Sometimes we experience life in such a way that we might feel outside of the body or we feel that too much energy is present in our bodies. When and if this is the case, bringing attention and feeling into the physical body and/or bringing attention to what’s happening in the present moment can be helpful and is considered to be grounding.
Anxiety and nervousness often ‘live’, or are felt, in the upper half of the body. If these feelings become overwhelming it can be useful to ‘bring the energy down’.
Bringing the energy down can be experienced by slowing your movements down and also in the very literal sense of feeling the lower body – most especially the places where your body makes contact with the surface beneath it. Quite often this will be your feet. Your feet are a great resource for grounding, partially because they’re often in contact with floor/earth/shoes and also because they have a large number of sensory receptors. This means there is a relatively high probability that you can access physical sensation in your feet. If not today, then likely this will be possible given some time.
It is often, but not always the case, that with practice, grounding may lead to feelings of greater ease and stability.
Here are some ways that you can explore and experiment with grounding:
· Press the balls of the feet into the surface of your shoes or the floor while lifting the toes up.
· Hold a foot in your hand(s) while seated in chair or on the floor.
· Bring your attention to and feel the surface your body is making contact with (floor, wall, chair, etc.)
· Rub a grounding essential oil into the soles of your feet.
· Breathe in a grounding essential oil (earthy/dense tones.)
· Look around you and name what you see: size, shape, color.
· Hold a rock or bean bag or token, or really any object with weight and texture in your hand or hands and either just hold it, or press fingers into it or run your fingers across the surface…whatever you want. There’s no wrong way to do this! :) You might even name what your fingers are feeling – cool, warm, rough, smooth, bump, etc.
· Get out in nature.
· Touch the earth – take your shoes off and walk barefoot through grass or dirt. Do some gardening or just dig in the earth, as you do this, notice the felt sense of the soil and the color and smell of the earth.
· Hug a tree! Seriously. Plugging into a tree “friend” can align you with a slower, heavier more chill flow and vibration.
