Grounding and centering Archives

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Grounding to Release Unwanted Emotions

Modern physics tell us that life is energy, and this includes our emotions. Emotions are energy and they can be affected by the emotions of other people. For example, most of us have had the experience of feeling good until coming in contact with a person who is upset. Soon we start to feel tense or anxious. Grounding to release unwanted emotions can be very helpful at times like this.

Some of us are more affected by other people’s energy than others, but all of us at one time or another will find ourselves caught up in someone else’s energy.

While being influenced by others is a fact of life, you don’t need to continue experiencing the effects of someone else’s energy. You can use meditation to release any undesired emotional energy.

When to Use This Technique

Use this meditation anytime you experience negative emotions in your environment.

Why it Works

This meditation shows you how to redirect your attention and let go of any energy you don’t want. Doing this meditation will also remind you that you can assist yourself in any situation

The Technique

Sit down and make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and relax.
Place your attention on your breath. Try to breathe from your stomach, rather than from your chest. Observe your abdomen as it rises and falls.
If you have trouble doing this, place your hand on your belly and observe the movement of your belly against your hand. Continue to relax.
During inhalation, imagine your breath slowly moving down your body until it reaches your toes.
During exhalation, imagine your breath moving up from your toes and through your body until you breathe it out.
Continue to breathe and stay relaxed.
Then with each inhalation and exhalation, imagine the energy around your tailbone extending into the earth.

Allow the earth to absorb the negative energy. The earth readily absorbs energy and reuses it in a positive way.

Feel yourself becoming more grounded and free of the unwanted energy

If you have trouble doing this, just continue to practice. In time, you’ll become more aware of the energy flow and release of unwanted energy.
Allow your muscles to relax. Feel the weight of your body as you relax. Be sure to continue breathing.
Feel the calmness that comes from breathing.
If any negative emotions appear, imagine them flowing from your body into the earth.
Emotions are like thoughts, sensations, and feelings in that they aren’t permanent. Emotions have no power of their own. Emotions gain any power in our lives simply by the attention we give them.
Emotions come and go. Simply observe the negative emotions that arise. Don’t engage with them. Stay with the emotions as an observer.
Observe how any negative emotions will fade away automatically.
Place your attention on the sensation of the energy that anchors you firmly to the earth.
Enjoy the pleasurable sensations that arise from experiencing this energy and the body when it is grounded and centered.
As you become more aware of the energy flowing within you, try extending this energy even deeper into the earth as well as throughout your body.

If you have trouble detecting this energy, just continue to practice by focusing your awareness on your experience. Your awareness of energy will increase when you allow yourself to give up the effort, and also when you don’t engage with your thoughts.

What We Learned Today

Like everything in the world, we are energy. Our thoughts and emotions are expressions of energy. When we can increase our awareness of energy, through the use of our breath, we can release any emotional energy that isn’t of benefit to us.

Here is a 10 minute audio of a different kind of grounding practice, which starts with a quick muscle relaxation.

A Question that Sometimes Comes Up Is

I was unable to experience energy. What can I do?

Don’t be concerned if you are unable to detect energy. Your mind is preoccupied with your thoughts, and this is blocking your awareness of energy.
Continue to practice this meditation and accept your experience without judgment. Continue to focus on your breath. This will help still your mind, which will enhance your ability to experience energy.

As your mind calms, you’ll learn to experience the energy within you.

To your health,
Connie

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Meditating Outside – The Benefits

The Benefits of Meditation Out of Doors

woman meditating outside on the grass

It’s summer. It’s warm and sunny. The blue skies and great outdoors are calling. And if you’re like me, you’re probably listening and more than ready to head outside! Maybe you’re heading outside to go swimming or wakeboarding or maybe just to lounge on the beach, cool drink in hand. Might we suggest that you also try meditating outdoors? Not only will you get your daily dose of Vitamin D from the sunshine, you’ll also enrich your meditation practice in a whole new way.

As shared by psychotherapist, author, and meditation teacher Mark Coleman in his article “Why Meditating In Nature Is Easier” (Yoga Journal, October 7, 2008), there’s a reason why monasteries and meditation centers are often located within the depths of forests and jungles. In his words, “When we meditate in nature, we bring a receptive presence to the natural world. It comes alive—and so do we. We no longer look at nature as an inert or pretty object, but as a living and breathing world of mystery and sensitivity, a realm of wisdom and learning that is always whispering its teachings to us”.

Coleman, who spent many years experimenting with outdoor meditation in the wilderness of Sierra Nevada, has discovered that meditating surrounded by the elements resulted in him feeling “more wakeful and alert and, at the same time, open, relaxed, and spacious.” There’s also a sense of deep calm that comes from fully embodying your senses while in nature. And in nature, the capacity to be present – also known as mindfulness – is easier to achieve “when we bring a contemplative attitude to being outdoors.” Ajahn Buddhadhasa, a renowned Thai forest meditation master, called this state in which our attention becomes more effortless, “natural Samadhi”. Our senses also become heightened as “the natural world entices our senses to wake up…our skin receptors enliven [and] our hearing becomes sharper”.

Because this state heightens our sensitivity, it can bring about a sense of wonder. In his article, Coleman shared the story of a woman in one of his classes who discovered, while meditating outdoors, that a spider had created a web between her fingers. The woman’s normal reaction of terror was instead replaced by a feeling of gratitude for being considered worthy of becoming part of nature.

Meditating outside can also:

Be eco-friendly. When you meditate the sounds of nature replace any electronic background noise – CD player, MP3 player, radio.
You’ll become grounded simply by the act of being outside. In an outside practice it is easier to consciously ground yourself in the present moment and into the earth.
Match the rhythm of your body to that of the earth through the natural vibrations of the earth, especially when sitting on the ground.
Balance the negative ions in your body as you make contact with the earth. When you sit on the ground you connect your body to unlimited numbers of negative ions which then flow through your body, helping to decrease inflammation as well as blood pressure.

As Coleman says, “Nature nourishes the soul, and the more present we can be to it, the deeper we can drink from her well and, refreshed, bring positive change into the world.”

Here is a great walking meditation that you can easily do outside in your neighborhood or at your local park..

To your inner peace – Anna

References:
Coleman, Mark. “Why Meditating In Nature Is Easier | Outdoors Meditation for Beginners.” Yoga Journal. N.p., 07 Oct. 2008. Web. 30 June 2016.
Scammell, Taryn. “Spring Is Coming: 6 Benefits to Meditating Outside.” Elephant Journal. N.p., 11 Mar. 2016. Web. 30 June 2016.

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Centering calming and quieting your mind

Woman doing a quiet centering meditation Centering is the process of focusing inward, allowing your mind to become calm.

Personally I can tell when I am centered because my mind becomes quiet and my anxiety level goes down. As my mind gets quiet I become more aware of my surroundings and my instincts become more active. That is MY experience, how it feels for you may differ.

As you learn to rely on all your senses rather than just your mind, you may find decision making comes more quickly. I think this is because you are gathering more information from your surroundings and allowing your instincts to surface.

Centering makes it easier to be objective about what’s going on around you. You may become less likely to get tangled up in other people’s drama and emotions because you are calm. This calmness helps you to more easily see all sides of an argument or situation.

Start with this relaxation. The more you practice this relaxation sequence the easier it will be to remember and you will find you can drop into a relaxed state more quickly and with more ease. Eventually you may find you can drop into the relaxed state by just taking a few seconds to remember how relaxed your mind and body felt after doing the relaxation 🙂

You may want to record yourself saying the centering meditation below so you can listen to it and just follow along to your own voice the first few times.

Please change the wording to whatever feels most right for you. The idea is to personalize this and make it yours (as with most of the meditations on this site and elsewhere!)

Centering

Bring your attention to the middle of your head.

Imagine there is a pure clean light at the center of your head.

This light is a place where you can find your own intuition.

There is only you here. You can still hear noises around you, but this place is yours and yours alone.

You are safe here.

This is a refuge where you can go to get away from stress.

You are still aware of where you are and the outside world but they don’t matter right now.

Here you feel a profound sense of peace and quiet and a sense of wholeness and vibrant health.

Allow yourself to inhabit that light. Feel and KNOW this light is you, the pure clean and unadulterated essence of you.

There is only you here and you are enough, repeat to yourself I AM enough.

Take a few minutes to allow yourself to feel, sense and know this spot and to relax in the quiet, releasing any thoughts that come up.

Know you can come back here any time by relaxing your body, releasing your thoughts and bringing your attention to the center of you mind.

Allow yourself to really see in your mind, feel and BE the quiet pure clean energy that is you.

When you leave this meditation you will bring with you a memory of what it felt like.

That memory will make it easier for you to come back to that center whenever you want. By paying attention to it and remembering it you can come back to it more quickly the next time.

When you are ready, stretch any part of you that needs to be stretched and slowly open your eyes.

Take a few seconds to adjust back to being fully awake.

To your vibrant health!

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Meditate With Your Child – Releasing Anger And Resentment

Sometimes telling your child to “run around the block” when they are angry works wonders, but wouldn’t it be great if your child learned another way to calm themselves down?

Meditate with your child to help him/her to calm down after a stressful situation. It is a self help tool you can teach them to help them calm themselves. This is more appropriate for older children.

Allow approximately 4 – 7 minutes for this meditation.

The Meditation – Before you start

Find a place to do this meditation that will feel safe for your child
Turn off things that are distracting like the TV and radio
Let your child know that you are going to do a meditation together. If they want to know what a meditation is you can say that it is something you think might help them to feel better
Before you start speaking take a couple of deep breaths yourself so that your voice sounds calm, not rushed.
In between each step take a breath. This will help to pace the meditation so that each instruction has a chance to be understood and processed by your child. It also gives you time to read the next instruction before you speak it 😉

What follows is a sample “script” of words you can use to lead your child through the meditation. Please feel free to change some of the words to better match your child’s situation. What your child imagines as they breath out (and in) would depend on what they are feeling. Keep the wording simple, this makes it easier for your child to duplicate the meditation if they choose to try it on their own.

The Meditation – What to say

Sit with your feet on the floor and your hands open on your lap
Close your eyes
Take a nice l-o-n-g BIG breath and let it out
Take another nice l-o-n-g BIG breath and blow it out
Take one more HUGE big breath in and as you blow out, imagine that all your anger gets blown out of you when you blow out the air!
Take a great BIG breath in and imagine you are breathing in a nice feeling of quietness (Repeat this process of breathing out what they don’t want and breathing in what they do want at least three times, more if it seems to be helping)
Breath in some more of that nice quietness one more time before you open your eyes
Now open your eyes

After The Meditation

Let your child know that they can do this on their own when they are feeling angry (or whatever the feeling is that is bothering them).
Ask your child what they thought about the meditation.
- Don’t be too surprised if they come up with comments like “why do I have to close my eyes” or “you talk too fast (or too slow)”. This is a new process for them so comments and questions about the act of meditating are just as likely as comments about how the meditation made them feel.
- Listen to what they have to say and answer questions that come up
- Also don’t be too surprised if they don’t really have anything to say, they may not really know what to think of it yet 🙂

Depending on your child’s response you could

Set up another time to practice this together again in a couple of days. Practicing when they are not in distress makes it easier for them to remember the steps so they can try it by themselves later.
If you feel it was beneficial you could set up a regular practice schedule. Although the purpose is for your child to learn a self help technique, it can be calming if you lead them through it so they don’t have to do anything except follow what you say.

Important note – if you think there may be a more serious underlying problem you may want to consider talking with your doctor or a counsellor to learn other coping techniques.

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Grounding Meditation

This visualization meditation can help release tension and anxiety. It just requires the ability to focus and imagine.

There are lots of variations of grounding meditations and practices. I will cover other versions in future posts because “grounding” is so beneficial it’s worth further exploration; also different versions appeal to different people.

The Meditation

Sit on the floor if it is comfortable for you, otherwise sit upright in a comfortable chair with your feet flat on the ground and hands open loosely on your lap.
Close your eyes, and take several good long deep breaths
- As you breath in imagine you are breathing in calmness
- As you breath out imagine you are releasing stress
- Breath in calm
- Breath out stress and allow any tense muscles to relax
Now imagine there is a cord of your own energy that starts at about your tailbone that travels all the way down to the center of the earth. Imagine it having a downward flow. See if you can sense or feel this energy. Stay with this for a couple of minutes and don’t worry if you don’t actually sense the energy. You do not have to feel it in order to benefit from this exercise.
Now shift your attention to allowing frustration, anger and other emotions to flow from your body down this “grounding cord” (this is the part I enjoy). If you have been around people during the day who made you angry … you know who I mean, the ones who felt like they were invading your personal space, this is the time to let go of their negative energy. By releasing those negative emotions and letting them flow into the earth you are taking control of your own personal space. You don’t need to carry around emotions other people dumped on you! Don’t worry “mother earth” can handle it 😉
As you release this negative energy sense your emotions becoming more balanced.
Take a minute to enjoy the feeling of calm before opening your eyes. Paying attention to positive emotions helps to make them more real.

Allow at least 5 minutes for this meditation. If you are feeling very agitated and angry you may want to give this a few minutes longer to allow your body the time to adjust and relax.

What is the take away from this? A grounding meditation in essence helps you regain your own emotional balance.

Grounding and centering