Grounding

[NagoyaSea]

Things that keep me grounded:

working with plants and earth in my garden
meditation and prayer
whole-brain music and reading spiritual material
healthy diet of natural foods
exercise
adequate sleep
talking to those I love

[emc]

Further questions on grounding from the place where I am now...

My experience now is the one of dancing a tango, in and out of ego. I find it very confusing when my mind still wants to trust others rather than stay calm and let my inner guru guide me. Feels like it wants to drag me out of precense and what is very peaceful, balanced and true. Now my mind is making an issue of grounding, because people insinuate I must ground more. It is strange, since I don't have any problems. I am emotionally stable, I manage a busy job with lots of responsibilities, I have a great social life etc. On the surface of the appearance my life is going on as usual.

When I get real my body is loosing its borders, and I do fall into crying from the bliss at occasions, but that is something completely different from being emotional about it! It is a state that moves me, it's grace, gratefulness, joy, happiness, love, increadible love. No feelings involved. Not feeling emotionally unstable. I know I am where my feet are, yet I am not my feet. There's no chance I can be my feet. That is not who I am. My feet and my body is a ripple on the ocean, an impermanent form; forms are constantly coming and going and I have got very little interest in "staying in my body" (that is identifying with it and believe that is what I must be inside) since it's fake, it's illusion, it's beautiful but not real. I am the ocean, and I am not really on the inside either. I find it by "looking in instead of out", but then the paradox is that everything on the outside is inside already, and vice versa... my inside IS what is seen on the outside! The experience is that I can dive down into the deep whenever, at work, on the bus, whenever, and get real, and make this change of perspective. And it doesn't feel as if I'm floating away, loosing grounding. I only get more real and true. When body-mind is nothing, a nobody, and there is no up-down or inside-out, when I am stillness moving and acting I can't find a body to ground...

Actually, if in that moment my mind gets the impuls to "do something", to start grounding - pulling up earth energy - I sort of go back into my body and go into a very strong bliss and/or ecstatic state, my energybody is swelling, my crown goes balooba and it feels as if I am drawn upwards and I swirl somewhere between the earth and the central sun... Body starts shaking from the strong energies coming from Mother Earth.

If I am in presence and take a walk in the forest it is absolutely lovely, a love bathing with the trees, being the trees, being the breeze, being the sound in the leaves when the breeze sensually strokes the trees... And it is all at the same time absolutely still. Beautiful. Does feel like floating, though, and forest walks are supposed to be grounding... Hm...

So what is grounding really? I begin to believe it is something for the body-mind vehicle, not for my real self. Just as overload symptoms is only attached to the identity of ego. As soon as ego goes, overload symptoms go. Is that the same for grounding? As soon as NOW is what is, grounding is redundant? What say you?

[Sparkle]

Hi emc

I would say proof of grounding is in how we relate to our surrounding environment. In particular how we relate to other people in everyday life.
If you are functioning well in your job and social life, as you say, then to me this is a good indicator of grounding.

I have had similar experiences to what you describe in a general way and not specific with your details. It was after the last Thich Nhat Hanh retreat I was on and for me, it lasted a few weeks.
It was an experience of complete spaciousness and yet at the same time total contact with the world. The solid feel of the foot on the ground and yet being space walking on space. At no time did I feel ungrounded.

What may give rise to alarm in some people is that when you are in this kind of state and then also talk about experiences which could be seen as spacey and way out there, such as:
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=2861#25015

For me this is your experience and that's fine with me. If however this kind of post became the norm then I would also question grounding. From what I've seen your posts are centred and grounded in the NOW and a pleasure to read.

Louis

[emc]

Hahaha! I see what you mean! (Don't all traditions tell about the mystery in myths and pictures when they try to explain the inexplicable?)

And thank you for contribution of your experiences.

[Jim and His Karma]

It's physical. Like a lot of yogic concepts that sound very philosophical, but then become utilitarian as you practice, and finally seem downright concrete (e.g. lots of AYP, e.g. "God is in the nervous system"), grounding is actually relatively specific and concrete.

I've been working on it for 25 years...without knowing exactly what I was working on....and extremely avidly (with more knowledge) for the past 2.5 years. I can't pour what I know into a single posting here, unfortunately. Just some quick stuff.

Grounding is about a connection down the front channel (from ajna through sinuses through palate through tongue, and down the front of the body), through the feet, and into the earth. Yogis know this, but don't emphasize it (one might say Taoists over-emphasize it). The traditional yoga grounding advice (especially after kundalini) is tons of walking. Walking pulls this energy down the front, but it's not a strong effect, hence the need for LOTS of walking.

Walking's good for light grounding needs, and is a great habit to get into for long-term grounding. But tai chi's better. Standing asana poses are grounding. And here's a real good grounding technique, which I've posted about before:

-------
stand with feet separated, knees comfortably bent into a half crouch, pressing your feet firmly and evenly into the floor (advanced move: press down with the point in the lateral center of your foot, between the balls of your big and little toes, down right at the point where the arch starts to form). Keep your back more or less straight but tilt it forward, as if you were ready to pounce. Go for a low, stable, center of gravity, like it would be hard for someone to knock you over. But relax.

Bend elbows 90 degrees and extend forearms directly in front of you, parallel to each other and with palms facing, at navel level. Keep shoulders relaxed. Visualize a ball between your hands. Concentrate on that ball, and fill it with energy.
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Even better is a qidong I've been practicing. But I'm not ready to share it yet.

When real grounding happens (to someone who's been cultivating energy via spiritual practices...much of which tends to stick in the head), it's almost like a flushing. It's very dramatic. It's not philosophical.

If you have TMJ, kundalini syndrome, feelings of pressure at crown or third eye, spaciness, or a lot more trouble with the "down" pranayama direction than with the "up" one, you lack grounding. Grounding resolves kundalini eczema, water retention issues, digestive issues, and, most of all, revitalizes kidneys which get dried out by the pitta of yoga practice. I speak from personal experience on that in particular. I thought my loss of appetite was yogic detachment. No, it was weakened digestion due to kidney issues due to yogic pitta. Pitta diet isn't enough...you need to ground the front channel.

There is no difference between a blocked front channel and lack of groundedness. Both are different ways of describing the same problem. The inevitable result is pooled energy in the head and jaw. and while yoga is definitely about bringing energy to the head, there's definitely such a thing as too much of a good thing. It's the essence of self-pacing.

Some (many? most?) people have a naturally open front channel, and are thus naturally grounded.

More soon.

[Yoda]

In addition, holding a black rock, taking a shower, staring into the eyes of a picture of an awakened person can help.  I'm experimenting with eating clay and it seems to help so far, about one week into it. calearthminerals.com no affiliation.

Imo, grounding activities should be done as a matter of habit, not just when ungrounded.

[emc]

Wow, this grounding mystery is continuously unfolding here...

This is really, really silly... We've been discussing grounding several rounds, and for some reason... I have missed one very simple but important thing:

The thing is to Stay Grounded.

Yes! Isn't it ridiculous!? For some reason, the way we often have been talking about grounding has given me the picture it is a counterbalance for overloading... Practices push the energies going - self-pace with grounding. As... first go on the fire side, then when it gets too hot, chill with water. And try to get a balance.

Pulling energies up from Earth from root and upwards is the fire, turning the energies back to earth is cooling and grounding... And I have switched between them... causing a roller coaster ride.

Nobody ever told me... to STAY GROUNDED all the time, not switching like an on/off button - go high first then ground as a repair afterwards. When going UP into the higher domains, don't loose the Earth connection...

Not until Hathor came to guide me I got a new sense of how that works. Now, there's a stability I've never experienced before, and there is so much more energies being able to go through this system without being shaken out of balance or being pushed into overload.

This is the exercise that made the coin drop here:

Focus on the energy channel in the middle of the body (not the sushumna). Have the focus in the heart while feeling one stream of energy go from Earth and upwards, and another stream going from the heaven downwards. Sometimes it's easier to find the streams by feeling the upward on the inhale and downward on the exhale (like in Spinal breathing). Try to feel the both streams simultaneously and meeting in the heart. Then... the important add on: Follow the channel all the way down to the middle of the Earth. When you do this it will feel as if something is pulling an anchor down, there's a constant downpull, a sense of being heavy and relaxed. Now - while still having this sense of heaviness and anchoring - go back to the constant stream in the central channel where there's still a flow going up and down, meeting in the heart.

By allowing the downward stream to the heart and the upward stream from the Earth to the heart WHILE you have the intention to deeply anchor it in the middle of the Earth you are grounding. Extremely stabilizing!

This section of lorf's post suddenly makes A LOT OF SENSE!

quote:To connect with the universal source of light can be very beautiful and can create an experience of oneness, understanding and can also be mistaken for enlightenment. Done prematurely by opening the crown has been covered enough on the forum. Direct contact with the Void is like accessing the creative potential of the universe, which is experienced as raw and undirected power. Direct access to the void prematurely can be an experience of utter terror as it can be frightening and uncovers psychic garbage we have successfully managed to avoid before. So instead of contacting the void directly it can be done via Mother Earth where she acts as a filter and the experience is then more like a subtle, loving stability. She lovingly acts as a safe channel for us to access the vast potential of the void making it possible to find the stability crucial for major openings.
To be human is to have these two qualities meet in the heart. And to be human is to have them in balance.
Accessing the light is easy and easily perceived, no need get into details. Accessing the void through Mother Earth on the hand is a very subtle experience. It not like an apparent feeling of energy filling the body, no fireworks. The effect of a firm connection to Earth is on the other hand much more apparent. It makes it possible to be able to stay open in hostile environments without losing the balance.

I never understood it's supposed to happen simultaneously... Silly, silly me!