Exercise 5
Grounding
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to give you a good understanding of the concept of grounding, a basic element of energy or psychic “hygiene”. It is a greatly overlooked tool to help us stay balanced in life. It also can keep us from overreacting to events in our life.
Duration
20 min (with 5-10 minutes for gradual return from meditation)
Prerequisites
Readings:
- Section 3A: Core Spiritual Elements
Exercises:
Discussion
We covered the concept of grounding earlier. This discussion is to remind you of what we covered there, as well as to provide a lead in to the grounding exercise. The idea of grounding oneself is similar to the idea of a ground in electrical circuits. Grounding is important to everyone whether it be for day-to-day living, for those working with energy or when one is meditating. In the first case, we all have moments where we feel an emotion build up and it begins to affect our thoughts and feelings. A build up of energy in our aura often leads to us letting it out, blasting our strong emotions at or onto those around us. We can reduce these occurrences and even prevent them if we stay grounded.
In the case of spiritual works, it becomes even more important. The two primary reasons for this are that we can activate potentially harmful and strong energies we are not prepared to or intend to deal with and secondly, we are less susceptible to our being distracted by energies that may arise during our work.
Simply put the act of grounding is one of making a connection with the earth, as we do with electrical circuits, so that excess energies drain away. We do not want to hold onto them or cast these energies aside as they can negatively affect others. When grounded, excess energies go into the earth, as a result, they are far less likely to affect others or ourselves. The degree of potential affect increases as the degree of grounding decreases.
Generally, people are not grounded to any significant extent. It is not because it is hard to do, rather they are not aware of the way our energy fields work, or how lack of grounding can affect our thoughts, emotions and choice of actions. If they were, they would be more relaxed, calmer due to the connection with the calming energies of the earth. This allows a mixture of emotions to build up in their auric field.
We do not need wires to connect us; we use our thoughts to create the connection with the earth. It is not that people cannot do it, it is that they do not have the concept in their minds in the first place. They even have mental blocks that all this talk of auras and energy is nothing but nonsense. This creates a mental block that can prevent them from doing so, even when they try.
In order to move past this the first and most fundamental aspect to grasp and accept is the validity of the concept of grounding oneself. Without this, we will continue to work against ourselves and any grounding we do will remain ineffective. If you find you cannot accept the concept of grounding you must work through it. Use the ideas and examples I have given and meditate on them.
We have talked about what happens when we let emotional or lower vibration energies build. When we have an issue, the thoughts we have about it manifest lower vibrations that remains with us, unless we are directing them elsewhere. In cases where subsequent experiences do not reactivated the thoughts the energies tend to mix into our aura as current events take our attention away from it. Nor does this provide any benefit, as the negative energies we create do not just go away. We ought to be clearing these as they arise.
Now, remember that there is a higher degree of connectivity between all thoughts at the conscious and non-conscious level; they do so in innumerable ways. Given that vibrations act synergistically any additional issues that arise can, depending on their strength and degree of connectivity reactivate the initial issue, add to it and draw other issues into the mix. They reinforce each other, growing in strength and hence influence. As a result, what may have initially been a minor irritant can, in a couple of days or over a period, become a raging storm. People try time outs, deep breathing, going for a walk, getting away from the situation or other techniques to calm down; however, it does not always work. The success rate goes up as one develops their skill at grounding.
People are typically not aware of nature of neither thoughts nor how their thoughts relate to their energy field or aura. It is simple to explain - when we have thoughts. Our thoughts manifest vibrations of different types and intensity depending on the nature of the thought. To manifest a ground, create a link with the earth, you must focus your thoughts on grounding and visualize it in whatever fashion suits you best. This creates or reinforces our connection with the earth, like a lightening rod on a home or the ground wire in an electrical system.
I have presented a number of ideas on grounding to you, do take the time to reinforce these new thought forms. At first, one is unlikely to have a solid mental focus and all the thought forms enabled to create a solid ground, monitor it or to make it is continuous. If grounding proves challenging for you it may be that you have not yet allowed yourself to believe you have the power to work with energy with your thoughts. It could also be from the reality that an untrained mind is easily distracted. If at first you do not perceive the ground do not dismay, time and effort will take care of this.
Method
To create a ground one must develop their connection with the earth below us. To do so one must first create the visual image though this alone is not sufficient. We create a visual image with our thoughts; however, once we have the visual image we must use our thoughts in a more focused manner to “direct” the energy down into the ground. For example, when one is angry thinking or saying “I am not angry” does not reduce the anger, acting to understand and disarm your anger does. It is also important to note that a ground does not stop one from continuing to generate the energies of anger; it simply keeps us from adding to the anger so we can explore the issue rather than manifest just the emotions.
We will look at grounding from a meditative posture first as learning to ground in a controlled setting is necessary in order to do it on a moment’s notice when it is needed.
Part I - Grounding during meditation
1. Get into a meditative posture
As in the meditation exercises, being seated and relaxed is important. Breathing is a key to getting relaxed, so follow the explanation of breathing in the meditation exercise for this first step. This step is important, as we want to have a clear mind when we ground so that it will be effective.
2. Feeling Your Breath
When you are in a meditative posture I want you to visualize that you are breathing up from the earth through you feet or legs and into your whole being. With every exhale, you are doing the opposite in that you are pushing or directing the energy down through your feet or legs into the earth. Continue to breathe and feel not just the air, feel the movement of energy as it flows between you and the earth. You will notice the energy movement the longer you continue breathing and the more relaxed you get.
3. Visualize the Movement of Energy
As you breathe, I want you to strengthen your connection to the earth. One of the best ways to start this is by visualizing an image where you are “planted” into the earth. Examples would be visualizing your feet buried in the earth, or you have roots that come out of your body and go deep into the earth. Visualize the image and feel the energy moving up and down through this connection. Imagine the energy you are drawing up as calm, relaxing and balancing. When you exhale, imagine that you are pushing the energies you want to remove down into the earth. If other thoughts start to creep in do not fight them, let them be. One can also simply feel the movement of energy or feels their breath, rather than visualize.
Stay focused on what you are doing. Continue to breath and keep the visualization going for as long as you can or until you really feel the connection. Repeat this process as needed. You will know the connection is strong if you feel the energy moving freely and cannot feel a gap between you and the earth. That is, you cannot tell where the ground begins and your feet end. At this point, either continue with your meditation or gradually bring yourself out of your meditative state
Part II- Active Grounding
This is grounding when in a state of waking consciousness and are not meditating. The challenge in active grounding as opposed to grounding during meditation is that we have strong energies to deal with, have far more active thought forms and we are subject to the thought forms and energies around us, typically from other people.
To successfully ground yourself when active, that is you need to deal with strong energies (emotional or otherwise), you either isolate your thoughts about what is going on around you so you can focus attention on grounding or have a previously established ground. In the first case, it helps to have experience with grounding beforehand hence doing this exercise during your meditation will help. You will be able to draw on what you know from experience. The latter alternative is to have previously built up a grounding thought form that is not time based (that is it is always there that ground).
We will look at the first case as to create a “permanent” grounding though form you simply need to reinforce and project the grounding though form “forward” in time. We do this using our thoughts and will. This type of ground is active now, as well as two hours from and can even be active two years from now. The same method will work for both, though the later requires a more focus.
Grounding While Active
Step 1:
From time to time, we find ourselves in situations where our reactions generate strong emotional energies or we find ourselves experiences strong emotions whose source is unknown. In the later case, it may be that we are manifesting them. These energies can cause us problems, lead us to overreact, act out of character and affect our emotional and mental state.
The first step in dealing with this is to recognize that it is occurring. I cannot tell you how to do this, you must do this for yourself though paying more attention to the present/being mindful is a key. Part of learning to recognize our states of mind is wanting to. It is easier to avoid doing so if we do not acknowledge we have feelings or that we are ever not in control.
Once you notice that you are reacting or you feel something that makes you uncomfortable you can do the following:
1. Focus your attention
As mentioned, grounding oneself when active is a challenge, as there is interference from other thoughts you are having, from the energies you are trying to deal with and from what is going on around you. There are things you can do even if you cannot stop and pause for a few moments due to the nature of the circumstances. The first step is to carve out a portion of your awareness, which you then devote solely to working on grounding.
2. Breathing
One way to do this without a great deal of conscious attention is to breathe up from and down into the ground, as explained in previous exercises. Breathing is a common recommendation in stressful situations; the difference here is we use some of our attention to focus on moving energy as we breathe. At the very least, this should help you to stabilize the buildup of energies so that your energy field is not filling up with lower energies. It may seem insignificant or trivial, I can assure you it is not and with practice, you will come to the same conclusion.
The key is being able to portion or focus part of your attention on grounding so that you are working in a separate part of your awareness from that which is pay attention to or interacting with what is going on around you. You may not have time to sit down and breathe, you may feel that people will look at your funny (as you learn you will grow past the issues related to what others might think about you) or you may not be able to sit down.
Do not let this deter you, keep breathing and thinking about the energy moving down and into the earth as you breathe. The breathing is not to ground you; it is merely a good way to focus the attention when doing it. Just as in the previous exercise, it is important to stay focused, do not be distracted. You must resist the urge to let you attention to events take away all your attention from grounding.
It may help to feel the ground as opposed to thinking about it, this way you can respond in the present, as you need to, of course, this depends on the situation you are in. You must do this even more when you are active as there is so much more going on in your awareness. At first, it will definitely be a challenge, but the ability to ground is well worth the practice you need to accomplish it. Confidence in your ability to ground is very important as if you do not feel you can do it you end up sabotaging your efforts. Each time you do this you will get better and more confident.
Step 2:
The first number of times you try to ground yourself when you are active try to feel the energies that are building up and add this into your mental image of the energies you intent to move down and out. Think about this as you breathe. This way you are more likely focusing on the vibrations you want to ground away. When you feel you have reduced the buildup of energy continue as you have by realizing that when you stabilized the buildup you created your ground.
Step 3:
After you have done the first two steps, you should be able to notice a reduction in or even elimination of the energies you are dealing with. It is important that you stay grounded even afterwards, unless you were also able to understand why the energy was there and have dealt with the issue fully. To do this keep the section of your awareness that you set aside to do the grounding active so that it will continue to keep you grounded while you focus on other things. It is not likely that you will be able to understand and resolve the issue that manifested the energies you are trying to clear with any certainty when you are in an active mode, though you can learn to do so if you continue to work on your attention and sensitivity.
Step 4:
When the urgency has subsided, do not let your guard down too quickly. The issue that triggered the energy remains, as do the thought forms that gave rise to it. You need to stay grounded, as you are active. Try to maintain a portion of your awareness to monitor your ground; this is also a very useful habit to get into if you want to make your grounding more “permanent”. The longer you can stay grounded the less vulnerable you are to sudden flares of emotion. When someone hits your buttons, you do not want to react in the wrong way. Instead you act, as I have described above.
Developing a continual ground
Grounding is something we can do on a continual basis, which makes it far less likely that we will get caught by strong emotional reactions to our experiences. It also helps us should someone direct strong energies towards us whether they are around us or somewhere else or they do so consciously or not. There are several ways to do this depending on ones skills with working with energy, how conscious one is of their thoughts (mindfulness) and the nature of their energy/auric field.
There are several key element to maintaining a continuous ground. They are as follows:
Our thoughts: Energy follows attention and we need to have build a strong always active thought form. The thought form must include the intent that "I am grounding at all times" using whatever method you have found works best. We do not need to be conscious of it once established though it can take time to build up such a thought form you can rely on. The best way to build our thought forms is in meditation. In this state we can "imagine" the future and that our ground is always active and even we ground away any lower energies we encounter or are "hit with".
Mindfulness: When we are mindful and paying attention moment by moment we notice shifts in energy be they internal or external and can also, if needed, check to make sure we are grounded. If we find we are not always grounded we know we have to reinforce the thought form we are building (as in the previous point).
State of our auric/energy field: A strong and vibrant energy field is one way to keep all external energy away (you will learn more about this in the essay and exercises on Shielding). Developing such an energy field takes time and is best done in meditation and by developing our virtues through connecting regularly with our "inner self", purity of intent, unconditional love, developing a connection with the Earth and world around us and surety in and of ourselves. Such an energy field will repel most if not all of the external energies that may come our way and when combined with the other two elements will keep is well grounded.
Explaining how to develop a continual ground is not easily without getting over wordy, which can over complicate things. However, the above should give you enough to start doing so. If you are mindful you will find you own way of doing it and will know how successful you are by how well it works and discerned what you may have missed if or when it does not. Power is attained by focused attention on what we are doing and how we are "being" and being firm and committed the more grounded you will be.
Grounding Summary
Once you get some practice in grounding, you will be able to focus on particular negative energy. This is especially important if you get to the point where you are working on particular vibrations or when you are trying to open up either during everyday life or when you are doing energy work in your meditations. In any case, practice is needed practice is needed because to dump a particular vibration you need to be able to perceive just that vibration where ever it manifests in your aura.
Try to remember that the world, indeed the entire Cosmos, is made of energy/vibrations that flow in, around and some even through us continually. A ground is not a fixed thing, it moves right along with us. When grounded, our moods will be more stable, we will be less likely to react to strong emotions and we will keep our energy field clearer. This means these energies will not affect our thinking as much and the objectivity of our observation and the clarity of our reasoning will both improve.
We can block or allow some of the energies we come across or manifest to pass through us so we are not affected, but we cannot block all of them. Further, when you block energy out you can be locking yourself in with your own negative energies. This is something we must be mindful of when we start to work on being able to shield ourselves from energies.
We have also examined how, over time, our rational mind builds up thought structures that preclude, deny or ignore this connection thus keeping us somewhat separate from the energies that flow around us. If you are having difficulty in grounding examine your thoughts. There are likely some that resistance the idea of being able to or even needing to ground at all, that have you thinking that you are separate from the world around you and so on. The best way to examine such thoughts is during meditation, which is a practice all should take up and practice regularly.
© 2010 Allan Beveridge
Last updated May 6, 2022