Grounding Exercises

**Grounding and Centering Exercises**
	Grounding Exercise #1 This is a grounding that I did once spontaneously and it worked amazingly well for me. It is Far Eastern in flavor, but try it and see. Take a moment after each session to journal. First, if ya don't get it the first or second or third time, don't hassle yourself. Just keep trying and be gentle with yourself. Two, get a notebook because you are going to be taking notes. Three, do this every day for 5 minutes. Four, repeat the first step until you have it in your head firmly. It will be our first and foremost rule. K? K! Sit or lie down. Be comfortable. Put on some white noise if you need too. Or soft music may help. Let's get the basics down first. If anyone wants to make tapes, that is fine. _________BEGIN_____________ This is about grounding. This is about finding your center. Your center is that place that is there when you need inner strength. It is that place you reach for when your world is falling apart. It is always there. You don't lose your center. See yourself in the center of a lotus blossom. The lotus is lovely and open.... pretty pink-purple (color choice is yours) petals laying about you. Now see the petals begin to rise. One by one they form about you. You are in the center with light streaming in from the cracks as the petals draw tighter. See the petals absorb into you as you become the lotus bud itself. Feel the heaviness in your stomach as you sink into the blossom. Be at peace. Feel the quiet you have created for yourself. This is your center and you can find it any time. Try to stay here for a few heartbeats. Don't worry about random thoughts. Acknowledge them and put them aside for now. You can come back to them later. Let the solidness become familiar to you. When you are ready, let the blossom that is you unfold slowly. Petal by petal let them drop softly to the ground until you are once again sitting in the center of the lotus blossom. _________END_____________ Grounding exercise #2 This is one I learned from Starhawk's _Spiral Dance_ It is a very often-done meditation and you may have seen versions of this one in many places and from many people. This is my version. Get comfortable. For this one, I find that sitting works best. I like to sit in a chair or sit with my back against something. _________BEGIN_____________ Take a deep breath and hold it. It is this space between breathing that I believe the Buddhist refer to as the "awareness". I need to research that though. Release the breath slowly. Take a deep breath and hold it. (counting 1-2-3-4-5 slowly) and release the breath slowly. Take a deep breath and hold it. (counting 1-2-3-4-5 slowly) and release the breath slowly. Take a deep breath and hold it. (counting 1-2-3-4-5 slowly) and release the breath slowly. Take a deep breath and hold it. (counting 1-2-3-4-5 slowly) and release the breath slowly. Now, see in your mind's eye a tree. Don't worry if the tree isn't crystal clear. Just remember a tree you once knew. Sit down with your back against that tree. Feel the trunk against your back and know that this is a safe spot for you. Now, your spine is the conductor of your chakras. The base chakra is the root chakra. This is literally where your spine ends. I want you to extend that base chakra down. This is your taproot. Press it down into the earth until you can feel that pulling at your center. Relax and just feel how this affects your body for a moment. Now, slowly begin drawing energy up from the earth. Let it fill the root chakra. (pause). Now it moves to the belly chakra. Feel the energy slowly spreading. (pause) Next it moves to your solar plexus chakra. (pause) And now your heart chakra. Note what the energy feels like to you. Is it cool? cold? warm? hot? prickly? itchy? (pause) Now the energy moves up to your throat chakra. (pause) And to the third eye chakra (pause) As it reaches your crown chakra, feel the energy spill up and out like a waterfall. (pause) Let this waterfall flow down to the earth and soak back into the ground. This is the energy pool that is always available to you. Take a few moments to feel the cycle of the waterfall. (pause for at least two minutes here) Now, let the waterfall gradually ebb back into your crown chakra. It slides down to your third eye. Past your throat chakra and to the heart chakra. Now the solar plexus down to the belly chakra. As it moves back to the root chakra, begin to draw your tap root up into the root as well. Excess energies will be flushed through the root chakra leaving behind only what you need. When you feel ready, open your eyes and come back to yourself. _________END_____________ Don't forget to journal after each meditation.