Grounding Rituals for a Balanced Life

This blog is a summary of what grounding is and how you can use it in very simple ways to anchor your consciousness into your body and have a direct connection to Spirit.

Our physical bodies matter.  We know this because our souls would not have chosen to inhabit them if they were not for a reason.  Therefore, we must first recognize their importance and value their needs.  Once we do this, it will become natural to act in ways that care for our physical vessels through which our unique spirit expresses.

The importance of taking care of our bodies

When we are not taking care of our physical health, how can we expect our spiritual faculties to be operating at their best?  When we neglect the care of our bodies, it takes a toll on our emotional well-being.  We all know this, but sometimes it’s helpful to have a reminder. 

When you commit to a new practice, you also need to make space for it in your schedule.  You need to be willing to let go of something you’ve been doing so the new habit can take its place.  This may sound obvious, but many of us overlook this step.  Instead, we try to squeeze the new practice into our already packed routines – by waking up earlier or staying up later.

Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t work because it isn’t sustainable.  Eventually, we get tired and burned out.  So, the first step to ensure you keep a daily grounding ritual alive is to ask yourself which activities you can remove in its place.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to get clear on your priorities and determine if your energy is going toward self-supporting practices or self-defeating ones:

-Who and what commands my attention each day? 

-Am I making conscious choices about where my energy is going, or am I operating on autopilot, “reacting,” and repeating behaviors that are connected to my past… and who I was then?  

-Is there something I need to surrender and grieve before I can move forward?

-How can I change my current habits to make room for more self-supporting ones?

After you’ve answered these questions, here are some simple ways to ground your body right here and now: 

-Hold gemstones and focus on how they feel in your hand

-Take a salt bath

-Do the dishes or clean something – methodical chores can quiet the mind

-Reconnect to your body through Pilates or Yoga

-Make a home-cooked meal

-Practice EFT tapping to remove tension and emotional blocks

-Go outside and touch the Earth 

-Walk in nature, hug a tree

-When you’ve been working too many hours, take a five-minute reset… I like to stop, stretch my neck, roll my shoulders, and do a five-minute breathing exercise to reconnect to my center. 

Remember: the whole point of grounding is to anchor your consciousness into your body, into this present moment, so you can be an open channel for Divine inspiration.

What is Grounding?

To me, grounding is an essential prerequisite for an effective spiritual practice.  By “effective,” I mean that you are clear enough to receive accurate information through your intuition or your higher self.

When you ground with intention, you connect to the present moment, and this always calls your attention back from wherever it’s gone.    

How you begin is by setting an intention to connect with Mother Earth because this is the planet we live on and ground to.  You can use your physical body to touch the ground or hold a crystal in your hand.

Once you feel connected to the here and now, you can start a visualization of your choice.  But before visualizing anything, I recommend placing your hand over your heart and taking three deep breaths.  This anchors your attention into your body and places the focus on your heart chakra.

Grounding is not meditation; it's what prepares us for meditation. It is the present state of being we enter before meditation. It's what quiets our minds and detaches us from our previous distractions. Grounding can take as little as one minute or as long as you need to feel present and calm.

Some people may need to visualize themselves grounding to the center of the Earth, while others can simply feel this connection through their intention alone. We are all different, and in certain life circumstances, we may need to go deeper into a grounding visualization before feeling centered. Trust what you need to do and do it.

Grounding is simply an intention to connect to the present moment and feel rooted in your body

Why Ground?

When we ground, we come back to ourselves; we connect to our spirit and our own inner wisdom.  This allows us to access our own thoughts, our own emotions, and our own feelings – versus being inundated with everyone else’s.  Grounding is the fastest way to receive intuitive guidance.  This is because, when you are immersed in your own energy and feeling your body fully, you can be an effective conduit for Divine inspiration.  You also don’t doubt the information coming through, and you have a strong inner knowing about what is right for you.

Here is a list of benefits that come from grounding regularly:

-Grounding connects you back to your physical body and helps you understand how it feels

-Grounding brings you back into the present when your thoughts have drifted away

-Grounding calms your nervous system when you feel anxious

-Grounding deepens your breath because you are more conscious of it

-Grounding slows your heart rate because it calms you down

-Grounding allows you to connect most clearly to your own intuition

-Grounding puts your physical body in its greatest state of mental receptivity

Summary on Grounding

When we develop the habit of grounding ourselves regularly, we hear our intuitions more clearly and frequently.  We invite in the communication we’ve longed for through our conscious intention and disciplined action.  When you ground yourself for just five minutes each day, you create more space for insights and opportunities to come your way.   

Happy grounding!