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1. Read the text and look at the foot sole photo.
2. Listen to the audio of the guided meditation at the end of the blog and use it the first couple of times until you have mastered it and are able to do the full exercise in a minute or two.
Grounding the Root (Muladhara) chakra is an essential meditation for body and mind. Like a tree that is rooted in soil, we also need to connect with the Earth. Grounding can be done energetically, by touching trees, walking barefoot, or doing meditation or yoga asanas.
In this blog, I will share a grounding exercise that works on your subtle (energy) body. Doing the exercise on a daily basis helps to prevent restlessness, feelings of insecurity, living in fear, and being short-tempered or reactive.
When I arrived for the first time on the island of Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand, in April 2016, I regularly walked around barefoot. In early 2021, I found myself experiencing more and more injuries and pain around my feet and legs. I wondered why. In June 2021, I joined a Vipassana meditation retreat, and again I began to experience problems with my legs and feet. The feeling arose that I should be doing grounding exercises, for even though I regularly walked barefoot, touched, and hugged trees, I was still experiencing issues with my lower body.
During the retreat, I had an insight into how to ground myself. This exercise would help me with grounding the subtle body, in order to bring benefits to the physical body. This would help me to heal my feet, legs, knees, and kidneys. It would also bring me deeper safety, security, and rest.
The benefits were profound – and I am pleased to share this powerful method with you here.
Like a Tree
The subtle body is where the chakras are located. Grounding the Muladhara chakra energetically has an effect on the physical body. Your physical body is similar to a tree. Your legs are like the roots, your hips and core are like the trunk, and your arms and head are like the branches.
When tree roots are weak, the tree is weak, and everything above the roots is affected. When the roots are strong and firm, then everything above is aligned and healthy. When we are properly grounded – standing strong, firm, and connected to the Earth like a tree – it is much more difficult to lose our sense of security and balance. When others project their fears or insecurities onto us, we are less likely to become ungrounded or uprooted because we are more connected to our sense of self (our core), which empowers and gives us strength to trust in ourselves, our beliefs, and our needs.
The wind can blow as hard as it wants; when trees are firmly rooted it has no effect. The same goes for us humans when it comes to projections from others. These projections are sure to blow our way, day in and day out, but as long as we remain grounded, they cannot sway our personal balance or sense of self-assurance.
To make yourself stronger than you are now, ground yourself daily by doing the following exercise. As you become more attuned with your connection to the Earth, you will notice yourself standing more firmly on the ground, and projections from outside will have less of an effect on how you feel within.
It’s not possible to be completely immune to feeling triggered or affected by the outside world. If and when something does get to you, try using the mindfulness technique while meditating. This will help you to make note of what is happening within you so that you can simply observe it, acknowledge it and let it pass away.
The Exercise
You can do this exercise anywhere. You don’t need to be directly connected to the Earth itself. This can be done indoors (at home, in an apartment, in a skyscraper tower, or even while you are on a flight), or outside in the garden, at a park, on the beach, and so on. When you visualize roots going through everything below you, into the ground, then you become energetically connected to the ground beneath you.
You can do the meditation while seated or standing. I personally prefer to be seated when I take the full 15 minutes for it. If I am in a rush and experience that I am going faster than I would like to, then I will stop and practice while standing for a minute or so. The more you practice the easier it becomes, and you will be able to do the short version while standing.
1. After taking off your shoes, place your feet hip-width apart. You can do this exercise standing up or seated, whichever feels more comfortable for you.
2. Stamp 2-3 times firmly on the surface so that you can feel the ground underneath you.
3. For this exercise, we divide the sole of your left or right foot into 4 points (see image). Bring your thoughts to point 1 on the left foot. You should feel a sensation as you concentrate on this area in your thoughts. The sensation might be heat or tingling. When you feel a sensation, visualise that you have a root coming out of point 1, moving down deep into the ground.
4. Now proceed to point 2 and repeat the same steps.
5. Once you have finished, go to point 3 and repeat the steps.
6. Once you have energetically rooted points 1, 2, and 3 in the ground, bring your awareness to point 4. Can you feel a sensation here?
7. Now mentally connect points 1 to 4, 2 to 4, and 3 to 4. You can do this by visualising pulling strings from these points to point 4.
8. Next, bring your mind to your perineum, which is the area between the genitals and anus. Once you feel a sensation of energy in the perineum, mentally connect point 4 to here. You can make the connection by visualizing that there is a string going from point 4 to the perineum. You may see a colour, which is good. If you don't see a colour, don't be hard on yourself; keep practicing and it will happen.
9. Once you have completed this exercise on the left side, repeat the exercise from the beginning for your left or right foot.
10. Option: If you are able to bring your thoughts and attention to both of your feet at the same time when doing this exercise, rather than one foot at a time, then please do so.
Try doing this exercise daily for 15 minutes. Once you have mastered it and are able to do both feet at the same time within a minute or so, then you can practice this for a shorter time each day. When you wish to experience the maximum benefits of the meditation, I recommend doing the exercise for the full 15 minutes.
If you do this exercise every morning before you leave your house, you will feel more rested and you will experience fewer problems with your legs and feet. Your kidneys will also feel less tension, which positively affects your ability to manage feelings of insecurity and fear.
Once you have done this exercise for at least 3 weeks and are able to speed up the process, you can do the follow-up exercise.
If you find it difficult to experience sensations in the body, or if you’re not able to bring your awareness to each point, try the Body Scan meditation first. This might give you more clarity and understanding of how sensations can be felt in the body.
Follow-Up Exercise
When you have mastered the grounding exercise and are able to energetically shoot roots in the ground from points 1 to 3 on both feet as soon as you think of them, while simultaneously connecting the point 4 on both feet to the perineum, then you are ready to continue on to this follow-up exercise.
Stand or be seated comfortably with your feet hip-width apart.
Place your mental focus on your adrenal glands. They are located on your kidneys. Then energetically connect the adrenal gland to the perineum. If you are able to do both sides at the same time, please do so. If not, first connect the one and then the other.
After doing this, remain focused on this connection for some time. Be aware of the six points on your feet rooting into the ground (points 1-3 on both feet), those six points connected to point 4 on both feet, both points 4 connected to the perineum, and the adrenals connected to the perineum.
Now bring your awareness to the perineum and visualise one large root growing out from this into the ground.
Keep standing or remain seated in this position for as long as feels comfortable for you.
Guided Meditation
The track you hear in the background you can find on Soundcloud:
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