Although grounding is an inside job, it can be done from the outside in.That's actually how I grounded for year with realizing it. I was born with a rare knee disorder that resulted in dealing with chronic pain from adolescence into my late forties. Distancing myself from my body and what hurt is one of the ways I learned to deal with the pain.
When I learned to ground, using the visualize your body as a tree with roots exercise, I focused on a specific body part. I could easily create a conscious connection to my hands. I use them to write, draw, hold books and make a touch connection to other people. So for the connect to your body part of the exercise, I used my hands. It basically worked.
The part I struggled with for years was how rigid and fixed I felt at times when I was grounded. Traditional grounding was an impediment when I did shamanic journey work. I had to find a different way to maintain a connection to my physical body when I journeyed. My grounding was also too much of an anchor when I wanted to spend some serious time in a creative pursuit.
In 2012, when I was forty-eight, I my second knee replacement. Having two knees that worked and didn't hurt for the first time in my life changed many things, including my understanding of grounding. Without the need to keep my attention away from the pain in my knees my connection to my body was suddenly different.
I felt and experienced my physicality in a new way. My relationship with my body was much more present and less tenuous. It wasn't an awareness I had to reach for or consciously create. It just was. As I got used to how present my body was, I realized that the physicality of my body gave it an innate connection to the Earth. My body simply was connected without my having to do anything.
I also realized the way I'd been grounding was working from the outside in. I'd put more effort into creating a strong, hard-line connection with the Earth because my connection with my body was tenuous. The inflexible nature of that grounding created a conflict between being grounded and being creative. My gut told me this conflict could be eliminated. I began experimenting with different ways to ground.
As I played around with different possibilities, my understanding of what grounding is shifted. For years I looked at grounding as an anchor, something that planted me in the ground the way a tree is planted or a metal sign post is planted in a cement foundation. That did work to keep me grounded. But both trees and signposts have a limited range of movement because they're firmly planted. A tree can sway with the wind but it can't take a walk.
When I grounded using the tree root exercise I restricted my own range of motion in the same way a tree's ability to move is limited. What if grounding wasn't one fixed thing, but something that existson a continuum? There's always more than one way to do something.
What if grounding could be a bridge rather than an anchor? When I grounded I was really looking for a way to span my internal and the external world in a way that allowed me to present in both and move between the two.
After my second knee replacement I began exercising regularly for the first time. Without the constant pain, it was fun to find out what my body could do. Mindful exercise deepened my connection with my body. I discovered I could ground into my body without consciously creating a connection between my body and the Earth because that connection already existed. That worked. It felt less rigid, but didn't give me quite enough access to my inner world. When I did something that required more internal presence I still found myself working around or letting go of my grounding.
Earth doesn't consist only of dirt. It includes oceans, rivers, sky and stone. Earth is also an element. So I began looking at the other three elements (air, water, fire) and my relationship to those. I have a stronger relationship to fire and water than I do to either air or earth. I began experimenting with grounding into my body and then to water, specifically to the Gulf of Mexico where I've spent time since I was a kid.
That gave me much more flexibility. Water is probably the most elastic element. It can shape shift from liquid to solid to gas. Water pretty much goes where it pleases. When I do shamanic journey work, both for myself and for clients, I often run into bodies of water. This led me to wonder if the same innate that existed between my body and the Earth was also present between the water I encountered during journey work and water on the physical plane.
If so, could I ground to my body and then into the water in my internal landscape? YES!!! That for me is what works best. It's grounding as a bridge that allows me to move easily between the external and the internal. When I ground that way I don't have to let go of my grounding to do journeywork. I can simply loosen my connection to my body a little.
All of us are strongest when we do things in way that really works for us rather than following a generic blueprint. The way I ground may not work for anyone else. Using a basic grounding technique is good way to learn to ground. It lets you experience what being grounded feels like. It also serves as a foundation for you to begin playing and exploring to find out what your way looks like.
When I learned to ground, using the visualize your body as a tree with roots exercise, I focused on a specific body part. I could easily create a conscious connection to my hands. I use them to write, draw, hold books and make a touch connection to other people. So for the connect to your body part of the exercise, I used my hands. It basically worked.
The part I struggled with for years was how rigid and fixed I felt at times when I was grounded. Traditional grounding was an impediment when I did shamanic journey work. I had to find a different way to maintain a connection to my physical body when I journeyed. My grounding was also too much of an anchor when I wanted to spend some serious time in a creative pursuit.
In 2012, when I was forty-eight, I my second knee replacement. Having two knees that worked and didn't hurt for the first time in my life changed many things, including my understanding of grounding. Without the need to keep my attention away from the pain in my knees my connection to my body was suddenly different.
I felt and experienced my physicality in a new way. My relationship with my body was much more present and less tenuous. It wasn't an awareness I had to reach for or consciously create. It just was. As I got used to how present my body was, I realized that the physicality of my body gave it an innate connection to the Earth. My body simply was connected without my having to do anything.
I also realized the way I'd been grounding was working from the outside in. I'd put more effort into creating a strong, hard-line connection with the Earth because my connection with my body was tenuous. The inflexible nature of that grounding created a conflict between being grounded and being creative. My gut told me this conflict could be eliminated. I began experimenting with different ways to ground.
As I played around with different possibilities, my understanding of what grounding is shifted. For years I looked at grounding as an anchor, something that planted me in the ground the way a tree is planted or a metal sign post is planted in a cement foundation. That did work to keep me grounded. But both trees and signposts have a limited range of movement because they're firmly planted. A tree can sway with the wind but it can't take a walk.
When I grounded using the tree root exercise I restricted my own range of motion in the same way a tree's ability to move is limited. What if grounding wasn't one fixed thing, but something that existson a continuum? There's always more than one way to do something.
What if grounding could be a bridge rather than an anchor? When I grounded I was really looking for a way to span my internal and the external world in a way that allowed me to present in both and move between the two.
After my second knee replacement I began exercising regularly for the first time. Without the constant pain, it was fun to find out what my body could do. Mindful exercise deepened my connection with my body. I discovered I could ground into my body without consciously creating a connection between my body and the Earth because that connection already existed. That worked. It felt less rigid, but didn't give me quite enough access to my inner world. When I did something that required more internal presence I still found myself working around or letting go of my grounding.
Earth doesn't consist only of dirt. It includes oceans, rivers, sky and stone. Earth is also an element. So I began looking at the other three elements (air, water, fire) and my relationship to those. I have a stronger relationship to fire and water than I do to either air or earth. I began experimenting with grounding into my body and then to water, specifically to the Gulf of Mexico where I've spent time since I was a kid.
That gave me much more flexibility. Water is probably the most elastic element. It can shape shift from liquid to solid to gas. Water pretty much goes where it pleases. When I do shamanic journey work, both for myself and for clients, I often run into bodies of water. This led me to wonder if the same innate that existed between my body and the Earth was also present between the water I encountered during journey work and water on the physical plane.
If so, could I ground to my body and then into the water in my internal landscape? YES!!! That for me is what works best. It's grounding as a bridge that allows me to move easily between the external and the internal. When I ground that way I don't have to let go of my grounding to do journeywork. I can simply loosen my connection to my body a little.
All of us are strongest when we do things in way that really works for us rather than following a generic blueprint. The way I ground may not work for anyone else. Using a basic grounding technique is good way to learn to ground. It lets you experience what being grounded feels like. It also serves as a foundation for you to begin playing and exploring to find out what your way looks like.
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