There is a difference between having a mental understanding of what being grounded means and having an experiential and embodied understanding of what it means to you to feel grounded.

Get curious as to what it feels like to you to be grounded – notice the quality of your thoughts, your breath, how present and open you feel, the physical sensations in your body, the emotions you are experiencing.  Try one of the grounding exercises below and then take a few moments to compare how you feel afterwards.  

You might like to journal afterwards or take this exploration forward into your week and pay attention to anything in particular that makes you feel ungrounded. 

1/ Stand outside with your bare feet on the earth or grass and imagine that you could start to feel all busy life taking place in the soil under you.  Take some deep breaths of the fresh air as you intend for the energy of the earth beneath you to draw out all tension from you down through your feet.

2/  Stand or sit outside by a tree and imagine that you can grow energetic roots from your feet which could mingle with the roots of the tree.  It is lovely to spend time with different trees and see if you can feel any difference in your being, depending on which tree you are with. 

3/  Use grounding crystals such as obsidian, tourmaline, hematite or red jasper simply carrying a small tumble stone around in your pocket.  Or place a carnelian tumble stone in water to create a crystal elixir to drink (do not use other crystals for this use unless you know it is safe to do so).

4/  Spend 5 minutes with one hand on your belly and one on your heart whilst directing your breath into your belly noticing how it releases into your hand as you breathe in and back away from your hand towards your spine as you breathe out.  Aim to feel very little movement of the chest area under the touch of your other hand. 

5/ Imagine that your breath were arriving through your feet and up through your body to your crown and your out breath were washing down from the top of your head through your whole body and out through your feet.  Allow for your natural rhythm of breath and sweep your awareness up and down the body rather than making any effort to push or pull the breath in any way. 

6/ Eating a protein rich snack such as nuts or cheese can bring your energy down ‘to earth’.  I often advise having a snack after a yoga nidra or deep meditation to bring you back to the here and now. 

7/ Smelling essential oils with a deeply grounding energy can enable you to feel rooted. Many of the oils distilled from the wood or resin of trees such as sandalwood, myrrh, frankincense and cedarwood or from roots such as vetivers, plai and angelica are very earthy and grounding in their nature.