In our daily lives, outside of the wonderful grounding and meditative tools that are available (and do work), there are practical things you can do to get grounded. As a trained bodyworker, Reiki Master and hypnotherapist, I learned some easy, quick tools to help when life has you spinning or stressed. Here are two:
1. The Waterfall. For those times you have experienced being in the company of an energy vampire, you know those people who just suck your energy, or when you get frazzled by traffic, an overwhelming schedule or other stress generators this is a simple, effective tool. Find a quiet place and get comfortable. Breathe in and out slowly three times. Then visualize yourself stepping under a warm, gentle tropical waterfall. Feel the water washing gently down from head to toe, noticing any areas of tension and releasing it into the water. End with another three grounding breaths. This can take as little as one minute to do but I usually end up sitting in that space for four to five minutes.
2. The Bring on Sleep Meditation. For those nights when the whirl of thoughts interferes with your ability to sleep, here is a good one. Again, always starting with some slow, deep breaths. Then for any thoughts that come up you need to release, imagine a clear bag off to your right. Simply place those thoughts in the bag and when no more come up, tie it and release it into the sky to be transformed into positive energy. If things come up you know you need to do later, allow yourself to trust that you will remember them or imagine a piece of paper and write them on your checklist in your mind. Then start at your toes and focus on breathing into them, relaxing them all the way. Move up to the ankles, then lower legs, upper legs…continue all the way up the body, stopping at each area to check in for tension or holding then breathing in and releasing it. Usually by the time I get to my upper legs, I’ve fallen asleep.
Once you are centered you can take a quick inventory of your life and notice if there are any areas you have your head in the sand…in other words, things that aren’t working but that you are avoiding. Finances can be a big one. You will be more grounded when you know where you are with meeting your daily financial needs and what your longer term plans are. When you have a picture of your current status, you can begin to make changes and plans to get a handle on anything that isn’t working. The same goes for relationships.
Getting grounded and being honest with yourself are key steps to creating a life with a strong foundation. From there you can build the castles of your dreams and design an action plan for making them come true.
