Lesson 9: Grounding and Visualization Meditations

[Astral]

Grounding and Visualization Meditations

There are many different kinds of meditations that you can practice. Some examples include mindfulness meditation, heart-centered meditation, creative meditation or visualization, reflective meditation. Those are the main ones as there could be several other types of meditations. There are also several different techniques that you can practice such as deep breathing meditation, zen meditation, chakra meditation, mindful breathing, walking meditation, sitting meditation, grounding, transcendental meditation, and many others. We have already touched on a few of those techniques and meditations. 

For this lesson, I will be touching on Grounding and visualization meditations. The definition of Grounding is getting in touch with your surroundings and the earth itself. Doing this will allow you to get in better touch with yourself. A great way of doing this is to perform visualization meditations. If you practice rituals and spells, these meditations can be done either before, during, or after depending on what is right for you. It is also recommend and beneficial to do these meditations with friends. For example, if your going to do a ritual with your coven or with a group of friends, you can all do the meditation together in order to prepare everybody at once and, along with that, everybody will be on the same spiritual level which is a great benefit for spellcasting. Just remember that you can do this any way that you would like. Whatever works for you, just do it.

Here are some exercising that you can try when grounding yourself or centering yourself.

Grounding visualizations

Begin by standing up with your feet spread out a little bit from each other. Raise your hands up in the air as if you are going to touch your ceiling. You can close your eyes if you want, but it is not mandatory.

Now, visualize energy come from the end of your spine and down towards the ground. Imagining the energy sinking deeper into the earth's soil and down to the earth's core and then wrapping itself around Earth's hot and magma core.

Keep standing and keep your arms up if possible. Start imagining tree branches growing from your spine to the top of your head as it grows up your arms and through the top of your finger tips and into the sky. These branches are now growing to the center of the universe and sinking itself with the energy from the universe as this energy is being brought back down to you.

Now you can imagine both energies, from the Earth's Core and the Universe's energy, swirling around inside you. You can continue or repeat this meditation for as long as you need to. When you are done, make sure to imagine the branches and the energy come back into you slowly. You have just grounded yourself, hopefully it was a success.

Centering Visualization

For this exercise, you can lay down but make sure you are completely flat on your back. Close your eyes gently and make sure you are in an undisturbed area. Lay down on the couch, the floor, your bed, it is your choice. Start be breathing normally and bring all your focus onto your breathing without forcing air to come in and out of your lungs.

Start imagining your breath is energy as you keep inhaling it and exhaling it. Start digging deeper within yourself, scan yourself for any feelings that don't feel 'good'. This may be negativity that is holding your positive feelings hostage. We are now going to get rid of this feeling as it holds us down and doesn't let us obtain happiness.

When you exhale, imaging all the negativity leaving your body. Let's begin with exhaling that negative energy through your feet. You are relieving yourself of all that negative energy while you are exhaling, and with every inhale you are breathing in positive, good, and light energy into your body. After you are done with your feet, move up to your legs, hips, arms, neck, head, and so on. If you accidentally lose some of the positive energy or light, just bring it back in as you continue to breathe. 

Now, once all that harmful energy has disappeared, you can now imagine all the light energy circling inside you. You can imagine this energy moving through and around you. You can concentrate on this energy and do this exercise as long as you need or want. Once you are finished, bring your focus back to your surroundings and away from your energy and breathing, and then you can open your eyes.

We will discuss more techniques and exercises in the future. If you would like more breathing or visualization exercises, be sure to check out our Meditation Corner where you can find exercises in both categories.

Homework: If you decide to partake in the meditations explained above, please let us know your experience! Was it hard for you to focus? How did you feel before, during, and after doing the meditations? What are your thoughts?  

Subject to edit by the instructor

[Zotron]

I like the idea of "grounding". The way I see it, it is a way of getting a feeling of "belonging". A feeling of "I am a part of ALL of this." And the way you describe the visualization, it does place you exactly where you are, on the surface of this planet, in an immensely vast space. My most "grounding" experiences have actually been floating on the surface of the planet. (In a lake) That gave the added feeling of weightlessness. I developed my own technique of floating,  with my body vertical in the water and my head laid back on the surface. That way, all the buoyancy of the body holds just the face out of the water. Having nothing but a view of the sky (day or night) gives you a totally different perspective from our usual "Earthbound" view. By letting your arms fall to your sides, and making slow, slight figure-8 motions with your hands, like a fish's fins, you can remain completely motionless. You can see slightest motion in the water (at night) by the appearance of movement of the stars.
This is best done in calm water, but because you are essentially weightless, your body will rise and fall with slight swells in the water. Small waves will be naturally compensated for with hand movements.
With only your face in air, the focus will be on breathing.