Grounding Yourself
Over the last few years of my journey, I have found that the most important practices are the little ones that ground us. It is far easier to have a peak experience in a retreat than to live a life of balance and inner peace.
Grounding is the foundation of the spiritual path.
Without practices that clear our energy and connect us back to ourselves, our life continues to be a series of ups and downs.
As spiritual beings having a human experience, we have physical bodies to attend to. And we also have thoughts, emotions, and feelings to process.
This is something many omit when they start on the spiritual path. It is very hard to meditate if your energy is very agitated or if you only slept 5 hours last night.
I was fortunate to start building these foundations early on with Vipassana meditation. After a year, I built up to 2 hours of practice a day and adopted the 5 precepts, creating a sense of balance I had never experienced before.
A year later, I went through the Optimize Coach Program, where I really dove in with the Fundamentals. I transformed the way I eat, move, sleep, breathe and focus. I learned to stay centered and balanced throughout my daily life experiences.
Of course, my grounding practices have continued to evolve over time. I am constantly evolving and going deeper, so I also need to adapt the way I process my internal changes.
What I've found is that unless we ground ourselves consistently, it is very hard to make progress on the path. Unless we remove what is harming us and learn to nurture ourselves, we continue to be victims of our circumstances and old programming.
This doesn't mean we have to be super disciplined right away. It's quite the opposite in fact. Building our foundations takes years (or even a lifetime). Even the most accomplished masters come back to these fundamental practices all the time.
Once we understand that our progress on the path is made of these small habits, we start paying more attention to them. Over time, our life transforms because we took the time to build these foundations.
Now to the three pillars of grounding.
The first pillar is our Body.
The way we eat, move, sleep and breathe, all influence our physiology and psychology. By clearing away what is harming our body and bringing in more nutritious food, sleep, and movement, we enter the first stages of inner peace.
The second pillar is our Mind.
Our thoughts create our perspective of the world and our life. By meditating on our breath, spending time alone, and removing negative inputs (ex: technology, news, people...), we give space to our mind. Slowing down the pace of our life teaches us how to calm down our agitated thoughts and observe our limiting beliefs.
The third pillar is our Spirit.
This is our connection to Source, God, and love within ourselves. We all have an inner knowing and a source of infinite wisdom inside of us. We can connect with it through meditation, prayer, or immersion in nature. We can also connect to Spirit when we practice what makes us feel joy.
It is also here that we can ask for help or guidance. Every day, I ask my higher-self for help with simple questions like "what does my soul want to tell me today?" and write down the answer.
Yet, the foundation of this connection lies in calming our body and our mind. If you want to feel very connected above, you have to be even more rooted down below.
My favorite grounding practices are simple:
A clean vegan diet
A walk by the beach or in the forest
Meditation and breathwork
8-10 hours of quality sleep
I get that these will not be the same for everyone. They are MY way of grounding myself every day. The key is for you to find what works for YOU and slowly start to install that into your life.
The main message I wish to share is that grounding and balance are the foundation of the path. These practices are not complicated and will make your journey a heck of a lot easier.
Remember, the most simple and powerful things are often the hardest to do.
