stay roo-ted

*image adapted from Google*

We become more aware of people advising us to ground ourselves, but we may not possibly be sure what it means and how we may do it. Grounding ourselves is a way of getting ourselves literally back to earth. Some of us are a little more prone than others to essentially leaving our bodies and not being strongly rooted in our bodies. There is nothing terribly wrong with this, but while we are living on the earth’s plane, it is best to stay grounded in the body.

Bringing our concentration to our breath as it comes and exits our bodies has got to be one of the simplest ways to ground ourselves. Subsequent to several breaths, we will most likely find that we feel much more attached to our physical selves. We may then transmit our mindfulness to the sensations in our bodies, moving from our head down to our feet, discovering and questioning. A mere one to two minutes of this can bring us home to bodies and to the earth, and this is what it means to ground ourselves.

We can go further by visualizing that we have roots budding out from the bottom of our feet, linking us to the world. The roots flow alongside with us, so we can constantly move along, but at the same time they keep us beached. We obtain great energy from the earth just as we do from the forms of energy we correlate with the sky, and our body brings these two energies together in a sacred amalgamation. While we are grounded, we basically become a mighty container wherein our state of mind can dwell fruitfully and safely. That is the reason why grounding ourselves every day, especially at the beginning of the day, is such a beautiful practice. Fortunately, it is as simple as bringing our conscious awareness to our bodies and the earth on which we walk.