Grounding and centering

Grounding to support yourself is valuable when difficulties with other people or unexpected setbacks leave your life in turmoil. When the turmoil happens, we may experience doubt, fear, anger, and other adverse emotions.

But you have a choice. Just as you might apply first aid when you’re physically injured, you can use meditation to regain your balance in challenging situations.

When to Use This Technique

Grounding to support yourself can bring strength, (or whatever emotion you want more of) into your awareness. Doing so helps you find and keep your balance. In this case visualize a troublesome situation and imagine having roots to bring up the strength you need to support yourself. This can help you release unwanted emotions and energy.

Why it Works

By focusing on the strength that grounds you, attention is diverted from troublesome thoughts and emotions. When you become grounded, you can view the situation more objectively and release those unwanted thoughts and emotions.

The Technique

• Make yourself comfortable and allow yourself to become relaxed.
• Close your eyes and observe the flow of your breath. Paying attention to the sensations of breathing helps calm your mind and relax. Here is an example of a breathing exercise you can do.
• Visualize the situation that is making you uncomfortable. Make it as real as possible. Recreate any sights, sounds, smells, and feelings associated with the situation.
• As you relive the experience, breathe deeply to help reduce any feelings that may be making you uncomfortable.
• Now visualize that you are a tree, a tree that is strong yet flexible, a tree firmly rooted in the ground, a tree that can withstand any storm.
• Feel yourself anchored to the ground. If this is difficult to begin with, imagine what it would feel like to be connected to the ground.
• Allow yourself to experience the sensations of your body linked with the earth. Focus on any sensations that may come from that energy.

If you don’t feel any sensations, don’t be concerned. Stay with the visualization of being a tree and continue to breathe.

• Allow yourself to experience the energy that flows back and forth between you and the earth.
• Allow any negative thoughts or emotions to appear and disappear as you focus on staying with the energy that binds you to the earth.

Imagine that nothing can uproot you as long as you focus on the energy that flows through you. Notice any sensations of that energy. These sensations can be subtle and fleeting. That’s okay, continue to imagine you can feel the energy.

• Now visualize yourself dealing with the difficult situation in an objective, nonjudgmental, and calm manner.
• When visualizing this, don’t assume your interpretation of the situation is right. Allowing yourself to give up the sense of right and wrong can help you address the situation in a way that benefits everyone involved.
• As you continue to visualize your difficult situation, continue your awareness of the energy and sensations flowing from the earth. If this is difficult, alternate your awareness between the difficult situation and the sensations coming from the earth’s energy.
• Allow yourself to feel compassion for everyone involved in the situation (including yourself). Compassion acknowledges that difficult situations are often created from fear. It has a calmer energy that can help release the turbulent feelings that your situation may bring up.

What We Learned Today

You can handle difficult situations by grounding to support yourself. This can bring up the strength you think you’ve lost.

Meditation helps us reach a relaxed state where we can envision ourselves having the strength of a tree connected to the earth. Using this strength, we can view a situation as an observer, and release negatively charged emotions.

FOLLOW UP

A Question that Sometimes Comes Up Is

When I replayed my difficult situation I found myself getting anxious. What can I do to change this?

One way to work with a strong emotion is to observe it. For example, in your case, simply observe the anxious feeling. Don’t try to control it or change it. Just observe it.

At first the emotion may increase as you observe it. If that happens, continue to observe the emotion. You’ll find that the emotion will eventually diminish. After the emotion diminishes, you can resume the meditation.

If the emotion is very raw and strong it may be beneficial to bring your attention solely to the sensation of feeling grounded. You can always try again later when the emotions have diminished a bit.

Experiencing an emotion doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. In fact, you’re creating an opportunity for success. By overcoming an emotion through observing it, you’re achieving the purpose of the meditation.

To your health,
Connie

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