GET GROUNDED
14 days of grounding meditation
DAY 1
How to Ground
We are electric beings and knowing how to move the energy in your body (emotion, anxiety or heaviness) is the first step in being able to ground yourself in any situation. Today’s workshop explains the how and why behind the practices we’ll be using. Scroll right on the slides below to read more about grounding.
DAY 2
Clearing emotions and other people’s energy
Today's meditation is all about clearing external energy before grounding into your own. Clearing emotions and other people’s energy before grounding your own is an essential part of the practice. Once we clear excess energy we can look at our own energy, in the form of emotions or feelings. By taking the time to recognize and allow our emotions, we give our body the opportunity to release what needs to be released.
Healing and health is largely about the release and flow of energy - learning how to play a part in the movement of energy in your body is where the healing power lies. What you hold a mirror to dissolves. In other words the emotions you acknowledge will stop screaming for your attention once you give them attention.
This means noticing a feeling and making room for it without a judgment. Below is a “feelings” wheel so you can more accurately describe your feelings, make space for them and release them.
DAY 3
Finding Home
Today’s meditation is a sweet, poetic return to the home that is your body. It’s a short, sweet and healing affirmation practice to build trust in your body and in the power of rest.
DAY 4
The Earth Element
Allow yourself to feel the qualities of Earth that you can draw upon in this moment: stability, permanence, reliability, safety, security—whatever it is that you need most.
DAY 5
The most grounding point on the body
Acupressure is a way of targeting meridians in your body to help release the flow of Qi (energy) similar to acupuncture. To stimulate the most grounding point on the body - Kidney 1, or the Sole of the Foot point, sit in a chair and rest your right ankle on your thigh. The spot to look for is just below the ball of the foot and between the second and third toe. Press down with your thumb or massage this spot to ground your energy. Set a timer for a minimum of 3 minutes and do some deep breathing while holding this point.
The moment I started setting timers early in my meditation practice was the moment my practice became my own. A 3 min meditation is one of my favourite tricks on the road. Everybody has 3 minutes, you have 3 minutes, so make sure you give it to yourself today - this is the hardest part of the challenge - showing up!
Plus… Andrew Huberman - Standford neuroscientist, researched the effects of meditation the brain and his studies show benefits arrive at 3 minutes. Here is the full podcast to dive into, if you’d like. There has also been a lot of studies done on a 13 minute daily meditation done for 8 weeks which shows drastic improvements in mood, energy, focus and stress management. So, in my opinion - anywhere from 3 minutes to 20 minutes a day is your goal.
DAY 6
Sensory Stimulation for Grounding
Choose a woodsy scent, Black Spruce, Balsam Fir, Cedarwood or another to use in our meditation today. If you really don’t like the tree scents, use lavender or a calming floral scent. The use of smell / olfaction is a particularly effective form of sensory grounding because of the strong connections between the olfactory bulb and the amygdala. The amygdala is a major processing center for emotions and memory - stimulating positive memories and emotions with calming scents is a tool you can use to rewire your brain in moments of stress. If you don’t have any essential oils that you like, you can use a flower or a place in nature that smells peaceful to you (I personally love the smell of pine needles on the summertime forest floor, it’s the best smell ever). This practice is similar to yesterday, you will set a timer for a minimum of 3 minutes and practice deep breathing. Focus on your inhales and see if you can absorb your attention entirely on your sense of smell. Your mind will wander and that’s ok just bring it back. Meditation is actually a practice of “refocusing”, the more you are able to refocus the more automatic it becomes for your brain, keeping you on task, and therefore more calm and grounded.
Best oils for grounding:
Black Spruce, Balsam Fir, Cedar wood, Lavender, Ginger, Sandalwood, Frankincense, Patchouli, and Vetiver.
DAY 7
Tapping for Grounding
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a practice that involves tapping the body to stimulate specific meridians and the flow of energy in the body. It is used primarily to move difficult emotions and reduce the grasp emotions can have on our brain. Today’s meditation focuses on tapping just below the collarbones. The Kidney ‘transport’ points are found on the upper chest on either side of the sternum. Tapping these points gently with fingertips has been shown to have profound effects in emotional regulation.
Practice: You can do EFT, or tapping, whenever you feel upset. You may find that it helps you feel better. (source: Health Link BC)
To do a full EFT practice, follow these steps:
Think of an issue that's bothering you. This could be any issue. For example, it could be something you're feeling anxious or sad about.
Measure how your issue makes you feel. Rate how off you feel on a scale from 0 to 10. A score of 0 means you don't feel off at all. But a score of 10 means you feel as off as possible. Write down this number.
Create a statement that describes your issue, followed by a statement of self-acceptance. For example, you could say, "Even though I feel anxious about work tomorrow, I deeply and completely accept myself. I am ok."
Tap repeatedly on the edge of your palm, below your little finger. While you tap, say your statement out loud 3 times.
Now tap on the rest of the points on your body, one at a time. While you tap, state your issue over and over. For example, you might repeat "anxious about test". Tap on each point in this order.
Tap on the top, centre of your head.
Tap on the inside edge of one eyebrow.
Tap next to the outside edge of one eye.
Tap on the bone underneath one eye.
Tap between your nose and your upper lip.
Tap between your lower lip and your chin.
Tap beneath one collarbone (find the notch beneath the inside edge of the collarbone).
Tap under one armpit (about 10 centimetres (4 inches) below the armpit).
Stop and remeasure how you feel about your issue. Repeat the steps if needed. Tap until you can give your issue a lower number, or until you feel better.
DAY 8
Diaphramatic Breathing
The lower you can fill up air in your lungs, the more grounding the breath. Make space for deep breaths by making space in your belly for your diaphragm to lower. The diaphragm will lower automatically on it’s own but we want to make space, we don’t want to restrict it’s movement by holding tension in the core, tight clothing, etc.
DAY 9
Somatics for grounding
Somatic resourcing is an integrative approach to somatic therapy based on the work of Bill Bowen. It is defined by the active engagement of the body as central to the psychotherapeutic process. This method synthesizes both psychological and body therapy concepts and techniques into one simultaneous process.
Resources are those things, actions, and qualities we can draw upon for aid in times of need. Therapeutically, resources are defined as those actions, awarenesses, and abilities that support a person in maintaining a sense of self and a feeling of competency, regardless of what is occurring in his or her environment. There are many different categories of resources: psychological, emotional, intellectual, relational, artistic, spiritual, somatic, etc.
Somatic resources are a category of resources that are body based. They emerge from a person’s physical experience. These resources are the anatomical and physiological qualities and functions that support a physically felt experience of self and well-being. Source: Somatic Resourcing Training
Practice: locate the tension in the body as well as pleasure, hold both - always have access to parts that are holding “ease”.
BONUS tip: Do this meditation with a hot towel from the dryer wrapped around you, or fresh warm socks, or a heating pad on your shoulders - using the soothing sensations of heat can give you access to the feelings of pleasure more easily.
Day 10
True self meditation
This is a visualization of yourself in the place you feel your truest, most free and most content self. This one is magic - no scientific explanation or write up needed. This quote sums it up - ”This path I know by magic, not by sight.”
DAY 11
The anti-anxiety pose
Crocodile pose reduces stress and tension, regulates blood pressure and helps relieve anxiety. It provides deep relaxation for the muscles in the back and has a positive impact on posture and alignment of the spine proven to lead to better sleep. To practice crocodile, lie on your belly, stack hands or forearms under forehead. Set your timer for a minimum of 3 minutes and relax completely.
DAY 12
Sound meditation
Sound has a profound effect on our brain and entire nervous system. Sound has been utilized in various cultures for thousands of years as a tool for healing. Whether through the use of mantras or chants all over the world, or frequencies used in music production, these techniques all have the same intention: to move us from a place of imbalance to a place of balance.
Sound baths help to facilitate shifts in our brainwave state by using entrainment. Entrainment synchronizes our fluctuating brainwaves by providing a stable frequency which the brainwave can attune to. By using rhythm and frequency, we can entrain our brainwaves and it then becomes possible to down-shift our normal beta state (normal waking consciousness) to alpha (relaxed consciousness), and even reach theta (meditative state) and delta (sleep; where internal healing can occur). Source: Mind Body Green
We have been using “sound baths” all along this challenge already - all of the guided meditations have a sound track behind them with a frequency that is considered the most grounding sound frequency: 174hz Solfeggio frequency.
Today’s practice takes the sound bath to a new level by engaging your voice and the vibrations that the OM sound creates in your body. It’s an added potency of calming and grounding medicine.
Practice: Sea of oms - the recording below guides you in and explains how to make the om sound. Make sure you have a space where you can make noise and won’t be distracted - this is a powerful practice when you engage your voice.
After practicing with the recording below you can access this spotify track to go straight to the Sea of Om sounds and practice along with it anytime you’d like. You can search for other tracks using the “sea of om meditation” search on spotify for other voices and styles you like as well!
DAY 13
Affirmations for grounding + continued healing
I am not my thoughts
I choose to live in this present moment
I am safe, secure, and protected
This too shall pass
I have all that I need to overcome any obstacles
I choose to think positive thoughts because they serve me
I am in control of my life
I am nature and life has my back
I trust my life
I trust the process
I am nourished and strong
I do not need to prove anything to anyone, especially to myself.
It does not serve me to worry about the future
I am right where I need to be and when I’m not, I trust myself to get there
I am so grateful for the incredible life that I have
DAY 14
Congratulations, you made it to the end of the challenge, here’s how to stay grounded each cycle!
I hope you’re feeling much more grounded than you did two weeks ago. This is a bonus lecture on the power of the luteal phase with cyclical health coach Mackenzie St. Laurent. Often we can feel the need for more grounding when PMS symptoms start to rise in the luteal phase. This talk explores the hidden wisdom within the luteal phase as well as a powerful journalling practice for letting go and returning back to a grounded state.
Cheers, Santé!
We’re all in this together!
