Hello, my beautiful friends,
Welcome to my zen space! Have a seat. I'm so happy to send these positive vibes your way. In this time of craziness, it's so important to talk about grounding ourselves. Maybe you should have a cup of tea... I'm confident that most of us are not grounded right now. Good thing you all have a super-mindful friend who wants to help you feel calm! I have to admit, I'm not grounded right now. I feel like my thoughts are zipping around in a chaotic wind. But, we're going to work through this together. In this post, I'm going to talk about what being grounded means, things that make us feel ungrounded, the root chakra, symptoms of being ungrounded, and some tips we can use to ground ourselves!
What is being grounded?
Being grounded, in a spiritual sense, means feeling connected to the earth. You feel steady. Your roots are deep. You feel at peace because you're stable.
What makes us ungrounded?
Moving- For many of us, we've recently had a change of scenery. My DCP loves all had to unexpectedly leave our apartments and go back home or to some other form of living accommodations. This led to a lot of stress. There's so much uncertainty in the air. It feels like we don't have a place to set our roots in.
Uncertainty- We all feel like we're out of control right now. When we're out of control, we feel like we're floating around at the wind's mercy instead of standing tall with our roots set deep.
Lack of basic needs- When we're in a scarcity mindset and are constantly feeling as if we don't have enough, we feel unstable.
Trauma- big, horrible events, such as the world being in crisis mode right now because of COVID-19, affect all of us. Life-changing events, such as certain diagnoses or deaths in the family can also cause us to become ungrounded.
The Root Chakra
The root chakra is at the base of our body. Before I continue on this, for those of you that don't know what chakras are, they're energy points in your body that affect your physical and mental wellbeing. There are 7 main chakras, starting from the base of your body to the crown of your head. Our root chakra corresponds to our basic needs and survival. When our basic needs aren't being met, it misaligns our root chakra. Our base is what allows us to become grounded, so when this chakra is out of line, we feel unstable and anxiety-ridden.
Symptoms of feeling ungrounded/ How to know if you're Root Chakra is out of line
Anxiety
Trouble concentrating
Inability to stick to one task at a time
Feel a need to hoard money
Overworking
Sinus issues
Digestive/gastrointestinal issues
Eating disorders
Addictions
Tips for grounding yourself
It's so important to take the time to ground ourselves. When we feel grounded, our heads are clearer. When our minds are relaxed, we can sort through thoughts better and accomplish tasks with ease. There's less pressure on us. If you're experiencing any of the physical symptoms above, grounding yourself should help relieve these and lessen their intensity. Ideally, we don't experience any of these negative symptoms when we're completely aligned. I'm going to share some tips that help us feel less like we're being shoved around from the wind and more like we have sturdy roots.
Meditation~ sitting cross-legged on the ground for a few moments while focusing on our breath is extremely grounding.
Take a moment to notice what parts of your body are keeping you connected to the ground. Thinking about the way gravity is holding you down and noticing how your body feels brings you back to the present.
Going on a nature walk~ There's nothing like connecting with nature to ground you. If you're feeling adventurous and aren't afraid of fire ants, experiment with walking barefoot! Notice how the ground feels below you. Admire the nature around you.
Do simple, grounding yoga poses~ cross-legged easy seat, tree post, mountain pose, yogi squat, and child's pose are some great poses to alleviate stress. When you're in these poses, focus on your body to ground connection. My absolute favorite stress-relieving pose is called legs up the wall. It's so wonderful, I could dedicate a whole post to it.
A body scan~ Take a few moments to feel how every part of your body feels, starting from the top of your head and slowly working down to the tip of your toes. Whenever you feel tension, use your exhales to let that tension go.
Disconnect from screens~ Grounding is all about staying in the present. As helpful as our screens can be, taking a break from them and allowing yourself to connect to your mind and body can make a huge difference in how you respond to your anxiety for the rest of the day.
I would like to take a moment to have everyone reading this to take two deep breaths. Make them as long and exaggerated as possible. Let go of any stale energy or air. When the future is unclear, it triggers anxiety. So many people are anxious right now, and that's okay. Honor this feeling, validate it, and work on finding your way out of the unknown future and letting yourself be in the present.
To hopefully make you feel a little less lonely, I'm going to share a bit of my experience with being ungrounded. You're probably looking at this paragraph and thinking, "that's just a little bit of your story?!". Oh, yes, this is barely the tip of the iceberg. But I feel this tiny bit might shed some light on the physical and mental symptoms ungrounding causes and give you some reassurance that you're not alone. All of our experiences may be different, but we can all relate somewhere. As many of you know, for a year, I was really depressed. It wasn't until I started going to therapy that I finally felt I had a safe space to express my emotions, call out depression and anxiety for what they are, and work through them. Before therapy, I wasn't able to fully admit to myself or anyone else that I was depressed because, at home, I'm told I'm just dramatic and childish. I started experiencing symptoms of serious ungrounding in middle school when I started experiencing body image issues. This negative mindset has stuck with me for a long time, and has been reinforced time and time again by someone in my life who should be a lot more supportive of me, but doesn't seem to know how. In high school, I developed anxiety from always feeling the need to have perfect grades and fit social standards. By junior year of high school, I had severe gastrointestinal issues. Despite the tears I shed nearly daily, I felt I wasn't allowed to admit I had anxiety or felt sad all the time. People just kept telling me it was excessive stress and that it was okay. If people are telling you that severe physical and mental symptoms are acceptable, you probably should distance yourself from them, because it's not okay. I have another post lined up talking about excessive stress and another one about toxic people. Stay tuned. Sophomore year of college was when I went into a really tough depression. It was impossible for me to find peace. I couldn't ground myself at all. I felt unsafe and unheard. I lost so much weight from not eating, both accidentally and intentionally, and although someone who is supposed to be helpful in my life knew I was depressed, ignored this and reinforced the negative body image and habits I was forming. In this depression, I started experiencing sinus issues. I was constantly congested and had coughing fits that would last up to an hour at a time. I still experienced a lot of bloating and developed even more irregular eating patterns. My thoughts were always racing and I never felt like I had a place where I was just allowed to be myself. Therapy and being away from home helped me a lot, but it wasn't until I got to Disney that I felt the biggest impact. Being in Disney encouraged me to stay in the present much more often and distanced me from the people that cause me the most stress. Even though I was finally in my happy place, I still experienced ungrounding. Moving to a new place was a huge adjustment and I often felt myself getting swept up in the excitement, setting my head to the clouds. When the news came around that the program was being suspended, I got really controlling. My thought spirals tightened and my anxiety spiked. Having to move out caused a lot of strain on my mind and body as well. It was a shock to my system having been depressed for a year then straight into happiness. I struggled to give myself the time and space to explore what I needed to stay centered. Going from one extreme to another was a lot for my mind to sort through. Let that be a warning to you as well! Always give yourself the time to center and ground yourself, or you might find yourself getting swept up into the events going on in your life instead of standing your ground and handling everything with grace.
I truly hope that sharing this post with all of you has given you a new perspective and some tools to help you thrive through this time. Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are. I'd also love to hear if you tried any of the tips above. Please like this post and subscribe to the blog!
Namaste,
Camryn