Yoga 101: What is Grounding in Yoga?
You may or may not have had it named in a yoga class, but most yoga teachers will guide you to practice grounding as part of a session. So what is grounding and why does grounding in yoga have such a benefit?
What is Grounding?
Grounding is the practice of connecting with (literally!) the ground and feeling the solidness of it underneath you. You may do this whilst sitting, connecting down through your seat to gravity and the earth beneath you, or whilst standing, through your feet.
This may sound a bit hippy dippy to you; it's not. We are creatures nurtured in the environment of this planet and the force of gravity; having a solid surface beneath our feet is a primary way of us knowing that everything is OK.
How do you practice Grounding in Yoga?
In yoga you can practice grounding by feeling the ground, floor or props beneath you at any point during a pose or other part of the practice. In meditations grounding often focuses on the sitting bones or the pelvic floor as not only are these closest to the earth whilst sitting, they are also the areas of the body most associated with the root chakra.
Connecting with the root chakra is a form of grounding, as it has the most grounded and settled energy of all the chakras. It's like the base of the energetic pyramid, providing a solid support for all the others that build upon it.
In poses you can ground by feeling the solidity and firmness of whatever you have on the floor (say one foot in Vrkasana/ tree pose or the forearms in a headstand) and then transferring that up through the physical body to shore up any wobbly or uncertain areas- especially helpful in balances.
Finally, you can also practice grounding in yoga or anywhere else by simply connecting with where feels solid and strong in yourself, whether this is in the physical body or elsewhere in your life. Grounding is a form of 'resourcing' which can provide a welcome check in for reality and physical or psychological solidness. It might just help you get through that final wobbly balance pose or manage that tough final 5 mins of your mediation practice.
Grounding, Stress and Mental Wellbeing
Grounding is a fantastic tool to support us, especially in difficult situations. I would hope in some ways that the trickiest situation you face today is not falling on your face out of crow pose, but I suspect that is wishful thinking!
The case in point however is that when you learn to ground in yoga practice, either to balance better or to feel more settled in meditation, perhaps both, then it easily becomes a transferrable skill for other tricky situations.
Grounding is a very helpful way of reminding ourselves to be present by feeling the ground and our bodies right here, right now, and consequently works wonders for stress and anxiety where our minds might otherwise chatter on and spiral into a dimension of their own. Presentations, exams, interviews and even arguments are a real proving ground for the power of grounding for mental wellbeing, calming racing thoughts and drawing you back to reality. If you can, try it next time you find yourself in a fix, you'll notice the self-awareness and the reassurance it can bring.
Scientific evidence backs this up too, as sensory grounding exercises have been shown to produce measurable, positive changes in heart rate variability (HRV), a key indicator of acute stress.
Grounding in the yoga tradition
If you're reading this thinking it all sounds a lot like health and wellbeing rather than good old traditional yoga, then let me tell you a bit more about how grounding fits into the yoga tradition.
One of our primary yoga texts, the Yoga Sutras, says that in order to practice yoga our postures should embody steadiness and ease ("shtira sukham asanam" for my fellow nerds 🤘🏻). Grounding is an awesome way to approach this, especially as we hold postures over time - perhaps in yin yoga or seated in mediatation- we can get a lot of discomfort or unwelcome sensation coming up and we need to ground in order to stay steady both physically and mentally. One of our other primary traditional guides to yoga, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika suggests that Siddhasana is the best pose for meditation and it's no coincidence that this is the most grounded of the seated postures, with the widest base created by the legs.
Overall there is an empahsis on physical, mental and energetic stability being the key initial ingredients to progress on the path of yoga; the ability to still the mind and ground the body is necessary in order to safely move on, activate our prana and reach a higher state of awareness.
Other places you'll find Grounding practices
Grounding practices are widely recognised as useful for stress, anxiety and improving mental wellbeing so you will find a variety of practices offered for self-help and self-regulation. You may even be offered grounding practices by your GP or CBT course in order to manage emotional intensity and calm worry and overthinking.
If you have been to therapy, it's likely that your therapist has supported you whilst working through strong emotive issues by offering you a grounding technique such as focusing on your breath or counting. These would not be the same as yoga grounding techniques but they are certainly effective for bringing the mind back to the present moment and pressing pause on spiralling thoughts.
Other traditions use grounding too, for example Chi Gong from the Daoist tradition has many excellent grounding practices including Doaist or wu-ji stance which I find is an even more grounded alternative to Tadasana. Many Buddhist practices are based in grounding techniques, involving focusing into the physical body and the sensations arising moment to moment.
Get Grounded
If you feel like you need more grounding in your life you can get in touch to work with me on a personal yoga programme. I cannot emphasise enough the benefits (both mental and physical) that I have experienced from developing my own grounding abilities over the last 10 or so years, and it is my privilege to offer you these techniques in a personalised format to support your own goals, either online, or in person in Leeds.
Comments