Sunday Meditation: Grounding and Centering

This is the first of my weekly Sunday meditations. Since all meditation should begin with grounding and centering, let’s do that.

Sit, stand, or lie down. Breathe comfortably.
Find your center. Find the part of your body that feels like the place where you reside. Breathe in and out from your center.
Allow all your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and energies to come home to your center. You’re not out there, worrying about tomorrow. You’re centered. You’re not thinking about yesterday. You’re centered. Let all the little distractions come home and be at peace.
Notice all your energy gathered in your center like a glowing ball.
(If you’re standing) Take a tendril of that energy, and send it down through your legs, your feet, out the soles of your feet…
(If you’re seated or lying down) Take a tendril of that energy, and send it down through your spine, out the base of your spine…
into the Earth.
Feel yourself rooted in the Earth.
Feel yourself supported by the Earth.
Feel the energy of your body mingling with the firm, strong, nurturing energy of the Earth.

You can spend a long time in meditation just doing a grounding and centering exercise like this one, or it can be a quick thirty-second prelude to whatever you do next. Grounding and centering is a basic mind skill, and everyone who meditates or does ritual should be able to do it quickly and easily.

Try it when you’re upset, when you’re distracted or unfocused at work or school, or when you feel disconnected or disoriented.

21 comments

  1. Barbs says:

    thank you

  2. Dan says:

    I prefer to do my meditations under a very old oak tree in my neighborhood
    thats in the old English cemetary.It’s also a great place to play with my canine friends and to counsel people with problems.

  3. deblipp says:

    That sounds lovely.

  4. Laura says:

    Thank you for that visualization. My mind can become very scattered and unfocused and I enjoyed this very much.

  5. deblipp says:

    You’re welcome.

  6. Dolmena says:

    I like the wording of this exercise. If I give credit, may I add it to my training materials?

  7. deblipp says:

    Sorry to keep you waiting in moderation, Dolmena. Yes, you may.

  8. […] So, the first part of this meditation is to allow your self-knowledge to shine through misperceptions. Ground and center. […]

  9. […] In a comfortable position, ground and center. […]

  10. […] Sometimes life brings us to a crossroads. We have multiple opportunities. Something changes. We can go back and or forward or off to some strange side path. Because our culture is dualist, we tend to view our choices as either/or: Forward or backward, single or married, old job or new job. But really, there are many times when it is wiser, more empowering, freer and more fun to view a crossroads going in many directions: Old job, new job, or go back to school. Single, married, dating without commitment, dating several people, group marriage, or sacred prostitution. Life gives us many opportunities, and it serves us to visualize paths that are open and, perhaps, unexplored. Ground and center. […]

  11. […] This is an advanced exercise. If you are not good at grounding and centering yet, you should not be doing things like breathing in negativity. Ground and center. […]

  12. […] our Sunday meditations, we almost always mention grounding and centering, and emphasize its importance as the beginning of all […]

  13. […] This is a meditation that creates a post-hypnotic suggestion that can be used to help you with ungoing problems. I am here creating a Cloak of Peace that can help with anxiety, but you can use a Cloak of Calm or Focus to help with hyperactivity or restlessnes, you can use a Cloak of Serenity to deal with mood swings or rage, you can use a Cloak of Contentment to help manage depression. Ground and center. […]

  14. […] Pagan faith is rooted in reality. While indeed, there have always been, and still are, great Pagan mystics and thinkers, there is also a strain of earthiness that is always a part of who and what we are. We have faith that the sun will rise, in great part, because it has always been known to rise. Because our theology and our mythos don’t defy nature, we can draw comfort from the natural world. Ground and center. […]

  15. […] deeply, ground and center, and gaze upon your altar. Are you able to have the darshan experience as it is now? Can you see […]

  16. […] work on grounding and centering. I mean, focus your meditation entirely on getting good at that, until you can do it in about five […]