Open-Eyed Grounding | Become Rooted in the Earth

"Look at the earth crowded with growth, new and old bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind...

Each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth.

So artist, you too from the depths of your soul...let your roots creep forth, gaining strength."

~Emily Carr

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Grounding is the basic practice that begins every ritual, and the tool that helps us stay calm and present in any tense situation. Grounding means being relaxed but alert, energetically connected to the earth but able to move, present and aware, in a state in which we can take in information and make conscious choices about what to do.

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You can do this exercise anywhere. Ideally, you should be outside, standing on the earth, in some natural place. But you can also do it indoors or in the midst of a city:

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~Stand in a comfortable position, with your feet about shoulder-width apart, your knees lightly bent. Stretch and release any tension. Take some long, deep breaths into your belly. Feel your feet on the ground.

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~Tell yourself that just by breathing and feeling your feet on the ground, you can bring yourself into a calm and grounded state.

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~Imagine that, like a tree, you can extend roots into the earth, from your feet and the base of your spine. With your eyes open, notice if what you see changes as you extend your roots down.

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~If there is anything clouding your awareness or interfering with your ability to be present, take a deep breath and imagine letting it go down through your roots into the earth, to become compost.

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~Feel the living fire deep in the heart of the earth. Breathe some of that energy up through your roots, into the base of your spine and your belly, up your spine as if your spine were the flexible trunk of a tree. Feel it warm your heart and throat, and reach out through your arms and hands. Let it move up through the top of your head and out like the branches and leaves of a tree. Let those branches come all the way down to touch the earth, surrounding and protecting you. Again, notice what changes.

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~Feel the sunlight (or moonlight or starlight) on your leaves and branches, and breathe in. Feed yourself on the energy, just as a tree feeds on sun. Draw it down through your head, heart, hands, and belly, down through your feet into the earth. Look around you and notice what you see, hear, small, and feel in your grounded state."

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~Excerpted from The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature, by Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance

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“Sometimes I think there are only two instructions we need to follow to develop and deepen our spiritual life: slow down and let go.”  

~Oriah Mountain Dreamer,  The Dance: Moving To the Rhythms of Your True Self