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POWER in the GROUND
by Joanne
Kornoelje
Grounding? It doesn’t sound like much fun. It certainly doesn’t
have the appeal of talking with ancient deities, questioning a pendulum for insight into life, or taking off on
an out of body experience. It just seems a little...well, boring.
It’s true that grounding is not flashy. It’s also true that without stable grounding, the energy you bring into
your life - whether for healing, gardening, or managing a business - will not be your fullest expression.
You bring energy to you. You open yourself - consciously or unconsciously - and take in energy from a variety of
sources. Sun, moon, air, food, water, and emotion all provide the energy of life. The moods and emotions of your
friends and associates have a direct effect on you. Your boss in a bad mood can ruin your day, and your boss in
a great mood can make a great day. How can you assimilate all this incoming material - including new, incoming
energy of a higher frequency - without disrupting your system?
This is when your grounding stops being boring, and starts being of vital importance. This is when your grounding
functions like the grounding of your electrical appliances.
You know that all your electrical appliances require grounding. It’s a simple technique to keep the appliance -
and potentially you - from getting fried in an overload condition. In a normal electrical circuit the electricity
flows through a "hot" charged wire to your lamp, and back to the service panel through a neutral wire.
The neutral wire is connected to the earth - yes, the ground - at the panel. The earth, with its zero voltage,
can absorb any extra electricity leaking out of your lamp or toaster - instead of starting a fire or jolting you
with an electric shock.
Consider yourself a lamp with charged and neutral wires, bringing in energy to power you and letting the excess
or unhealthy energy run off safely into the earth. It’s a fairly neat system Sometimes though - as with all systems
- things don’t run according to plan. The wires fall down on the job. They could be rotting, falling apart through
lack of use and maintenance. Or they might have worked once, but then - when some modification was made - the current
was disrupted and just never worked properly again.
This may already be causing a strain on your system. If on top of this the incoming current is suddenly increased
(when you open to higher energies for example), your system will definitely have problems handling the load. With
a grounding wire that has frayed or was never installed properly, you will experience unpleasant physical sensations
as your body looks for ways to unload or assimilate the charge.
So what to do?
Quick and easy ways to ground excessive energy are to eat (bread and chocolate are good), drink (alcohol and coffee),
and smoke. These are effective, but have side effects that may not always be desirable. They also have limited
impact on disruptive, unhealthy energy you have taken into your system.
A relatively quick method to remove unwanted, sick energy is to touch something that conducts earth energy and
that is actually connected with the ground - just like your electrical appliance. Iron, brick or cement walls with
footings work. This passes the sick energy down to the earth and the earth helps neutralize it.
For those who have the stamina for something other than the quick fix, the Chinese arts of Chi Kung and T’ai Chi,
along with various Taoist meditations, use "rooting" as a central concept. This is grounding under a
different name. It means being stable and in firm contact with the earth. Try pushing a car without being rooted.
You’ll find yourself pushing you away from the car, not the car away from you..
Developing a strong root requires that you relax and let your body "settle". As you relax, the tension
in your body dissolves and you find a comfortable way to stand. You begin to let the structure of the body support
itself, instead of fighting gravity to stand upright. As a result, the muscles relax even more. As your body relaxes,
your mind can relax and allow itself to sink. Body and mind relax; the intention of the mind causes the energy
to sink. This is the beginning stance for Chi Kung, T’ai Chi and standing meditation.
To get the idea of relaxing and sinking, try this exercise: Stand, imagine your body to be a glass jar, filled
with water. Shake your body 2-5 minutes. See the water become cloudy, as the dirt that was hidden in the cracks
and crevasses of the jar is dislodged and begins floating in the water. Stop shaking, and let the dirt settle down
to your feet, leaving behind a clear mind, heart and center. Once the dirt is accumulated in your feet, you can
get rid of it by simply opening up the bottom of your feet and letting it move into the earth. You have just created
a ground.
A metaphor quite useful in grounding is a tree. You can become a tree in meditation. Stand tall, and imagine yourself
to be your favorite tree, located in your favorite spot. Grow a strong tap root out of your feet down into the
earth, to drink in the nutrients and nourishment of the earth. Let your hands and head be the branches and top
of the trunk of the tree, gathering nourishment from the sun and air of heaven. The leaves and branches transmit
the heavenly energy through you into the earth, sweeping along the resistance and clutter in your system, and lodging
it in the welcoming earth for recycling and renewal.
If you cannot imagine yourself as a tree, go visit one. Trees, especially pines, are excellent for moving sick
energy into the earth. You can sit with a tree, or lean against it, and let its power infiltrate your systems and
clean and heal you.
Daily meditation is another way to keep the energy flowing, and connect to earth. Remember that meditation is opening
to information and frequency of a higher level, and ultimately using that information to realize more about ourselves.
To open to information requires that you be here. The information comes to you; you do not have to chase it.
Taoist meditations are focused on circulating energy. The Microcosmic Orbit is well known as the underlying basis
for the esoteric practices. It circulates energy through two major channels encircling the body. Systematic practice
of this ancient method creates many health benefits (for example, stress reduction, toning of internal organs,
establishing sense of well being) as well as opening the pathways to allow excess energy to run off through the
feet.
There are many forms of Chi Kung and T’ai Chi, and many meditation practices. They all have energy circulation
in common. If you learn one form, you have the raw material for a lifetime of practice. Practice that one form,
and you will begin to understand how much more there is to learn and practice, learn and practice. As you continue,
you begin to understand that the only true learning comes from practice. And everything becomes an opportunity
to practice. There’s no rush to mastery - you have the rest of your life. Sink you roots into the ground and get
started!
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