This Grounding Yoga Flow Will Bring You Down to Earth

What does it mean to be grounded? Yoga teachers are always throwing this term around, and it’s not esoteric yoga jargon. To be grounded is a real feeling, and one that we should all strive to attain.

It’s easy to understand what it means to be grounded by first understanding what it means to be ungrounded. When we’re frazzled, anxious, stressed, or easily agitated, we fall into the trap of believing that we are our emotions. We get caught up in negative events that happened in the past or in our own negative projections of the future. We forget our true sense of self and our connectedness to the spiritual energy pulsating within and around us. This is what it means to be ungrounded.

On the other hand, when we can separate our emotions from our sense of self, we experience groundedness. In this state, our awareness is in the present rather than the past or the future. We literally feel more solid and more connected to the world around us. We receive a sense of assuredness that the universe will take care of us. Being grounded is a wonderful quality, which is why yoga teachers talk about it so often.

Head in the clouds, feet on the mat

Whenever we stray from feelings of groundedness, our yoga practice can bring us back. It does so in several ways:

• The simple yogic act of connecting to the breath is grounding in itself. It reigns in our awareness from the past or future and brings it to the present.
• Yoga teaches us to send our energy downward by anchoring through our feet in standing poses or touching our palms to the earth. This practice brings energetic grounding when we’re feeling flighty or spacey.
• Yoga helps us to make pranic (energetic) connections to the earth. In Child’s pose, Extended Puppy pose, and Prostration pose, for example, we touch our third eye chakra (ajna) to the ground. The third eye chakra is related to our sense of awareness, so this physical act directs our awareness toward the earth.
• Meditation gives us the opportunity to enter the field of pure silence. Here, we tap into pure awareness and clarity for the ultimate grounding.

Grounding yoga flow

Try this short yoga sequence whenever you’re feeling a little ungrounded. It uses all of the techniques mentioned above to quickly hone in your awareness and reconnect you to your true self.