What We’re Talking About When We Talk About Grounding

For us, home is sanctuary. Partly through natural inclination and biography, our home is grounding, reassuring, nurturing, and stable (despite occasional high winds). It’s where my husband and I unfurl ourselves. Of course the children enjoy home too, and with some regularity, 50 people come for six-hour-long potlucks. Soft chairs allow for lingering.

Home seems to be the metaphor for what it is to feel grounded, even if we never grew up in homes that felt like a warm embrace.

How do we feel at home in our own bodies, connected to the earth, and safe?

Every day a client says, “I’m freaking out, I need to feel more grounded.” What does she mean by this? Something about the upper regions of her body swirling with unstoppable thoughts and agitation, and a sense there’s no ground beneath her.

What we digest from the world

While this is open to a number of interpretations, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, it has to do with the Earth element, which is associated with the Spleen and Stomach meridians. Please make a mental note: this is not about actual anatomy. These are energetic concepts from an ancient medical tradition.

Our reality and energy come from what we digest from the world. In our relationships, the news we read, or the food we ingest. In Chinese medicine, the energy we have is created from the quality of the air we breathe and the food we consume.

It’s not only what we eat, but how we eat it. Even the healthiest food, consumed through a straw while darting in and out of traffic, is a very different experience from sitting down to eat. It’s about the quality of the food, but also our state of mind, awareness, and contemplation as we eat it.

Food that grows close to the earth

In this Chinese medicine framework, the most grounding foods are those that grow beneath the top layer of soil and burrow down. This specifically means carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, parsnips, and Jerusalem artichokes.

In addition to these nourishing, grounding foods, there are vegetables that grow heavier as they rest on the earth: pumpkins (heavy, round, and orange) and every squash you can think of. Butternut, kabocha, acorn, spaghetti.

In Chinese medicine, these foods are used to nourish and support digestion. From a Western perspective, their carbohydrates provide glucose, fuel our bodies can use immediately or store for later.

There’s been a great backlash against carbs. But whole plant foods give us fiber and phytonutrients along with that energy. They’re a gift, giving us the fuel to keep moving.

As an aside, carbohydrates are part of Karol G’s training diet, too. This Latina pop star is, after all, an athlete.

Among trees, and back in our bodies

Beyond food, other activities can be grounding too. There’s research on what’s called forest bathing, which is exactly what it sounds like: being in nature, and more specifically among trees. Their roots and interconnectedness give us the sense of stability we need.

There’s evidence that forest bathing can support our immune system for days afterward.

Qigong and tai chi can feel deeply grounding, as can certain yoga poses. Not surprisingly, tree pose, and Warrior 1 and 2.

And grounding through food is easy, in part because it requires some baking, sautéing, or roasting.

Honestly, you have to eat anyway.

Photograph by Sasha Israel.