Grounding, centering and shielding — what they actually mean

If you have looked into meditation, energy work, or spiritual practice, you have probably met these three words. They come up constantly and they are hardly ever explained. Grounding, centering and shielding get used as though everyone already knows what they mean, and most people nod along without asking.

So here is what they are, and one way to do each. It is not the only way. Energy work is personal, and what works for me may not work for you at all. Treat these as a starting point and find your own version.

Before you start, decide where you are going to be. Lying on a bed, sitting on the floor, on a mat, in a chair — it does not matter. Be comfortable, because the whole point is to stop being distracted.

What grounding is

Life pulls you out of the present. There is the list of things you have not done, the worries about what might happen, and the daydreaming that takes you somewhere else entirely. Grounding is the practice of coming back to physical reality — back to the room, the chair, the breath, the moment you are actually in.

People take it literally, and some of that is useful. Walking outside barefoot, lying in the grass, putting your hands in soil. All of that works. But it is not always practical. If it is the middle of winter in Michigan, wandering around outside with no shoes on is not a good idea, and a practice you cannot do in February is not much of a practice.

How to ground

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Pay attention to each breath in and each breath out.

When you are ready, imagine roots growing out of your body and down into the earth. With every breath, let them grow a little further. The deeper they go, the more settled you will feel. Keep the breathing steady.

Then imagine white light coming in on the in-breath, flowing down through your body and into the roots. On the out-breath, imagine dark breath, or dark clouds, leaving you — that is the heaviness going out. Keep going until you feel lighter. Then come back slowly, open your eyes, shake yourself out.

What centering is

Think about a day at work. You spend the whole shift with customers, being helpful, smiling, staying pleasant through dozens of conversations, and more than once somebody is rude to you for no reason that has anything to do with you.

By the end of it you are finished. Not tired in a way sleep fixes — emptied. All you want is the television and something to eat.

Everything is energy, including you and me. As we move through the day we hand pieces of ours out and pick up pieces of other people's. If nobody is paying attention to that exchange, you end up carrying somebody else's mood while missing parts of yourself.

Centering is the practice of calling your own energy back and putting down what you picked up. It restores the balance, and it is the difference between finishing a hard day and being flattened by one.

How to center

Eyes closed, a few deep breaths. On the in-breath, imagine all the energy you left behind in the world coming back to you, filling you up. On the out-breath, imagine blowing away everything that belongs to somebody else — the rubble, the litter, the comments that stuck.

Visualisation does most of the work here, so use an image you can actually hold in your head. I picture an empty cup surrounded by rubbish: each in-breath fills the cup with water, each out-breath sweeps the rubbish away.

If that does not land, try one of these:

• A jigsaw with pieces missing — each in-breath puts a piece back, each out-breath throws away the ones that do not belong.
• A book where each in-breath writes a kind sentence and each out-breath rubs out a cruel one.
• A garden where each in-breath brings a flower up and each out-breath pulls a weed.

What shielding is

Shielding has been practised for centuries. It is a way of protecting your mind from intrusion — from the things that drain you, and from thoughts that get planted in your head and were never yours.

Think back to that shift at work. If you had shielded before you walked in, the drain might not have landed the way it did.

Of the three, this is the one I find hardest. That is not a reason to skip it. It gets easier with practice, and it makes a real difference to how much of other people's weather I end up carrying. I wrote about what happens when you do not do it, and who tends to be on the other end of it, in Energy Vampires and Protection.

How to shield

I find it easiest after centering, though it is not required. If you have not centered, take a few breaths first and clear your mind.

Picture your mind as a wall of locked boxes. Into each box goes something that matters — private things, things you do not want to lose, things you are not willing to hand to whoever walks past. Lock them, file them, and know that you can go and get them when you need them.

It sounds too simple to work. It is not a complicated technique and there are no rules about how you do it. That is rather the point: it has to be a shape your own mind accepts.

Find your own version

Grounding puts you back in the present. Centering gives you your own energy back and takes the rest off you. Shielding puts something between you and the next conversation.

You do not have to do any of it perfectly, and you do not have to use my pictures. Try them, notice what you actually feel, and keep the parts that work. If you are doing this because you have been left wrung out by other people, Energy Vampires and Protection is the other half of it — what to do after the fact, and why some people cost you more than others.