Grounding

Grounding, like energy, is another word you see thrown around that has quite different connotations varying from person to person and tradition to tradition. The common denominator between all of these ideas is that there exists of state of ”being grounded”, which is some kind of a relatively calm, collected, focused state of being present in the here and now in the physical world. There’s also an idea that there exists an ”ungrounded” state, and it’s here that the interpretations start to diverge.

For those who adhere to very literal understandings of the energy that is getting grounded, this an energetic process, and being ”ungrounded” is a kind of an energetic condition. Some see being grounded as a state where you a present in the material reality, and being ”ungrounded” is a state where you start to slip into other layers of reality. For some, this is simply a down-to-earth, focused on immediate material reality kind of attidute. Others see it as a kind of emotional state that is focused and not overly excited or prone to being swayed.

As for what being ”ungrounded” is like, it can manifest as feeling like you’re not ”fully here”, but also things like feeling lightheaded, dizziness, agitation, nervousness and strange physical sensations that happen during or after spiritual practice. You can also feel a kind of linger energy or tension in you. Ultimately being grounded and ungrounded are a spectrum, and we can dip in and out of these states in everyday life very easily. Most of just don’t pay much attention.

For many esoteric practices, becoming kind of ”ungrounded” in a controlled manner is part of the practice, as contact with subtle aspects of reality or other realms is sought. For such you of course have to shift your focus from the everyday material reality. The practitioner however should be able to bring themselves back to an everyday state of being. Different traditions have their own methods and ways to conceptualize these things.

Nothing given here practice-wise should make you particularly ungrounded. Such is however possible either as a result of overdone practice, or if you find yourself unexpectedly talented and experience and kind of surge of energy or activity.

There’s a number of common suggestions for grounding that get passed around. These include:
1) Very intently focusing on the bottom of your feet, and trying to feel the pull of gravity.
2) A bit more advanced variant features taking the ”neutral qigong pose” and shifting your balance carefully untill you feel very ”locked in” and then focusing on feeling the pull of gravity. It’s hard to explain, but there should be a point at which your feet start to feel very heavy and solid. This state actually correlates with a really good and supporting posture.
3) Eating is very commonly recommended.
4) Some find consuming very moderate amount of alcohol helpful – it’s probably not good if this becomes the go-to tool.
5) Physical activity in general. Many people want to go out for a walk kind of intuitively when they feel off-balance.
6) Sex or masturbation, though these can be done in ungrounding ways too.
7) Calming meditation – meditation can be ungrounding, but some find it helpful. You can do meditation that tries to focus on feeling the pull of Earth and a kind of process of letting what is heavy in you settle downwards.
8) A variant of the Tree Exercise where you especially hard focus on pushing out stale or bothersome energies out of you and take in grounding Earth energy instead. You of course need the ability to drive energy with visualization to make this work.

Not pushing too things too far too fast helps you keep grounded. As you do practice, you might recognize that you are by default way less grounded than you’d imagine, and that you are going through a kind of latent state of ungroundedness. Something about the current digital age kind of rewards very unconnected, dysregulated state of being in people. On the other hand, taking up body practices like Tai Chi and such seems to over time build a kind of more ”grounded” orientation to things in general.

I find it useful to keep that ”down-to-earth, focused on immediate material reality” interpretation of being grounded also in mind. There are times and places when we must let go, but our current society has very little social positions for people who live their lives in permanently ungrounded states.