Ground your body with gravity. Give your weight over to the earth below you and feel a release, even if it’s just a little.

In a recent blog post, I shared a little about the practice of grounding with gravity, a very simple meditation I have done for years as a foundation for my own practice. It’s the meditation I begin with when I first start working with clients.

Grounding with gravity is not just a concept.

It’s a visceral sensation of ease and safety.

A huge resistance to stop and sit still is letting go of the world you know and the daunting fear of what you’ll find within.

“Research estimates that 80% to 85% of our perception, learning, cognition and activities are mediated through vision. ”

— Brainline.org

“Our eyes are our most important organ of sense, as up to 80% of all sensory impressions are registered through our sight. Our eyes can take in 10 million pieces of information per second and transfer them to the brain.”

— iCareVision.com

In closing your eyes, you eliminate a significant amount of input from the outside world. If your sense of self is tightly bound to the world you see, closing your eyes can feel like a loss of control and loss of self.

Another common obstacle to committing to a quiet practice is facing head-on the “monkey mind” that we all know far too well. You’re aware of it with eyes open but it’s easy to find distractions to ignore it. With eyes closed it’s harder to avoid. The mental chatter actually seems louder with eyes closed. It seems more chaotic inside than it does outside.

Grounding with gravity is the perfect antidote to these looming fears of sitting with ourselves unguarded.

And it’s immediate.

You can feel this visceral sense of ease and safety in the company of your inner world within minutes.

Over the years I’ve explored various fancy meditation techniques but discovered that the quickest way to feel safe and ease in meditation right away, is to invite the body to simply ground with gravity.

It’s playing with the assumption that a constant invisible force is pulling your body towards the core of the earth.

It’s also taking a moment to connect to the earth below you and claim the space only you can occupy.

This is your personal space…your own real estate…your home.

There’s no effort involved, only surrender.

This downward pulling sensation in your body is synonymous to relaxation when you connect to it with awareness and intention.

The beauty of this practice is that gravity is available to you 24/7, 365 days of the year, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing and whom ever you’re with.

Even in the midst of the most stressful situations in both your inner and outer worlds, the visceral sensation of ease and safety is available to you.

There are six things you’ll notice when you allow your body to ground with gravity:

A cascade of release from the bottom up - There’s a settling that starts in your hips down to your feet and moves up to a softness in your lower belly, an opening in your chest, some distance created between your ears and shoulders and a release in your jaws and tongue. Any sense of holding or contracting starts to fall away.
A cascade of lightness from the top down - When the base of support in your lower body is firmly planted to the earth below you, there’s a complementary sensation of softness and expansion in the rest of your body.
A cascade of ease from skin to bones - There’s a natural withdrawing of your attention from the outside world in order to place your focus on you. It’s giving yourself permission to be temporarily released of your obligations long enough to fill your own cup with your attention. It doesn’t seem like much but your body will soften, little by little, from skin to bones, just from the gaze* of your focus.
Land yourself here and now - You prioritize yourself and your body in this moment and allow yourself to fully occupy the space only you can occupy on this planet. You feel the full presence of you that is here now. You exist and there’s only one of you.
Deep breathing - There’s a sensation of your body breathing you that is initiated from a deeper and lower place within. The expansion and contraction of the breath happens naturally. It feels like there’s more room to breathe.
Sharpened focus and concentration - Honing in on the sensations in your body brings your attention firmly back inside your body which beautifully quiets the mental chatter. This allows the whispers of your intuition to be heard and felt more clearly. Decisions are made with more clarity and tasks are approached with more intention.

* gaze - to look steadily and intently, as with great curiosity, interest, pleasure, or wonder (Dictionary.com)

From my own personal experience coupled with a deep dive into the teachings of Dr. Joe Dispenza, Donna Farhi and Erich Schiffmann, I’ve learned that when this cascade of ease washes over you from grounding, your brain waves slow down from the hyper-aware beta brain wave state to the calm creative alpha brain wave state.

Your nervous system switches from sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze) to parasympathetic (rest and digest). It’s a similar brain wave transition we experience right before we fall asleep at night. Only now you’re inviting this sensation of ease while you’re awake during the day.

Beta comes from being primarily focused outward while alpha comes from being focused inward. With the additional focus on the visceral sensation of grounding, it brings you deeper into alpha which effortlessly quiets your mental chatter enough so that you can really listen and feel inside.

Below is a grounding with gravity meditation I’ve created just for you, to give you the experience of this visceral sensation of ease and safety. It’s about 10 minutes long with no music. Without music was intentional as it’s easier to focus your attention on the sensations in your body without this distraction.

Once you’ve become familiar with this easeful sensation with eyes closed, the ultimate goal is to rest in this sensation in life with eyes wide open.

Enjoy!