In our spiritual journey we all aspire to ascend, to ascend spiritually, to rise above the material density that often seems heavy and difficult to bear. But sometimes many of us forget that if we want to ascend and evolve spiritually, we first need to ground ourselves. Indeed, it is not possible to ascend to higher dimensions spiritually if we do not ground ourselves first. Spirituality and spiritual practices can sometimes be used as a means of escaping physical reality, thus the term "spiritual bypassing". And if we already have a soul that has a problem with incarnation, if we already have a tendency to have our head in the clouds, and want to escape from reality, then we easily fall into this trap. I think I've already talked about it, a lot of people in the spiritual community are hovering above the ground, floating in the ethers. A lot of them have a big problem with grounding, and in fact we cannot build and create in the physical dimension if we dissociate ourselves from matter. Since childhood we have adapted to this difficult world by dissociating ourselves from reality (I will talk about the inner child and child traumas soon). This dissociation often continues into adulthood and causes us many problems because we cannot move forward and evolve spiritually if we do not fully integrate our body first. Let's stop denying it. The body is the temple of the soul and the two are inseparable in the incarnation. This is why grounding to earth is essential and the corner stone of all spiritual practice.
How do we know if we are ungrounded? We daydream a lot, our head is in the clouds, we have moments of absence. We have a hard time concentrating or following a discussion. We always forget or lose things, we find it hard to follow a schedule and organize ourselves. We live in our heads and emotionally feel on edge all the time.
There are obviously many methods to ground. Here are 6 ways to ground, which from my point of view are the most effective. I’ve also created a specific meditation for grounding with a tree here, this meditation will be even more powerful if you practice it under a tree.
1. Grounding through nature The first way to ground yourself, and probably my personal favorite, is to ground yourself through contact with nature. We can start by walking in nature, focusing on our steps and feet in contact with the ground and imagining roots growing from the soles of our feet. Of course it is also possible if the weather allows it, to walk barefoot on the ground or in the grass. This has the property of having the soles of our feet in direct contact with the ground and thus being able to absorb the telluric energies of the earth that will circulate along the legs. But for my part, the best of the best is to sit at the foot of a tree or on its apparent roots. We can imagine that from our sacrum or root chakra we grow roots like those of the tree, that descend deep into the earth. We can even imagine a beam of red light that goes deep down to the center of the earth. We can meditate in contact with the tree and feel connected to it by merging with its energy. It will help us ground. If you live in the city, find a park with a tree that calls you. I'd just like to say a word about tree therapy, which is a big trend. It's of course very beneficial to be in contact with trees and to hug them or to meditate with them. But be careful not to unload your energetic or emotional garbage on the trees. Many people do this, especially in sacred places where there are big guardian trees. Because of the incessant passage and the fact that people come to unload on them, some of these trees end up eventually dying. There must be a respect and a balance in the exchange with the tree, it can help us but it must not be used as a dump. 2. Get grounded through meditation Meditation has many benefits, and I always advise to have a daily meditative practice, but sometimes meditation might have the effect of dissociating ourselves from the body. If we already have a grounding problem, meditation can accentuate this problem if we are not careful. When we have a tendency to have our head in the clouds and it’s easy for us to travel away with our consciousness, we often find ourselves in the astral exploring different dimensions and when we return to our body we feel a little off-center or we feel as if we are floating on a cloud. This is a sign that we have not fully returned to the body. So how do we fix that? There are specific meditations for grounding (see mine here). So instead of meditating with eyes closed, which encourages us to travel away, we can meditate eyes open fixed on a point (the flame of a candle for example) or eyes half closed. In Kundalini yoga there are many meditations where we keep our eyes half closed by focusing our gaze on the tip of the nose. This technique will help us stay well in the body while keeping all the benefits of meditation, and do not forget to breathe deeply! When the meditation is over, still seated on the ground, we can lift off our buttocks slightly from the ground with our hands and let it fall back again. This has the effect of activating the root chakra and Kundalini.
3. Massages How to combine the useful and the pleasant while grounding? By regularly getting a massage. Not only does massage have many benefits on the body and mind but it also helps us to ground. The only condition is to be careful to stay well present with our body during the massage. The best way is to focus on the hands of the masseur and the sensations that it creates within the body, becoming aware of all the different parts of our body. We need to be well present to our breath as well. Foot massage (reflexology) and the Chinese belly massage, (Chi Nei Tsang) are particularly effective for grounding. After a session we can really feel grounded. The belly massage releases energy down to the lower part of the body and activates the famous Hara, an energy center known to those who practice martial arts. 4. Food Food is also a great way to ground ourselves. Fasting obviously has significant health benefits, but I will not advise long-term fasting (intermittent fasting is ok) for people who already have a problem with grounding. Indeed, the elimination of food will create lightness in the body and the feeling of having our feet hovering above the ground. As far as breatharians are concerned, this way of life requires a spiritual discipline that replaces meals, and it is imperative to be centered and grounded to practice breatharianism, otherwise watch out for the takeoff! There are foods that help us particularly for grounding, of course there is meat and animal protein, but as I know that many people today are vegetarians or vegans, I do not necessarily advocate going back to meat to ground, except perhaps in extreme cases or if our body asks for it. I'm a vegetarian with vegan tendencies, but sometimes I still have phases where I feel I need more grounding and my body needs meat. So I will eat poultry for example. But among the grounding foods there are also all the foods that grow under the soil and roots, such as carrots, beets, potatoes, radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, ginger, cassava and so on. ... So prioritizing these foods in our diet will help us ground. It is better to eat cooked food, steamed for example, than raw food if we have a grounding problem. 5. Essential oils Plants also offer us the opportunity to ground, among them we find the Himalayan nard which is one of the most powerful one for grounding. A drop on the soles of the feet and in olfaction (beware it has a very strong smell, you might like it or not!) and its action is immediate! There are also essential oils that come from trees, like the Atlas cedar, we can massage the legs with vegetable oil and a few drops of this essential oil. The essential oil of Scots pine is very good too, put a drop in the palm of your hands and rub it on the sacrum, it helps us not only to ground but it also activates the energy in case of fatigue. Other essential oils that ground are tea-tree and vetiver (the latter can be used in perfume). You can also take footbaths with sea salt or Epsom salt with a few drops of these essential oils to choose from.
6. Physical exercise What can help us to feel firmly grounded in our body if not physical exercise? Whether through sport, Yoga, martial arts ... moving our body will help us to circulate the energy and focus our attention on the body. Martial arts are well known to be particularly effective for grounding, as many martial arts techniques are based on the Hara (located a little below the navel), the energy center of the body essential to our center and root. Yoga is also very beneficial, traditionally Indians practiced it not on a mattress but on a simple fabric on the earth, because the more we are directly in contact with the ground, the more we will absorb the telluric energies essential for our balance. The Yoga postures that help are all those where we use our balance, tree pose for example, then there is child pose, and the postures that open up the hips and pelvis (often when we have the hips blocked we have a grounding problem), pigeon pose or lizard pose are good for opening the hips for example. So I hope that you will take advantage of all these techniques, and you will see that your body will say thank you, because instead of denying it you will take care of it as a divine part of you. It is a way of honoring it and also honoring Mother Earth that supports it. Sat Nam Gabrielle Isis