6 Beginner-Friendly Grounding Techniques
Getting grounded means being present in your body and feeling connected with what you’re experiencing in that moment. When you’re grounded, you’re able to steady and rebalance yourself because you are aware and responsive to your own needs. This minimizes reactivity to what’s happening around you and softens the sharp edges of daily life. It also disrupts and calms anxious thoughts, creating more clarity and ease.
We generally don’t experience this clarity and steady ease as frequently as we’d like. For most adults, if it isn’t intentionally pursued, it’s only experienced in fleeting moments when you’ve let your guard down. Children have a natural inclination to ground themselves through play, touch, exploration, and seeking comfort but this is constantly being disrupted by imposed systems and schedules.
When I introduce grounding to my clients, I describe two main ideas:
Grounding for Connection to yourself
Grounding for Connection to the earth/nature
Both grounding to self and to earth have a calming effect that improves connection to our instincts; helps to release tension; clears our mind and leaves us feeling refreshed, recharged and open.
How does this work? Think of a household electrical outlet. In each outlet, there is a grounding wire that acts as a backup pathway for excess electricity to safely and effectively discharge into the ground where it won’t cause fire, shock or injury. Similarly, grounding in our bodies and to the earth offers accessible touchpoints that help us dissipate reactivity and anxiousness.
Grounding is a foundational part of my coaching practice because it is so effective in stabilizing us through change. It helps us clear the space to consider what life can look and feel like by our own definition. Even in tiny increments, building a grounding practice helps us challenge the prescribed ideas around ‘what to be and how to be it’ because It moves us towards more frequent and less fleeting moments of ‘ease’.
Ease can look and feel different depending on each individual's unique preferences and circumstances from one moment to the next.
It can look like:
moving slower
taking action
presence
confidence
relief
engaging in the present moment
disengaging from spiraling thoughts
less tension in the body
less tension in interactions
can feel like an escape
can feel like home
Grounding is equally great for people who tend to live with their heads in the clouds and for people who get fixated on the grind of achieving an outcome. Since it’s so closely connected to nature, grounding is adaptable and responsive to what we need through the ebbs and flows of daily living. It ‘syncs’ us with something way more expansive than our calendars by neutralizing what is in excess.
As Earth Month, April, comes to a close and spring continues to arrive at its own pace, let it be an opportunity to get a little closer to sweet Mother Earth to practice some grounding techniques at your own pace.
A few beginner-friendly ways to ground to your body & to the earth:
Sight: Go outside or look out a window. Look for a bird, squirrel or even a bug and watch them go about their day for a minute or two.
Sound: Take a slow deep breath in through your nose, hold for 4 seconds, exhale slowly from your mouth.
*Tip: Try making a sound that matches the way you’re feeling as you exhale. For example, a low growl or a wistful sigh could relieve the frustration of spilling something in a hurry. Use sounds rather than words.
Touch: Place your open palm over your heart and press gently to feel the feedback of your heartbeat.
*Tip: close your eyes to help you zone into your palm/heart.
Smell: Take your socks off and walk on grass or dirt. Smell the freshness of the grass and the minerals in the soil.
* Tip: Check for pesticides, broken glass/sharp objects, and poop before you step and sniff!
Taste: Eat something yummy. Take small but satisfying bites and spend time enjoying the flavours.
Sense: Hold a small rock
*Notice: Can you transfer any energy or emotion over to the rock? Let it hold some excitement or frustration for you :)
I have a lot more to share on this topic and I love to answer any of your questions about getting grounded. Most techniques are adaptable for different needs, please feel free to reach out if you have a specific question about this.
Start small & stay curious!