If you are struggling to survive, a natural response is fear! Here is an evidence-based approach science has proven can be helpful.

Fear heightens awareness and focuses all attention on how to survive the next moment. It is a state of mental alertness accompanied by heightened sensitivity to sights, sounds and other stimuli which can feel like hypervigilance and anxiety. If you are in an environment of danger or deprivation, fear provides the mental alertness and energy to get through. The nervous system revs up and it is uncomfortable to even try to relax. Your stability seems shaky and unreliable. To counteract that fear, the action of grounding is very helpful and feels extremely supportive. Grounding helps counteract being overwhelmed, stressed and anxious.

A Ground to Stand On

The ground where you actually exist, take root, grow and eventually die is in the body. More specifically your ground is the base of the body, your feet, legs and bottom of the spine. It is the foundation upon which your whole being is resting, known as the root chakra.

The Mighty Oak Was Once a Little Nut That Stood its Ground

The root represents where we receive nourishment and stability; the earth, womb, our family and ancestors. Our basic elements needed for survival come from the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the earth itself. Energy is received through your feet and legs and dispersed through your body with the excess discharging downward into the ground. When you are feeling rooted, you stand on your own two feet and feel the desire to take the steps to move forward in life, intuitively knowing your right to connect with your internal source of support.

The Demon of Fear

The grounding sense of having a body and feeling sensations on the inside develops very early; around four or five months gestation through the first year of life. If your prenatal development was challenged by adverse conditions your mother lived with or entry to the earth through birth was traumatic or you were left without adequate care or nurturing touch, your body and mind have been molded in a certain way. If you had feeding difficulties, illnesses or your parents struggled to make ends meet, if there was emotional or physical abuse, addiction or mental illness in the family, your root chakra may have wisely developed an orientation toward self-preservation. It did a good job of keeping you alive. That fear may not have left enough energy, however to establish a healthy root system. The resulting feeling-tone, right from the start, may be a disconnection from your body, coupled with anxiety, poor focus and disorganized thoughts.

Cultural Conditioning

Our culture has conditioned most of us to control our body by thinking, analyzing and planning but the body has an organic intelligence the brain cannot fathom. The body tells the truth while the brain creates stories. By dropping attention into the body and becoming curious about the location of sensation, a grounded sense of self-trust gradually develops.

What Helps Create Grounding

Moving slowly, with a curious and compassionate attitude toward yourself cultivates safe feelings at a pace you can tolerate. Begin by standing and noticing if you can actually feel your feet. Wiggle your toes, lift them up and press them down into the floor. Rock your weight to the left and right foot and notice the pressure sensations followed by release. Bend your knees and press firmly into the floor through your feet to increase the intensity of the pressure then rise up on tip toes. What sensations are you aware of in your feet, ankles, calves and knees? Bring your hands to the muscles of your upper legs as you bend and straighten your knees. Can you feel those muscles contract and tense then relax and soften? Allow your knees to remain slightly bent as you move your hips side to side, then in a circle. Imagine you actually have roots under your feet and gather your inner legs toward each other just a little bit, lift up through your pelvic floor and hug your lower belly back toward your spine. Can you feel your inside muscles engage a little? Emotionally you are developing resiliency.

Eventually the shakiness turns into strength. Repeat these a few times until you feel a sense of grounding your awareness into your body. You are getting better at feeling rather than always thinking. You are including your body in your awareness. It may seem as though you are remembering something very basic which you have forgotten. It is natural to feel that something very right is taking place. It is natural to also feel sad for something so precious to have been missed in the effort to survive.

You have a right to exist, to be here in your body, to take up space and have safety and stability.