9 Grounding Techniques to Feel Calmer
Grounding is one of the effective ways to quickly feel centred. To ground yourself means to become present and connected with your body and Earth. If you fully embrace grounding techniques as part of your daily practice, it can have numerous positive benefits in your life.
Questions to ask yourself
Do you get distracted easily?
Do you often zone out and lose focus?
Are you constantly worrying and overthinking?
Do you feel anxious, overwhelmed or drained?
Are you obsessing about your personal image?
Do you have a problem with inflammation, insomnia or chronic pain?
Do you lack clarity and find it difficult to discern what is right for you?
If you answered yes to some of these questions then there’s a good chance that you could experience improvements in these areas by grounding yourself.
Benefits Of Grounding
Grounding enables you to feel more connected with yourself and your environment. When you’re grounded, it is easier to think from a place of clarity and personal integrity. It also helps you to reduce stress, restore your energy and balance your emotions. Grounding is especially beneficial when you feel anxious, overwhelmed, drained, angry or confused. There is a variety of different grounding techniques that you can implement into your daily practice. Here are some of my favourites:
Grounding techniques
1. Walk barefoot
When you’re walking in nature, the Earth’s tranquil energy naturally transmits into your body. From a scientific perspective, Earth contains a negative charge. When you walk, sit or lie on the ground, the electrons of Earth are conducted into your body. Your frequency aligns with the frequency of the Earth. Through this process stagnant energy within the body can be transmuted, helping you to feel more energized, calm and centred.
2. Physical movement
Any type of physical movement will bring you in sync with your body. Whether it’s dance or exercise – especially the exercises that stimulate the root chakra (hips, pelvic, lower back, legs, feet)
3. Engage your senses
Bring attention to what’s happening in your surroundings. Engage all your senses. What do you hear, What can you see? Is there any scent? You can touch objects that are close to you. Observe them with a child-like curiosity. What shape are they, what colour, what material are they made of? Is the surface soft or rough?
4. Body Scan
This process involves scanning your whole body internally from tip to toes. Gradually bring full awareness into different parts of your body. You can start with your toes. What sensations do you feel? Is there any warmth, tension, heaviness, tingliness?
Just observe and notice what you perceive. Continue the process with all body parts until you reach the head.
5. Breathwork
When we’re stressed or anxious our breathing tends to become more shallow. With shallow breathing, the air is only drawn into the chest. When we breathe deeply into our stomach, it signals the body to relax deeper. This helps to reduce the tension within the nervous system. When there’s no tension in the body, there’s no fear either. There are many useful yogic breathing techniques that you can work with. You can try square breathing or breath of fire.
6. Eat root vegetables
Any vegetables that grow under the ground will be beneficial for purposes of grounding. Some examples are potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, sweet potatoes and radishes.
7. Take an Epsom salt bath or have a massage
8. Sound
Listen to binaural beats which specifically target the root chakra. This helps to heighten the connection to your body. What can be even more fun is attending a sound bath meditation. Instead of just hearing the sound, you can fully immerse yourself with the vibrations of sound.
9. Grounding Meditation
There are many different variations of grounding meditations that you can find on the internet. I personally like this one:
Stand or sit with your feet pressed firmly on the ground. Close your eyes and imagine that your feet are roots of a tree. These roots reach all the way down into the core of the Earth. Nestled within the core of the Earth are beautiful, large red crystals. Now imagine these roots extending from your feet and winding around these vibrant crystals. Take a moment to breathe and feel this connection. This connection then returns to your body until it reaches your heart where this feeling is stored. I like to imagine that my heartbeat is in sync with the heartbeat of the Earth and the Universe at large. To bring awareness to your heart, place your hands on your heart so that you can feel your pulse.