way to ground yourself and connect with the present moment. It's important to remove any distractions, like your phone, and do your best to get out of your head for it to truly help you ground. If you catch yourself getting stuck in your head, bring your attention back to the present moment by naming off things you see, hear, smell, etc., and really lean into what your experiencing. Feel the air around you, listen to the way the tree's leaves brushing together in the wind, feel the ground around you, etc..
Earthing is the act of connecting with the earth beneath you through your bare feet. Outside of being very grounding, there have also been studies that show it's positive affects on sleep, inflammation, and stress among other things. Both of these practices are great opportunities to practice mindfulness.
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Rooting and anchoring are simple methods to ground your energy and can be done anywhere at any point. You can do this inside or in addition to being outside as well. This is a great practice when you feel uncentered and are struggling to settle into your present moment, whether that be due to stress or just being generally ungrounded.
For this practice, you'll want to get into the most comfortable position your circumstances offer. This could be standing, sitting, or laying down. Once as your comfortable, take a couple deep, clearing breaths. With each breath in, you are recalling your energy, and with each breath out, you are anchoring this energy deeper and deeper into your vessel. Do this 3-5 times or until you feel centered and then ground this energy deeper by visualizing this energy as roots, moving through you and down into the earth, far past the ground or floor underneath you. Each breath these roots move deeper and deeper into this earth until you feel balanced, centered, and present. Sit in the energy for a moment before you slowly open your eyes and bring yourself back to the moment around you.
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As stated before, you don't need anything outside of your own power for really anything, grounding included, but sometimes it can be helpful to lean on different tools and resources to support your intention.
Here is a list of my recommendations to support your grounding practices:
Crystals
Obsidian
Carnelian
Black Tourmaline
Shungite
Herbs & Flowers (Loose/Bundles/Incense/Tea)
Lemon Balm
Chamomile
Lavender
St. John's Wort
Frankincense
