The Missing Piece to Spirituality: A Grounded Perspective

My mind was always racing. A constant noise screamed in the background. I had sleepless nights from looping songs in my head. I had scattered focus after meals. Worst of all, I didn’t know what mattered most. Everything seemed important, and it meant nothing was important. On a whim, I found a Qigong instructor and did a group practice. I remember sitting at a restaurant with some friends from the class. We all felt the same that evening: a stillness of mind with complete presence. This feeling was real grounding. The sad reality is that grounding is tossed around like a buzzword to the point that it has lost its meaning.

“I feel like I need to ground.”

“You are too scattered and need to ground; buy
this grounding wand.”

“Don’t waste your money. Put your bare feet on the earth to ground.”

“If you hate dirty feet, use our products to help you ground.”

Grounding goes much deeper than this (pun intended). This article explains the wisdom of grounding.

What Grounding Really Is

Daoist wisdom says “Don’t step outside on the earth barefoot.” It’s a shocker, I know, but consider this: if direct earthly contact is all you need, go hug or touch a tree. It’s connected to the earth; why couldn’t you get the same benefits? The most grounded people you will meet are Daoists, and they wear shoes almost all the time. How can they ground with shoes? It’s more about your state of mind rather than dirtying your soles. Grounding was, and still is, a spiritual practice. Just like electricity, you need a ground to improve the flow. This flow is from Qi, or life force energy, and it can be cultivated for your spiritual journey.

How Grounding Elevates Spirituality

When people want to be grounded, they either walk barefoot or eat grounding foods like meat. When people want to be more spiritual, they avoid grounding. Take vegetarianism, for example. This diet reduces food’s grounding effect. The physical body is dense, and it overrides our higher spiritual faculties with senses. Thus, to tap into higher spiritual gifts, it makes sense to be less grounded and rise higher. A visual example of this is a balloon with a weight tethering it. Lose the weight, and the floating balloon can rise ever higher. You get a complete bird’s-eye view of everything. This is how spiritual gifts can function. However, it is incomplete.

No Grounding Negatively Affects Spiritual Gifts

There’s a big issue with being a floating balloon. Yes, you can see everything and have all the spiritual insights, but you’re at the mercy of the wind. It whisks you away against your will. You cannot apply your gifts effectively with the wind controlling you. Look at the many examples of spiritual people, and one trend appears. They are poor or don’t have enough money. It’s become a trope. As my instructor Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson said, “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” It isn’t that they don’t care about material things; it’s that their ability to function in the material world is affected. They are the floating balloon. Daoist wisdom shares the solution through one small idea.

The Connection Between the Heavens and Earth

In Daoist lore, people connect the Heavens (the sky above) and the Earth. Daoists don’t care about spiritual gifts, at least not at first. The upper psychic center is the final focus. The first focus is the lower psychic center found between the navel, the lower back, and the perineum. This power center is called the Lower Dantien, and it is a psychic center of kinesthetic awareness. This means it perceives physical and energetic feelings or sensations. Activating the Lower Dantien grounds you naturally. When the Lower Dantien is strong, it keeps your psychic perspectives rooted in reality. Let’s return to the floating balloon for a moment. This is being heavenly minded, always having your head in the clouds while your feet are off the ground. Without grounding, you’re only connecting to the Heavens. Proper grounding anchors you into being the connection between the Heavens and the Earth. You stop being the balloon and instead stand on a mountain’s peak. Your head is in the clouds, getting a bird’s-eye view, but your feet are on the ground.

The takeaways here are:

Life is less chaotic when you are grounded.
Everything is better when you aim for the ground.
Grounding affects change in the physical world around you.
Your psychic perceptions provide greater benefits when you are grounded.

To elevate higher, descend deeper.

A mountain monastery was suffering a great storm when a boulder landed in the courtyard. The monks feared the boulder would cause more damage to the monastery and ran to tell the head monk. The head monk was meditating and stayed put. After a few chaotic minutes, the head monk walked outside, picked up the stone, and threw it down the mountain. He returned to his meditation. When asked why he didn’t do that right away, he replied: “I needed to sink deeper into stillness to achieve it.”

This story highlights how grounding deeper allows us to tap into our full potential. Spiritually, we must be like the tree. Heavenly-minded, but deeply rooted and stable. The wind blows, but doesn’t topple the tree. A tremendous effort is required to topple it. Be like the tree. Do not be like the inflatable tube guy outside car dealerships; always at the mercy of the wind.

Be the Dragon, not the tiger.

The imagery of the dragon and tiger goes beyond a battle of mythical creatures. It showcases the importance of grounding for spiritual seekers. The dragon is seen as the top spiritual animal. It floats or swims through the sky. It is wise and powerful, but commands storms to bring harvest or reap destruction. The powers of a dragon are immense and affect the physical plane. The dragon gets a bird’s-eye view in the sky and can land to get a closer look. It lives between the Heavens and Earth.

The story of the Zodiac tells it best.

When the rabbit was attempting to cross a river to win the race, it was assisted by the dragon. The dragon saw the rabbit stuck upon a rock, swooped down, and helped it onto land. The race host asked the dragon, “Why weren’t you in first place? You can fly.” The dragon said, “I was putting out fires with rain at a village.”

The dragon is the prime example to follow. To affect change in life with your spiritual gifts, grounding is a must. You become a better conduit, and your energy flow becomes smoother. Practically speaking, if you channel, grounding gives you a cleaner signal. If you do readings, grounding gives a sharper perspective with clearer answers. For the spiritual seekers, grounding lets you fully engage your energy flow and opens the gate of possibilities for you.

How to Ground for Spiritual Elevation

The first step is developing a root. Remember the tree example? Think about its roots, widespread and deeply embedded. Yes, you can keep your shoes on. To develop this root, focus on how you position yourself, how you stand, and how you walk. The feet matter most. Martial masters don’t care what the hands of a kung fu demonstrator do. They look at their feet. Bad feet mean bad root, and thus the demonstration doesn’t matter. The masters walk away while continuing to smoke their cigarettes. Pay attention to what your feet are doing. Feel the ground with every step. Feel it on your soles.

The second step is activating the Lower Dantian. Once you activate this center, grounding becomes very easy. A simple way to activate it daily throughout the day follows:

• Place one hand on your chest and another on your lower abdomen.
• Breathe in and out through the nose.
• With every breath, push the lower abdomen hand away while preventing your chest from rising.
• Aim each breath towards the ground.
• Feel the full expansion of your lower abdomen.

As you do this, you will gently activate the grounding effects of the lower abdomen. Do this all day, and you’ll be more grounded.

TAKE ACTION: Begin by bringing greater awareness to your feet, posture, and breath throughout the day. Feel the ground beneath each step and direct your breathing into the lower abdomen to strengthen your connection with the body. To deepen this practice and explore grounding through movement, join Jose Mendoza for Qigong teachings and practices.