Find Your Grounded Root
Sep 26, 2012Why is qigong grounding so important? So often I get students coming to me because they cannot ground themselves, they feel like a cloud floating aimlessly. They even say they feel like they are floating through life just going in whichever direction the wind blows. It is especially true here in Bali where I teach Qigong and martial arts where we sit on a volcanic island, very hot and steamy making it more difficult for those who live here to ground.
Importance of Qigong Grounding
They try many spiritual avenues using only the mind, but once they neglect your physical body in order to gain some type of spiritual connection they have lost half the battle. We need Yin and Yang for balance. The ancient ones realized that the physical is Yin and the spirit is Yang. They rooted and centered their physical before going deeper into the spiritual. You see it is not separated it is all connected. The physical is the link to the spiritual. You can have a pool with no water but without the water, you cannot swim.
Qigong Forms for Grounding
Most of the Qigong I teach is grounding, but I teach various Qigong sets that will ground you immediately. If practiced continuously over time the benefits will be enormous for your body, mind, and spirit. Here are some of the Qigong grounding sets that can help I teach:
- Standing Tree Qigong
- 8 Stance Qigong
- Circle Walking
Standing Qigong
When practicing Standing Qigong focus on one thing at a time working from the ground up. I Ching guas start from the ground and go up into heaven. Start with focusing on the feet (Yin) and feel the connection to the hands (Yang) keeping both arced. Next, feel the knees (Yin) connected to the elbows (Yang) and feel the hips connected to the shoulders. Feel the perineum (Yin) connected to the crown point (Yang). Breathe the Qi into the dan tian and breathe out into the extremities.
8 Stance Qigong
8 Stance Qigong (also 8 trigrams Qigong) will show you deep-rooted postures, with each posture having a different postural alignment and energetic Qi flow. Learn more about 8 trigram Qigong with our online Qigong course.
Circle Walking
Circle walking is rooted stepping. As you walk you learn to sink your root into the earth even while moving. While this is more advanced than Standing Qigong and 8 Stance Qigong, it is an incredibly effective form of Qigong for rooting.
Grounding Techniques
All of these practices are best done with your bare feet on the earth. The Chinese say if you do Qigong in a building, you won't get the "Earth Qi" to ground you. Also when you have no shoes you are able to grasp the ground with your toes gently, thereby pulling the circulation down to your feet, grounding you even further.
All these things will give you a feeling of solid rootedness, grounding you. This leads to a stable feeling. All of these things can be used to stabilize you, your energy, and your soul rooting you to the earth but maintaining the creative connection to heaven. For more advice on how to remain grounded, see our guide to the most powerful breathing techniques for mind and body.
Earth Grounding
It is through the soles of my feet that I connect to the earth, and through my joints that I connect to my body; through my crown point that I connect to heaven. Essentially it is through my body that I connect to heaven, but never lose my connection to the earth. It is through this connection between heaven and earth that man finds themselves. It is through this self-awareness that I can become aware of all reaching the state of wuji or nothingness thus melting my consciousness into the cosmos.
-Tevia Feng 林峰
Martial Arts and Qigong in Bali, Indonesia
For more insights from our Qigong master Tevia Feng, feel free to visit the rest of our Qigong blog.
