What is Grounding How to do it & Why you absolutely should

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We’re getting back to basics here and talking about grounding yourself. I’m starting to realize that not everyone understands the concept or knows how to do it. I’ve shared this with my kids from time to time in bits and pieces. They’ve come to me stating that they wish other people knew this too. So I decided to write it all down to help the larger population.

And yes, the Village will be tagged and implored to read this. They will have a quiz…you will not

What is Grounding, how to do it and why you absolutely should

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So What do I mean by Grounding?

I’m not talking about the those times your folks grounded you and you couldn’t hang out with your friends….Think of grounding more like the way electricity does. Only your electricity is made from your emotions.

Energy in Motion

We need to think of emotion as Energy in Motion. Your emotions are just that, electrical impulses that trigger different body functions. Our thoughts give shape to those impulses and we label them; happy, sad angry, etc.

Each ‘emotion’ has a different feeling in the body. Sometimes, we don’t know why we feel what we feel. We wake up with a physical feeling that we’ve learned to correlate with sadness and we’re not sure why. This doesn’t necessarily mean we have a valid reason for being sad but we still feel it.

We get impatient and lash out in anger for no particular reason. Sometimes we know why but there’s nothing we can do about the situation that’s causing the feelings and we still have to get our shit done.

Releasing the extra

As a triple water I know all about emotions, I swim through my days. For the most part, my emotions ebb and flow and I don’t even notice anymore. Sometimes, on rougher seas, I harness that energy to get shit done. Think rage cleaning.

When its just too much, for too long and the feels are keeping me from getting other things done, I ground. Grounding helps release the extra emotions so we can get back to living our best life.

I personally believe that the whole reason we have physical bodies is to experience life through our emotions; to feel the experience in our body. Emotions give our life richness and depth but they can also get in the way.

Bonus! Grounding is aptly named as well!

Grounding is about giving the energy back to the earth to be recycled. Its like composting but with energy instead of organic material. You all know how much I love composting!

backyard compost pile — Compost pile prior to turning for visual effect .

There’s a natural magic in composting. You take your kitchen scraps, moldy fruits and rotten vegetables, bury in the ground and a few months later, Voila! Dirt!
Healthy, nutrient rich dirt to feed your garden! Mother Nature turned all that was useless and bad for us into something with a purpose.

Guess what! The Earth does the same for your extra, moldy, rotten emotions that you have no use for.
Understand the concept?

Great, let’s get on to the process. (no? It’s okay, keep reading, I explain more.)

Just like there’s lots of ways to compost, there are also lots of ways to ground.

Visualizing

Lets start with visualizing. I find it to be the most effective. And it can be done almost anywhere with no tools. (I don’t recommend doing this while operating heavy machinery so wait until you’re out of the drivers seat.)

So stop what your doing, take a deep breath and exhale slowly.
Feel inside your body. Where are the tensions, the aches, the pains, the butterflies, the energetic dark spots…..
Take another breath, recognize those place and relax them.
Now imagine your emotions as a dark river running through your body, traveling up and down your limbs swirling trough your torso, pooling in those ache-y places, becoming stagnant and green. Imagine this river starts to move and flow. You may feel tingling in your extremities as this river flows. You may not. Its okay either way. Do it anyway.

Let it drain down your legs and into the ground. Imagine your personal energy river draining all the muck and pond scum through the earth into a larger energy river.

Give it to the Earth.

Imagine your energy mixing in with Earths natural energy. See the Earth diluting and neutralizing your toxic energy and transforming it into healing energy. Let your murky emotional river continue to flow however long you need. You may feel a relief, you may feel lighter.

When you feel you have no more to give back to the Earth, Take a deep breath and move your feet to stop the flow. Now imagine a richer, lighter and fluffier energy coming up from the ground in through your feet and flowing through your body. Think of a cool clear spring of water.

Let it flow, washing over all those dark ache-y places. Imagine that it is refreshing you, giving you more energy and focus. When your done, take a deep breath, drink some real water and get on with your day.
This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to a half hour. It’s up to you. It usually takes a little longer in the beginning because its a new skill that has to be learned and you probably have a lot more pent up emotions than you think.

But the good thing is that you don’t have to wait until your an emotional mess to start. I actually found that if you make this part of a routine you bypass the breakdowns.

Other ways of grounding

Sometimes we get caught up in our heads. It’s our nature to define and find reasons for our emotions. We feel that pang of sadness and wonder why? Instead of assuming its just blocked energy in our heart space we find a disappointment in our lives and decide that’s why we’re sad. Or angry or afraid. Our mind starts reeling and gets out of control. All kind of imagined slights will fill us with more emotions and we become so worked up we lose focus on the important things.

In these cases a few quick tricks can bring us back down to the place where we can manage again.
Think of your 5 senses.
What can you see, taste, and hear. What can you smell and what can you feel?

Think of Earth and nature.

Sight: Can you see the sky, the clouds, a tree?
Taste: Can you taste an apple, coffee, chocolate? (Professor Lupin was right about this one; It really does help.)
Sound: Can you hear birds, squirrels, water running, trees rustling?
Smell: Can you smell your the fresh cut grass, ozone of a rain storm in the air, a rosemary plant?
Touch: Can you feel the air, the bark of a tree, bare feet on grass?

When all else fails, get dirty. Literally, get down and dig in the dirt with your bare hands. Garden keeps me grounded 6 months of the year.

Getting back to nature is the most effective to getting you back into your body but other things work.

Take a shower, go swimming or at the very least wash your hands. Water does wonders for grounding your energy. And speaking of water, drink some.
Turn on some music then turn it up really loud. It’s not just the music but the vibrations that shake up your stuck energy and gets it flowing again.
Move your body. Dance to that really loud music. Go for a run or whatever heart pumping, sweat inducing activity you enjoy most.

Bonus points if that activity results in an orgasm. Sex is incredibly grounding.

Maybe you think you don’t need this because your not emotional.

I hate to break it to you. You are.

We all are.

It’s part of being human. Just because you don’t cry at the drop of a hat doesn’t mean those emotions aren’t flowing through you. (Actually, crying is an awesome way to release the pent up emotions; I’m a big fan and I highly recommend it.)

Why you should Ground

What happens when you don’t keep that river flowing, grounding out the extra emotions? They get stuck. In your body. And you end up with random aches and pains. Back ache, stomach issues, head aches, joint pain…..Over time you end up with chronic disease.

There’s a reason men have a shorter lifespan than women.

You remember that old paradigm of men are stronger/ women are too emotional….Women cry, men don’t.

It has poisoned generations of men. Women release those pent up emotions and remove the blocks before they can cause disease that kill men. This has allowed women be stronger, healthier and live longer. Fortunately, shifts are happening and people are dropping that toxic masculine ideology.

These grounding exercises will work for everyone, no matter where you are, what you do, what faith, race, or nationality you hail from. It offers a way to stay physically healthy, mentally stable and offers a way to possibly bypass the crying fits and break downs. Practice it. Make it part of your routine. Once a day, once a week. Whatever works for you. Just do it.

Attention Witches and Witchlings!

Or curious bystanders considering the path of magic and wonder. You, my lovelies, absolutely must practice grounding. Write it into your daily planners and add it to you Hour of Power.

Grounding is absolutely necessary for a successful practice. It clears you to feel the energies that you may need to manipulate during rituals or spell work. Any extra un-grounded emotions may murk up your intentions and/or outcome.

Grounding is also needed prior to divination to clear our head so we can hear the information and instructions from our Spirit Guides, Deities, or ancestors…(Whomever may need your attention this week)

Your grounding practice is going to be even more important than that of the average muggle. You never know when you’re going to have to do some impromptu magic. The more grounded you are at any given moment, the more likely you’ll be able to cast confidently and successfully.