✨ Grounding Yourself: The power of simple everyday rituals
Have you ever had one of those days where your mind feels like it has 46 tabs open at the same time? You are thinking about what needs doing, what you've forgotten, what might happen tomorrow, something someone said yesterday, the appointment you've got coming up, the message you haven't replied to and about a hundred other things that seem to be competing for your attention. Before you know it, you're physically somewhere completely different from where your mind is, and you feel overwhelmed before the day has even properly started.
I've definitely been there. In fact, I think one of the biggest things I've learnt over the past few years is that when life feels overwhelming, I don't necessarily need to do more - I need to come back to myself.
And this is where grounding has become such an important part of my own energy hygiene.
Grounding doesn't have to mean sitting cross-legged on the floor for half an hour with your eyes closed, although if that's something you enjoy then absolutely go for it! For me, grounding can be much simpler. It might be stepping outside into the garden with my bare feet on the grass, taking a few deep breaths in the garden, taking a cold dip in the sea, sitting with my crystals and a cup of herbal tea, going for a walk with my headphones on, hugging a tree or simply stopping for a few minutes and noticing what is happening around me.
It sounds incredibly simple, doesn't it? But when your mind is busy, sometimes the simplest things are exactly what you need.
I've noticed that when I'm overwhelmed, my instinct isn't always to do the things I know will help me. In fact, it is often quite the opposite. When you're exhausted, even the thought of getting dressed and going outside for a walk can feel like another thing you have to achieve. You can know exactly what would make you feel better but still feel completely unable to start.
Living with a chronic condition, I've had to learn not to judge myself for this. Instead, I try to make the first step ridiculously small.
I don't have to go for an hour-long walk - I can just step outside into the garden. I don't have to meditate for 30 minutes - I can take three slow, deep mindful breaths. I don't have to completely clear my head - I can simply notice what's around me.
And quite often, once I've taken that first tiny step, something in my energy shifts.
🤍Coming back to the present moment
I think we underestimate how much energy we use when we are constantly living in the past or worrying about the future.
We replay conversations, think about things we wish we'd done differently, worry about what might happen, trying to predict outcomes that we have absolutely no control over. We think about everything we should be doing and everything we haven't managed to do yet.
Our bodies are sitting in one place, but our minds are somewhere else entirely.
This is one of the reasons I loved this week's Bobcat Spirit - Life is a mystery Energy Whisper so much. Its message was a reminder that we don't always need to know what happens next. Sometimes we have to trust the unknown, listen to our own intuition and come back to the moment we are actually living.
➡️Because right now is the only moment we can experience and actually control.
✖️Not yesterday (the past)
✖️Not next week (the future)
✖️Not the thing you're worrying might happen sometime, but you have no idea when.
✨This moment✨
Grounding gives us a way to return to it.
🤍So what does grounding actually look like?
For me, it isn't one particular practice. It's anything that helps me reconnect with myself and move out of that feeling of being completely inside my own head.
Sometimes it's nature (well a lot of time actually!). There is something about being outside that shifts my energy almost immediately. I love walking, feeling the ground beneath my feet (or the sand!), listening to music and allowing myself to notice the world around me rather than being caught up in my thoughts.
Sometimes it's my crystals. I'll sit in the garden or my summerhouse with a crystal in my left hand and my cup of herbal tea beside me, and for those few minutes I'm not trying to achieve anything - I'm just simply being.
Sometimes it's Reiki. Self-Reiki has become such an important part of my own energy hygiene because it gives me the opportunity to stop and reconnect with myself rather than constantly giving my energy outwards.
And sometimes it's movement. Dancing is still one of my favourite ways to shift energy. Put on a song you love and dance around the kitchen. Dance in the garden. Shake your body. Move your shoulders. Stretch. Move in whatever way feels good to you.
And guess what?!? You don't have to be good at it!
Nobody is watching… And if they are, who cares? 😂
Our bodies aren't designed to hold onto every emotion, every frustration and every stressful experience without somewhere for that energy to go. Sometimes movement is exactly what we need to move or release that stuck or pent up energy.
🤍Your everyday grounding ritual doesn't need to be complicated
This is something I really want you to take away from this week's reflection. Please don't turn grounding into another thing you have to do perfectly.
You don't need a beautiful morning routine that takes an hour. You don't need expensive products or a perfectly quiet house. You don't need to meditate every morning at 6am whilst drinking green juice!
✨You simply need to find little moments throughout your day that bring you back to yourself✨
💟Maybe it's drinking your morning coffee outside instead of scrolling on your phone
💟Maybe it's taking five minutes in the garden
💟Maybe it's putting your favourite song on while you're cooking
💟Maybe it's holding a crystal while you take a few breaths
💟Maybe it's going for a short walk
💟Maybe it's practising self-Reiki before bed
💟Maybe it's stopping in the middle of a busy day, putting both feet firmly on the floor and asking yourself:
➡️"What do I need right now?"
That question alone can be incredibly powerful, because how often do we actually ask ourselves what we need?
We're so busy looking after everyone else, answering messages, working, running homes, caring for family and trying to keep everything moving that we can forget to check in with the person at the centre of it all.
✨US!✨
💚 Donna Marie's Grounding Ritual
So this week, I'd love you to create your own little grounding ritual. It could take five minutes or fifteen. There are no rules and you don't have to do it every single day.
Find somewhere you can pause for a few minutes. If you can, step outside, feel your feet on the ground and take three slow breaths. Notice what you can see, what you can hear and what you can feel. Hold a crystal if you have one that you connect with or simply place your hands lightly over your heart.
Then ask yourself:
➡️"What do I need right now?"
Don't immediately try to solve anything - just listen.
Maybe you need:
✨rest
✨connection
✨to move your body
✨some time alone
✨to introduce a boundary and say no to something
Maybe you simply need five minutes where nobody needs anything from you
There is no right answer – it is individual to you! It isn't your job to judge what comes up, it's simply to listen.
💛 Energy Hygiene Tip
I've talked a lot about energy hygiene throughout my Summer of Healing, and grounding is one of the simplest ways I know to bring yourself back when life starts feeling too much.
Think of it like an energetic reset.
Just as we wash our hands, brush our teeth and shower to look after our physical wellbeing, we can create little rituals that help us clear some of the mental and emotional clutter we pick up throughout the day.
And if you are someone who regularly feels overwhelmed, anxious, emotionally drained or disconnected from yourself, perhaps this is your invitation to stop waiting until you completely burn out before you do something about it.
You don't have to wait until you're at breaking point to look after your energy.
✨You are allowed to look after yourself before you desperately need to ✨
And if you are reading this thinking, "I know I need to do something, but I don't know where to start," that's exactly where my work comes in.
Through Reiki and energy coaching, I help people reconnect with themselves, understand their own energy and create simple ways of supporting themselves when life feels overwhelming.
Sometimes you don't need someone to tell you what to do.
Sometimes you need someone to sit beside you, help you understand what your energy is telling you and gently guide you back to yourself.
One final question for you...
➡️Where could you create a little more space to simply be?
Not achieve, fix, plan or worry – just to be.
Perhaps today you could step outside for five minutes. Put your feet on the grass. Make yourself a cup of tea. Hold a crystal. Put your favourite song on. Take a few breaths.
It really doesn't have to be complicated; your energy doesn't need another thing on the to-do list - sometimes it just needs you to stop for a moment and listen.
You are the one person you will spend your entire life with - so make sure you're taking care of her. 💚
Love & light,
Donna Marie 💚✨
✨Feeling overwhelmed or disconnected from yourself?
If you're ready to understand your energy, create healthier boundaries and find simple ways to support yourself when life feels too much, I'd love to help.
Explore Reiki & Energy Coaching with Donna Marie → here
