Rituals: Grounding

Written by: Christin Ritz

Find a place outside where you can stand barefoot. Being barefoot is important because your kidney meridian begins on the bottom of your foot and draws vibration up through your body. Use a grounding crystal, such as red jasper, black tourmaline, garnet, hematite or another stone of your choice.

Plant your feet on the ground about shoulders width apart and let your arms hang at your sides with your crystal in your right hand. Straighten your spine, slightly lowering your chin to keep your neck and head straight. Breathe deeply and feel the length of your body. Close your eyes or lower your gaze to the ground. Visualize your own energy moving down through your legs and into the ground beneath you, deep toward the center of the earth. Become aware of the tremendous volume of air, atmosphere and space all around us. Feel the weight of your body and the force of the heavens gently pushing down towards the earth. Be present with this for a few breaths.

Move the crystal to your left hand. Keeping the same posture, breathe in and feel the energy of the earth coming up through your feet, your legs, upward through your chakra channel and out the crown of your head. As you breathe through this, be aware of the earth's energy under your feet pushing up. This may be expressed as grass growing upward, or perhaps the warmth from the earth's core penetrating up through sand.

Hold your crystal in both hands and sense that you stand in the middle of heaven's force pushing downward and earth's force pushing upward. Take a few steps, walking around and feeling the balance of these two complementary opposite forces through your bare feet.

As you go about your day your crystal will bring you back to this reality, where you feel supported, stable and strong. Practice any time you need to come back to earth.