The Art of Grounding

Finding Your Creative Center in an Uncreative World

I remember when yoga was just beginning to become popular. A series of luxury hotels hired me to be an on-site yoga instructor to help guests add a wellness component to their exotic vacations in South Asia, where I lived and worked for many years.

Sangre de Cristo #4, acrylic ink on cotton rag paper, 9.5 x 14 in, available for purchase here.

The ability to ground ourselves has become not just a luxury but a necessity for mental health. Learning to quiet the mind and relax the body is a foundational life skill, as far as I’m concerned.

Grounding is the practice of bringing yourself fully into the present moment, connecting with your body and your surroundings when anxiety, stress, or overwhelming emotions threaten to carry you away.

As an artist, I’ve discovered that the best way to stop the creative flow is to get anxious and ungrounded. Grounding is the first step to developing a strong foundation, and to invite creative inspiration to start to flow.

I can always tell when I’m losing my ground because of the physical symptoms: my jaw gets tight, my breathing gets shallow, and my shoulders start crowding my ears. When I am finally able to notice what’s happening, my first response is to act like an animal.

I go lie down.

What is Grounding?

Grounding is about establishing a connection between yourself and the present moment. When we're grounded, we feel centered, stable, and present—regardless of what chaos might be swirling around us.

Grounding is the first step in any meditation practice. We settle into an awareness of the physicality of our experience - body, breath, and sensations. We tune in to the environment where we find ourselves.

This practice serves as an anchor for our attention and energy, preventing us from being swept away by racing thoughts or intense emotions. It’s like planting your feet firmly on the beach, even as waves sweep away the sand under your feet, and winds of change and challenge blow around you.

The Science Behind Grounding

Research increasingly supports what practitioners have known for centuries: grounding meditation techniques directly impact our nervous system. When we practice grounding, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system—often called the "rest and digest" mode—which counteracts the fight-or-flight response triggered by stress.

Studies show that regular grounding practices can lower cortisol levels, reduce blood pressure, and improve heart rate variability—all physiological markers of reduced stress and improved well-being.

But beyond those fancy scientific terms, the practice of grounding just makes you feel better. It’s a way of cultivating the experience of feeling “bien dans sa peau” that intangible experience of feeling good about yourself.

Sangre de Cristo #10, acrylic ink on cotton rage paper, 9.5 x 14 in. View or purchase here.

Cultivating Emotional Resilience

One of the most underrated life skills is the cultivation of emotional resilience.

Emotions run high when we are stressed, and this keeps us in a state of fight or flight. When we regularly return to our center, we strengthen our ability to withstand emotional turbulence without being overwhelmed by it.

This doesn't mean suppressing or avoiding difficult feelings. Grounding gives us the stability to acknowledge and process emotions productively, instead of being controlled by them.

When we're grounded, we can observe our emotional responses with compassion and clarity, choosing how to respond rather than reacting automatically.

Simple Grounding Practices for Accessing Creative Flow

The beauty of grounding is that it can be practiced anywhere, anytime:

1. Nature Gaze: Direct contact with nature is one of the most powerful grounding tools available to us. Go outside and stand on the earth - bonus points for being barefoot. Breathe + observe.

2. Mindful Walking: Feel each step as your feet connect with the ground. Notice the sensation of weight shifting, the texture beneath your feet, and the movement of your body through space.

3. Resting Meditation: Lie down and place one hand on your heart and one on your belly. Feel the breath move through your body as you take slow, deep breaths.

4. Listening Meditation: This works with music, or with sounds in the environment. Let the sounds bring you into the present moment, and bring you into a state of resonance.

5. Creative Flow: Try using a different medium from your usual creative practice, and just create. Don’t try to make something “good.” In fact, you could try to make something “ungood” just to start getting into a flow of creative processing.

Grounding Meditation for Paid Subscribers

There is no way to get this wrong, and no way to do it right. Grounding is a basic human experience. It’s just that with our way of life these days, we don’t often make room for it.

To help get you into the practice, I've created a special 7-minute guided meditation focused specifically on grounding, for paid subscribers. To listen, upgrade your subscription.

This audio recording will walk you through a powerful practice to establish a sense of peace and presence. Having a guided recording can help enormously during challenging times, and despite teaching these techniques for decades, I still listen to guided recordings from time to time.

This meditation combines breath awareness, body scanning, and visualization to help you develop a deep, embodied sense of grounding that you can access whenever you need it.

The Ripple Effects of Regular Practice

Consistent grounding practice doesn't just help in moments of stress—it gradually transforms how we navigate life.

The art of grounding isn't about achieving perfection. It's about returning, again and again, to the present moment—the only place where life truly happens.

Upgrade your subscription to listen to the guided meditation.