On Grounding

We hear a lot about grounding and its importance to our busy, hectic lives. In simple terms, it is

having an awareness of the ground we stand, sit or lie upon. It is often described as earthing the

body’s electrical charge and there is a known benefit to dropping your awareness into the ground.

On Tree Energy Walks having a sense of the earth supporting us is a vital ingredient and a

pathway towards healing. This is why we start our practice with breathing and grounding

exercises as the forest is one of the best places to cleanse our system of stress and nervous

energy.

We start by walking into the forest and crossing a sacred threshold, leaving the modern world

behind us and entering a beautiful natural space. Already, a calming atmosphere surrounds us but we can take this feeling deeper with a simple grounding practice.

Gathering under a canopy of branches we feel protected and enter a safe meeting place. It is the

feeling of coming home and the group ready to start its journey into the heart of nature.

First, you need to prepare the body, by sending awareness into the feet. They need to relax and

spread out and not claw the ground. Even doing this inside shoes brings about a subtle change in

posture. We are engaging the sense of touch, the first of the senses that will take us into close

contact with the natural world around us.

By relaxing the feet the rest of the body can follow as joints open, connective tissue unsticks and your structure returns to its true default state.

The next stage is to use this new space in the body to deepen the breath. We start to drop into a meditative state, by lengthening the out breath and allowing a natural pause between breaths. Sending awareness to the area around the navel is a way to centre your own energy field and some ‘belly breaths’ help this process.

Imagination is another powerful tool for us to use and we visualise exhaling down into the earth beneath our feet and pausing before allowing the in breath. In this moment we can imagine the next inhale is coming up from under the ground as if we are being breathed by Mother Earth. It only takes five minutes or so of ‘Earth breathing’ into a relaxed body for a deep connection with the planet to start taking hold.

During this moment we engage another of our senses, as the sound track of the forest takes over our hearing. We listen to the sound of birdsongs, the wind in the trees and sometimes the flow of water nearby.

When we open our eyes and allow the colours and textures of the forest to mix with sounds and

smells of the woodland we know we have established contact with nature.

Now we are ready to approach a chosen tree and start a conversation and exchange of energy.