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Feeling Scattered? Create Calm and Gain More Control By Grounding
Grounding can help you when you’re feeling scattered, all over the place, adrenalized, out of control….and very often that goes with being very much in your head as well. Thoughts, plans, worries, concerns, memories, wonderings, all whizzing around at a million miles an hour.
When our mind is like this, no wonder we are feeling scattered, making it hard to focus on what we need to do. Feeling scattered can easily tip over into feeling overly agitated and poor sleep.
Grounding can bring a pleasant sense of energy and help us feel empowered.
What is grounding?
Grounding is the practice of connecting your body and mind to the present moment, often through sensory awareness or physical contact with the earth. It helps create a sense of stability, calm and balance, especially during times of stress or overwhelm.
How can we practice grounding?
There’s a reason we call it grounding – the practice involves very literally feeling the ground beneath us. Luckily for us, the ground is literally always, ALWAYS there for us.
To ground yourself, just feel your feet in contact with the ground (see?) and feel how the ground is holding and supporting you.
You can do this when you’re walking along at any speed, even running, or standing in a line, sitting in a chair, or lying down. It doesn’t have to be the actual ground—the floor, a chair, sofa or bed will have the same effect.
It’s about bringing the feeling of being supported into conscious awareness, which we often lose when we’re up in our heads and busy planning and doing.
Once you’ve ‘found’ the ground with your awareness, you can also consciously and deliberately ‘give yourself to the ground’, relaxing your body into that feeling of being held. How does that feel?
It really is that simple. Yet despite its simplicity, I find a grounding practice profoundly helpful, particularly in times of feeling scattered. I practice grounding when I’m stressed or experiencing turbulence, either in my personal life or thinking about world events.
What about my wandering mind when I’m feeling scattered?
If we waited until there was no wandering mind, we would never practice meditation! The truth of it is that everyone’s mind wanders, and another important truth is that it doesn’t matter - the benefits still come.
In fact, the very action of bringing your attention back to the ground is helpful – you’re lessening the grip that thoughts have on your attention, and believing them less.
Grounding puts you in the driving seat, not your thoughts!
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What if I find grounding difficult?
You’re not alone! Often the simplest practices can seem harder than seems reasonable; simple isn’t the same thing as easy. Just keep coming back to the ground beneath you and it will get easier and more automatic.
When you can most benefit from grounding is when your mind is least likely to want to do it. Just knowing that can help – then being gentle with your mind, bringing it back again and again to the ground beneath you, even just for a few moments.
Can I practice grounding anywhere?
You totally can! There are no limits at all to where you practice grounding. You can do this as a brief check-in absolutely anywhere, standing somewhere, walking somewhere, inside or outside, sitting anywhere…..the ground is always, ALWAYS supporting us, directly or indirectly.
Recommended Tracks for Grounding
Letting Go of Worries by Grounding Yourself
Conclusion - Get Started Grounding!
Grounding is a beautifully simple, yet profoundly helpful practice that can be available to you anytime, anywhere with no one knowing you’re even doing it – to anyone else, you’re just walking, standing or sitting down. Grounding is particularly helpful if you’re feeling scattered, overly buzzy or overwhelmed.
You’ll find many grounding practices on Aura, and the main thing is to keep practicing. Like most good things in life, grounding is not an instant fix—but by keeping at it, you’ll develop this as a fantastic resource to support your mental wellbeing.
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