GROUNDING – A CRITICAL NEED TODAY

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

©December 2009, The Center For Development

This article concerns one of the most important areas of spiritual or mental development, which is grounding. By this I do not mean having your feet planted, but rather ground refers specifically to the quality and health of the first chakra of the body, sometimes called the root chakra. A person who is grounded has this chakra at least partially active or open.

This chakra connects a person with the earth, in physical terms. However, in metaphorical terms, however, it means the person is present in the physical world, at least fairly comfortable in the physical reality or world, and has a good sense of self or ego strength, sometimes also called self-esteem. These are among its many important qualities. Other qualities associated with a strong and open first chakra are good survival skills – how to make ends meet financially and how to interact with the earth, with others and with life, in general, in order to survive.

This may sound simple, but many millions around the world do not have a good idea how to “make it” in the world, which means how to get and hold a job, how to get along with those who pay the bills, how to buy a car or a house or some other basic survival tools, how to eat well and care for oneself in a basic way, and many other survival skills. The usual reason for this is a combination of very poor education system in America and around the world that is union-controlled for the benefit of the teachers and others, believe it or not, and totally out of touch with the real needs of students.

Another factor is terrible parenting in too many cases in which children are not disciplined, not taught how to earn a living, save money and deal with life. Another factor is terrible health, especially in the pelvic area of women, that literally impairs the opening of this chakra. This is usually due to too much sex, though it could be due to too much sexual suppression or molestation at a young age or some other aberrations involving the sexual organs in most case. These are the main causes of lack of development of the first chakra.

For mental and spiritual development, this chakra is absolutely necessary, as it is the foundation for the opening of all the other ones that are above it, in terms of location on the body. Hence the great importance of everything in this simple article.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF LACK OF GROUNDING

Many who need grounding are unaware of the need for grounding. To see if you are in need of grounding, here is a short quiz:

1. Do you find yourself taking on more than you can handle? Grounding has much to do with understanding your limits and boundaries. Ungrounded people are often unclear about these.

2. Do you find yourself stressed often? Taking on too much and avoiding areas of life you prefer not to look at creates stress – often extreme stress.

3. Do you engage in activities and/or thoughts that could be ways to escape the unpleasant parts of your life? These can be obvious escapes like alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, loud music or unhealthy sex. However, they can be subtle or socially acceptable diversions such as too much shopping or excessive attention to family, friends or pets. Any preoccupation that deep inside you know you do or think about because other areas of life just are not working well or you would rather not deal with them, or you do not know how to approach them.

4. Do you have trouble earning a living interacting with others to get what you need to live, or working with others in job or similar situations? This can also be a subtle sign that the first chakra is closed.

5. Do you have trouble in the sexual arena? By trouble I mean confusion, getting involved with people who do not really love you, promiscuity, pornography, prostitution, horror or other imbalances in this area

UP AND OUT SPIRITUALITY

A lack of grounding often leads to an interest in spirituality. This can be extremely positive, provided one does not stay in a mindset some call “up and out spirituality”. This approach can be summarized by the phrase from Star Trek, “Beam me up, Scottie.”

Up and out spirituality starts with the idea that the planet is a horrible place, that one deserves better and perhaps there was a mistake in coming here in the first place. One wants out and spiritual exercises promise the way. Many meditations, affirmations, yoga classes, extreme diets and other practices can be used to forget this place and do one’s best to ascend out of it as fast as possible. The meditations usually teach or have one visualize leaving the body and imagining a happier, safer place. While they are not all bad, they are easily overdone. The person does not understand why, in spite of all the practice, life does not improve much and may get worse. It is because they are becoming less grounded here and that is the hidden intent.

Up and out spirituality is basically a new twist on the idea that one is a victim of the world around us. It is often based on anger at the world and holding on to fixed ideas about how others “should” behave. It is a first start on the spiritual path, and the way most people begin the spiritual search. However, it is important to move on quickly to the grounded approach.
Ungrounding or “up and out” meditations are actually extremely dangerous today because grounding is so important. The only exercise I have experienced that works properly to ground a person is described in an article on this website entitled Meditation. It is also taught by Mr. Roy Masters and is a Judeo-Christian type of meditation. To read about Roy Masters, check his Foundation of Human Understanding at www.fhu.come or 1-800-877-3227.

HOW TO GROUND YOURSELF

Lifestyle. Care well for the body. Get plenty of rest and sleep, go to bed early and do not allow anyone or anything to disturb your rest and your peace. This must include disciplining your children, your pets, spouses and preventing unannounced visitors or phone calls at late hours. I know this is difficult for some in families, but it is well worth working to set up systems that give you at least a measure of complete rest and peace.

Spend time out of doors, near the earth, preferably in a rural, quiet setting. Spend time alone every day and not on the telephone, but just with yourself. Work in some way with your hands or feet, even typing or writing is good. If possible, focus attention on the earth, not the scenery or intellectual conversation or thoughts.

Deep breathing. Another basic that is much more subtle is to remember to breathe deeply. It is an exercise that takes some unusual concentration for most people. Yet it has many health benefits. Stretch, yawn and sigh often. Stop what you are doing on a regular basis and breathe. Doing it while exercising is not enough. Now let us discuss some other basics in more detail.

Using saunas and coffee enemas. Using a near infrared light sauna is extremely grounding. The reddish lamps focus energy and stimulate the lower energy centers, mainly the first chakra. Coffee enemas and colonic irrigation also tends to be grounding by focusing one’s energy on the lower part of the body. The most grounding meditation exercise I know of is the Roy Masters observation exercise, which sends energy downward from the head to the right hand,, and eventually from the head downward to both hands and both feet.

Sexuality. Sex tends to be very ungrounding. Keep this in mind, young men and women. This does not mean you must avoid it altogether, but stop thinking it is important for your life. Avoid anyone or any source of information that tells you sex is important for your self esteem, your honor, your health or anything else. This does not mean that it has no benefits, but in terms of grounding, it is harmful, always. It tends to send energy upwards, instead of downwards, especially for women.

WALKING

Besides, resting and eating slowly and consciously, walking slowly and deliberately is a most helpful grounding exercise. Think about your feet as you walk and send your energy into the earth with each slow, deliberate step. If helpful, imagine you are being pulled along when you walk by a magnet hidden under the earth. Another way is to imagine you weigh 500 pounds and each of your steps crushes the earth beneath your feet. Another idea is to imagine your foot is like a large suction cup that spreads out as it attaches deep into the ground.

An ancient walking method is at times called tai chi walking or chi-kung walking. Imagine a re holding up your head from the crown. Imagine the rest of your body hanging loosely from this wire. This will help you stand in a relaxed manner. Bend both knees a little and stay low throughout your walk.

Place all your weight on one foot. Lift the other one slowly and step forward gently and firmly. Do not straighten the knee completely. If you do, your head will bob up, which completely disconnects you from the earth. This is the opposite of what we want. Keep your weight on the back foot when you step forward. It will feel uncomfortable at first, because most people fall into their steps. So practice this part a number of times slowly until you can step forward without moving your weight forward.

Next, slowly shift your weight forward and down onto the front foot. When all your weight is on the front foot, you may then repeat the process, lifting the rear leg and taking your next step. You must start very slowly until this style of walking becomes a habit. Some do this instinctively or unconsciously.

Most people, especially those who are not grounded, will have difficulty at first and it will take time to master. It is well worth the effort and is the style of movement used by all animals in the wild. Observe your cat and you will notice this exact sequence of movement if you look closely enough. It is a survival mechanism for animals, as it allows them to test the ground before they place their weight there. It also gives great strength and balance.

Grounding is often about “testing the ground” before you move forward in order to stay strong and balanced. So this technique is a metaphor for grounding as well as a useful way to move through the world. Be sure you do not bob your head up and down when you step, as most people do. This is the Gomer Pyle walk, the opposite of grounding.

DIET

Eat quality food and maintain healthful eating habits. Eat simple, regular meals at regular intervals, sitting down quietly when you eat and staying put for at least a few minutes after eating to allow digestion to begin.

Certain foods definitely assist grounding. These include meats, eggs, some whole grains such as brown, all basmati rice, blue corn chips and most grains. Avoid wheat and spelt, however, in all forms as these have become inflammatory foods and are no longer as good. Cooked beans and root vegetables, along with all cooked vegetables are also good. All yang food is more grounding.

Avoid all sugars, including a lot of fruit and all fruit juices. These are much less grounding. In excess, they upset blood sugar, calcium metabolism, thyroid and adrenal activity. Their negative effects, however, go far beyond these. They enhance or encourage the growth of yeast in the intestines, such as candida albicans infection. In fact there are many varieties, however. These organisms produce many toxic substances in the intestines, further ungrounding and sickening the person who eats them.

Many young people today can hardly keep their heads up, and cannot think straight, due to their sugar and fruit consumption. They don’t realize how it is affecting their judgment and their happiness. Instead, they walk around in a kind of fog. I call this Brain Fog, also the title of an article you may read on this website. We help many people with this condition. In some cases, sugar is the main problem. In other cases, too much caffeine, other stimulants, spicy foods, not enough rest, copper toxicity, other toxic metals and other nutritional imbalances must also be addressed. However, eliminating all sugars from the diet for several years, at least, is always helpful.

SIMPLIFY

Besides eating healthfully, other aspects of life can often be simplified. This does not mean sitting around the house doing nothing. Quite the opposite is true. Most successful, busy people have mastered simplicity in their lives. This makes room to accomplish all that they do.

Simplicity means slowing down, avoiding distractions, tuning out the world, the television, and the movies most of the time. Grounding also means not wasting time and energy on ideas, people, pleasures or projects that yield little return. This one factor often wastes years of people’s lives on ideas, things and people that are really irrelevant for them. For example, people will spend time feeding the birds, talking to random people to pass the time, watching silly movies that are fake and so on. It is important to note if you do these things or many others. Women and some men love to spend their time shopping, either online or with the crowds. This can be another huge time waster that also upsets the delicate grounding system of the body.

Time is really all you have on this earth, and it passes quickly, though it may not appear that way at times.

Money. Live below your means. This means realizing you don’t need almost all material things that people are taught to think they need. An old car is fine if it works. A small house is better than a larger one, provided it suits you needs. Old clothes are fine. The quest for new and different and exciting is, itself, extremely ungrounding, so try not to fall into that trap. It is good for society as a whole, in many ways, but it upsets the person who pursues the material quest. Instead, grounding will bring with it a new and different lifestyle and spiritual unfoldment unlike anything one has ever experienced.

Emotions unground one. Even idle emotions that mainly distract you or keep you in the past or future can be a huge time waster. The word resentment means in Latin “to feel again and again”. Resentment is a damaging emotion for this very reason.

Simplify every aspect of life. Ungrounded people often engage in hundreds of time-wasting endeavors. It is possible to work without overworking, to find simple solutions, simple pleasures and easier ways of doing everything. This is an ongoing process and requires time to reflect on your life so you can see what you are doing and make adjustments often. At times, one wastes time due to a lack of awareness of how best to spend one’s time. At other times time-wasting is an escape from responsibility or willingness to see the truth about oneself or others.

Of course, what one considers a waste of time, another may have the vision to see a great potential. This is where vision must balance grounding for a balanced and optimal personality. For example, healing illness by carefully following a diet and doing coffee enemas every morning once seemed like a waste of time or even insane to me. I learned, however, to know better.

Note that time resting and sleeping is not a ”waste of time”. The body is often very active during sleep, at times more so than during waking hours. For this reason, do not ignore feelings of fatigue. They may mean you are exhausted. They may also be alerting you that you need to allow yourself more time for important nighttime rejuvenating activity.

POPULARITY AND GROUNDING

Grounded people are generally not the popular and social ones. For women, especially, it means not spending too much time on prettying up the body, wearing sexy clothes to attract men, or fixing the hair or other parts of the body with too much makeup. All of this is very ungrounding for a woman, as is the attention she receives for it. Plain is better, although it won’t win the beauty contests. It will attract the grounded men who know that women who dress up, wear the high heels and the short blouses and not usually the best partners or even dates.

This can be an important factor, especially for teenagers and younger women who want to be the center of attention, or at least want to become popular. As a general rule, the more popular a person is the more ungrounded they are. This is why the movie stars often end up as drug addicts and suicide cases. Their popularity and wealth ungrounds them terribly and they simply cannot find their way through it, and they finally become depressed and die young in most cases. Go the other way, if you are smart, and you will succeed in a measure beyond your wildest imagination.

DOUBTING TOO MUCH WILL UNGROUND YOU

Doubting oneself all the time is very ungrounding. In fact, it is a way that is used by some people I call energy vampires to upset and unground others. They plant doubts in your mind. You can watch this happen in the media as politicians use this weapon to upset their enemies by planting doubt in the people’s minds. It is very effective and pernicious, and works especially among people who are unsure of themselves and their concepts in some way.

A remedy for this is to ‘doubt your doubt’ rather than try to suppress your doubt. Suppressing doubt usually does not work. It results in false positivity that, in fact, just covers up for the doubt and negativity that has become intolerable for the person. Instead, try doubting your doubt.

You see, doubting or weighing options is essential. The question is what to doubt. By doubting your doubts, you can in some instances turn things around. For example, you might doubt that you need to follow a careful diet to become and maintain your health. You could let this fester inside and confuse you. A solution is to turn things around and doubt your doubt by saying you doubt that eating poorly will build health. Essentially, this is to help break a cycle of doubting that holds many people back. Doubting your doubts acts as a reality check in many cases and can keep you more centered.

FORGIVENESS

Another key to grounding is to forgive everyone and everything over and over as long as you live. It allows you to let go and move on. If you do not know how to forgive, just ask for help in learning to forgive. Help will come if you ask persistently.

Forgiving does not mean that others may take advantage of you, or that you now condone their behavior, or that you will forget the incident. But it means you will let it go and move on. You will not get upset and ungrounded every time you think of this person or this situation. This is wisdom.

It is important to know that we are not here to punish others consciously. We cannot know all the reasons an event, an illness or an incident or trauma takes place. This has to do with karmic forces that are far beyond our understanding. If someone harms another, he or she is always responsible and must repay the debt. This is a law of the universe. The legal system of the nation is there mainly to protect the innocent by locking up the psychopaths and mentally unbalanced people. It is not there to gain vengeance or for other reasons. Our job is mainly to forgive and move on. That will keep one far more grounded and centered than if one holds grudges, hates various people and situations, and is always thus reacting to them.

Think as Jesus did when he said, “Forgive them for they know not what they do”. This is the truth, whether it be a terrorist bomb or a corrupt official. They do not know, or they would not dream of doing what they have done. They would be kind and forgiving, because this is the only way to move on to a better life in truth.

MEDITATION WILL HELP A PERSON TO REACT LESS

The Roy Masters exercises not only sends energy downward that is very grounding, but it helps a person learn not to react. This, in itself, is very yangizing, grounding and centering and worth doing the exercise daily. It will also help one let go if one has reacted to a situation and become “up”set, “up”tight, and mixed “up” by it.

NATURAL HEALING

Toxic metals, while they may be ‘heavy’ metals, tend to unground the body. In particular, mercury spins the mind, copper enhances the emotional reactions, lead dulls the senses and cadmium leads to upset and violence in most cases. These are probably the worst and they are inside everyone’s body today. Removing these metals also causes a person to calm down, become much more grounded and sane. This is one of the great benefits of removing all of them.

Toxic chemicals that are in most people’s bodies also need to be removed as most of them also irritate the glands and organs and also unground and yinnize the body. Among the most ungrounding items are medical drugs and recreational drugs – all of them. By definition they unground a person so that he will feel less pain. Once again, there are no exceptions and if one wishes to be grounded, strictly avoid all unnecessary medical drugs and all recrfeational drugs, alcohol and others.

Bodywork. Deep bodywork such as Rolfing, structural integration, foot reflexology, and perhaps Feldenkreis work and others tend to be more grounding. Acupuncture is less so, and any therapy that unhinges the body from the earth can be ungrounding such as aromatherapy, dance, art, music and even yoga. These can be okay if one stays conscious, but a rule they are not nearly as good for grounding, at least, as a very deep massage or Rolfing session.

The point here is that all the bodies are somewhat ill and ungrounded. Spending the time and money to heal the body deeply with food, rest, healthy lifestyles and at times, deep bodywork, is very helpful for grounding, in general. It is far wiser than thinking you will be happier by taking more vacations, buying more clothes, meeting more people or other common activities.

CONCLUSION

Grounding is a critically important topic today because it opens the first chakra of the body, also called the root chakra. Most people, especially women need more grounding for this reason and for others such as to be safe and to know how to survive in the world. So please review this article often as it contains many gems of wisdom that are not mine, but have been taught for millennia by wise teachers in every land.

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