What is grounding meditation and how it can help you immediately relieve stress? I’ll show you the techniques I use daily to relieve stress and show you why you don’t want daily stress to get out of hand. stress.
As the world becomes more busy, the terms “grounding” and meditation for grounding become more popular. You may have found yourself wondering what grounding meditation means.
Don’t worry! While it sounds like a foreign concept, grounding meditation is actually a simple idea – though not always easy to do – grounding meditation can be done daily, with very little time and gets easier the more you do it.
I promise when you learn and practice grounding meditations, you’re doing to wish you started sooner.
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What is grounding meditation?
Being grounded refers to being where you are in the present moment and experiencing mindfulness. A grounding meditation is an exercise that can help you get back into the present moment.
Sounds obvious, right? But have you ever sat down to accomplish something, say writing a difficult email, and had 62 different thoughts running through your head about random other things you need to do? In that moment, we’re not grounded.
The modern world is constantly pulling our attention in other directions, it’s making us dysregulated and unable to sit with exactly where we are, making it difficult to focus.
A grounding meditation is an exercise that you can do in just seconds – yes, seconds, at a time. It engages certain parts of your physical body or your physical environment to acknowledge where you are in that very moment.
If it sounds too simple, it’s because it is. But with everything going on around us, it’s difficult to do when you haven’t ever done it.
Why do we need grounding?
Stress is a common part of everyday life for most of us. So common that there’s a good chance most of us don’t realize how stressed we truly are. Even though we may not notice the stress, our bodies do. They send out warning signals when something is off, and we’re often too busy to notice these signals.
While short bursts of stress are okay and sometimes even good for you, chronic stress can have a range of negative impacts on your body.
So what’s causing the stress? Well, we’re all different. There’s a lot going on and and everyone is battling stress. Whether at work, home, in our relationships, or just our phones buzzing constantly, there are a million thoughts running through our heads at any given moment.
Grounding techniques can help us recover from stress. Introducing meditative practices regularly can help your body recover from stress to avoid turning your daily stress into chronic stress.
Plus, some of your best ideas will come to you from a grounded, mindful place. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you slow down.
What happens to your body when you’re stressed?
Stress is a natural response to life events. When your brain receives the message that you’re facing a threat, the hypothalamus, a gland at the base of your brain, sends nerve and hormonal signals out to the adrenal glands.
The adrenals then release hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which are responsible for putting you into fight-or-flight mode.
While stress can help us when we’re under pressure, it can take a toll on our health if our body doesn’t have the chance to get back to baseline levels.
Encountering stressful situations in your daily life without giving yourself a chance to recover from them can lead to chronic stress, which can then lead to disease and autoimmune conditions if it goes on too long.
How mindfulness can help with stress
Mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment through awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensations in your body, and things happening in the environment around you.
It’s also about acceptance of yourself and your experiences. So you observe your thoughts and feelings without judgment and without labeling them as “good” or “bad.”
Stress usually takes us out of the present moment and we don’t notice where our thoughts are going, the signals our body is sending us, or the little moments every day that can help us feel good.
If you’re constantly under stress, your brain will be receiving signals that something is off, and will keep you on edge in case you need to confront or escape danger. Stopping to take in your surroundings and pay attention to your breaths, surrounding smells, and your thoughts helps your brain realize that you’re not in immediate danger – allowing it to reduce your stress response.
Research shows that incorporating mindfulness into your day can provide various psychological, physical, and social benefits. It can help you regulate your emotions and lower stress levels. Some research shows it can even physically change your brain by altering structures that increase concentration, memory, and positive emotions.
For me, making grounding exercises a regular practice, and learning when I need to get grounded has changed my life. I don’t say that lightly. A grounding meditation practice has helped me get through some of the darkest and most difficult times.
The science behind grounding meditations and stress
Meditation has been used for thousands of years to increase awareness and focus attention. With grounding meditation, you can become more aware of the thoughts continuously flowing through your mind, and you can detach yourself from them.
It’s not about controlling your thoughts; it’s about learning that your thoughts don’t have to control you.
Many types of meditation can be practiced, and all provide health benefits.
Chakra stones come from the ancient Hindu and Buddhist practice of chakra meditation, where you picture the seven chakras along the spine and imagine the flow of energy through your body.
Here are a few cool scientific findings surrounding meditation:
- This research found that eight weeks of mindfulness/grounding meditation lowered cortisol levels and increased sleep quality in some participants.
- Another study showed that eight weeks of daily 13-minute meditation increased attention and enhanced memory and emotional regulation in the study participants.
- Long term mediation may also cause neuroplasticity, meaning your brain can form new connections based on new information, sensory inputs, and development.
- Research has shown that participants practicing mindfulness meditation decreased activity in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), the region responsible for mind wandering and rumination.
- In another study, meditation increased the thickness in nerve density within the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory.
- Some research suggests that allowing your body contact with the earth can have positive health effects, like stress reduction and increased immune function.
6 grounding mindfulness exercises for beginning grounding meditation
It’s important to disconnect while doing grounding mindfulness exercises. You’ll want to turn off your cell phone and commit to at least five minutes of uninterrupted time. Set an intention of physical connection to yourself and the intention of letting go of negative feelings before you begin.
1. Simple breathwork
Most meditation involves breathwork, but meditating can be as simple as taking deep breaths and exhaling longer than you inhale.
When your exhale is longer than your inhale, it triggers your body to relax by stimulating the vagus nerve. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for your rest and digest state.
For example, you might take a deep breath in for a count of three and then out for seven. You can do this for 5–10 minutes, or in as little as one minute. Just pay attention to your breath. If you catch your mind wandering, return your focus to your breath again. But don’t get frustrated if this is difficult. It is difficult at first. And it’s okay for your mind to wander. Just take your wandering mind back to your breath.
Doing this outside is best for grounding, but having your feet on the floor where you are still works great.
I do this almost daily when I pick my kids up from school. Usually my mind is still in “work mode” while on the way. I often have to shut off my podcast or music for a few minutes and focus on long exhales while driving (and of course, focus on the driving). It’s a super simple way to get “grounded on the go” and for someone just starting out.
2. Get in nature
Nature is the most powerful tool when it comes to grounding. Whether you’re aware or not, when you’re fully immersed in nature, you can embody the energy of the earth.
It’s one of the reasons forest therapy is gaining popularity. There have been quite a few small studies measuring signals of stress being lower after being in a forest.
When my dad was very sick and close to passing, I would often get panic attacks. I started to know when they were coming and would drop whatever I was doing, take my shoes and socks off, and go stand in my yard and hold onto a tree branch or my jasmine plant. I realize this sounds silly and very woo, but being in nature, feeling the earth’s energy (even if you don’t know what that feeling is), is really one of best ways to get grounded.
Planting the soles of your feet – especially bare feet – in the earth is the simplest and most grounding exercise you can do.
If you don’t have a yard, or you live in a city without much easily accessible nature, house plants can help! Studies have shown that house plants can increase positive feelings, increase production and reduce perceived stress.
3. Go for a walk
Walking meditation is a mindfulness practice that can also be grounding. You can do it anywhere you have space to take a few steps, but if you can walk outside, it’s even better.
Pay attention to each step you take and notice how your legs feel when you lift them and put them on the ground. This is not a workout – we aren’t focusing on moving fast or burning calories. Just go slow and focus on what you’re doing.
When your mind wanders, use the sounds and sensations of your steps to bring your attention back to the present moment.
If you’re outside, notice the sounds you hear (like birds chipping or cars driving by), the colors you see and smells you notice.
Using your senses to notice your surroundings can help ground you to the present moment and move your focus away from stressful thought. It shifts the focus on what’s happening around you, allowing your body to calm down from its stressed state.
4. Guided meditation
Guided meditation is one of the most popular forms of meditation. You’ll listen to an audio of a person who guides you through the process of mindfulness meditation to help you focus on your breathing and body.
It often involves a visualization, where you imagine yourself in a certain situation or place that helps you relieve stress and relax your muscles. You’ll need a quiet place and a little bit of time to do a guided meditation. You can find guided mediations that are a few minutes long to over an hour.
To do a guided meditation, do a quick Google or app search to find one that resonates with you. A great place to start is YouTube, the Human Design app and the Calm app. Once you find a guided meditation, you can sit in a quiet space and listen.
I find guided meditations one of the easiest ways to do longer meditations since I’m focused on someone’s words and my body, rather than my thoughts.
5. Reiki
Though Reiki is not something you can do on your own, and will take a bit of time, it’s a great practice for grounding. If you’d like to try implementing Reiki techniques on your own, you can read how to do a Reiki meditation. As a certified Reiki practitioner, this is one of my favorite meditation exercises and my go to.
Reiki is a spiritually guided energy force that channels light energy to heal. This most often results in stress relief. Though Reiki can offer high spiritual experiences, it’s not a religion and if we’re trying to compare it to something, it’s similar to a meditation session.
To do a simple Reiki meditation grounding exercise, make sure you’re in a comfortable position, with your feet flat on the ground. Then close your eyes and picture bright light healing energy flowing from your head to your toes and expanding in the ground around you. Think of your energy field around you – feel the light surrounding you and flowing through your body. Sit in that energy as long as it feels comfortable, then slowly open your eyes and come back.
A reiki style meditation can help you get grounded before an important meeting or phone call or even help you sleep when done before bed.
6. Crystals and chakra stones
Chakra stones provide grounding mindfulness by providing a physical focus. You can carry the stone around via jewelry or even in your pockets. That way it’s available to see and/or feel to help ground you in the moment.
Some popular grounding crystals include bloodstone, tiger’s eye, smoky quartz, picture jasper, moss agate and red jasper.
Crystals are thought to raise the vibration of things around them (like us) to their higher vibration. This allows us to channel more positive energy and they can also help ground us.
You can also use chakra stones and crystals by laying down and placing them on the body where the chakras are, and then closing the eyes and focusing on the stones while thinking about the chakras as another form of meditation.
Take Action
By incorporating small moments of grounding mindfulness exercises into your day, you can help your body relax and relieve stress. Select a grounding meditation exercise that seems most approachable to you.
Set aside five minutes every day, or as often as you can to practice a meditation technique. It may seem hard at first, but just give yourself those uninterrupted minutes. If the first exercise you try doesn’t feel right, try a different one next time.
Many people say they can’t meditate. The reason is usually there are too many thoughts running through their head. But that’s what meditation is. It’s not trying not to have any thoughts – it’s acknowledging the ones you have, while bringing your mind to focus on your physical body.
You’re entire meditation may be thinking about a hundred things. Just take the focus back to your physical body. Your thoughts are you, and meditation is about being more present with you.
Allowing yourself to have those thoughts and shifting focus without immediately jumping into action on your thoughts is part of meditation. Even If you feel like you aren’t doing it right, don’t worry – you are!
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