Grounding and Centering
Two common phrases used by people who follow Earth Spirituality paths are Grounding and Centering, but I find that many people are struggling to understand what these terms mean. I tend to use the two concepts together because they are easily accomplished at the same time. They both concern how you control your personal energy in and around your body and how you connect to our world. They are however, two separate concepts.
Why do we need to be Centered?
When you Center yourself, you are aligning yourself to Source and the Earth. The idea is to focus your energy, to pull that energy into alignment down through the center of your body, and typically to focus a gathering of energy in one area of the body with intention.
In moving meditation, such as Tai Chi, you pull your energy down into the don tian, the Sacral Chakra, located below your navel. This is the lowest of the energy centers (for this practice) and is meant as a temporary storage space for your energy. During practice, you move from this center. You keep your balance low.
For most methods of healing, meditation, and even some magical workings, your center is your Heart Chakra. The energy is constantly moving and flowing. You gather that energy in your heart center, visualize that energy building, and perhaps allow it to come out through your hands towards the person that you are doing healing work with. Maybe you visualize it moving outward to create your protective shields around yourself. You can even gather it there and use it to create sacred space, such as a circle in which to meditate. These things grow with practice.
How do you Ground?
Many people believe that the concept above is grounding. It can feel grounding to be centered, because you must connect to both the Earth and to Source. You typically feel that anchor, but the action of grounding is the actual dropping of that anchor.
Grounding is like growing roots into the ground. When you have excess energy that you would like to release, you can place your hands on the ground and let it seep out. You can walk barefoot (Earthing) to get connected to the Earth. These actions are grounding. Being Grounded is vital to being able to become Centered.
How do you Center?
First you drop your roots… you let them sink deep into the Earth. Then you reach your branches (energetically) up to the Center of the Universe to Source / Universal Life Force Energy / God(dess). There are 100’s of ways to visualize these practices. One of the most common is to visualize that you are a tree. We are all typically aligned this way all the time. When we are ill, anxious, depressed, or filled with “dis-ease” we may have come out of our center and our energy is askew. Sometimes we feel disconnected and we need to plug back in.
This act of reconnecting and center helps us to align to our true path and to feel who we are. It helps to get our energy body and energy flow back into a place of ease and health. This is why meditation, grounding, and centering are so important. It pulls you back to being in touch with your energetic body that many totally ignore today. Remember that Balance is Key!
Learn More by watching my Grounding and Centering Techniques Video
I will discuss more on our energy body, energy centers (chakras), and protection in future articles.
I hope that this article was useful to you. Do you have a favorite way to ground or center? Feel free to share it below. There are so many different ways to visualize them. It is always helpful to practice different ways, until you find the one that works the best for you.