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Basic Centering, Grounding, Shielding Meditation

This exercise can be done almost anywhere and any time. As long as you have a safe place to "check out" for a few minutes (ie: any place you would feel safe taking a cat nap) where you will not be directly disturbed (no one is going to specifically try to get your attention), and five to ten minutes to spare, you can do this meditation! It doesn't matter how crowded, noisy, or chaotic the environment is, though something a bit less hectic may be easier for you in the beginning.

This is a meditation exercise designed, as suggested by the title, to help you center your energies, ground, and shield yourself. Not only is this a good, regular practice for just navigating the world on a day to day basis, it is an essential step, prior to many other spiritual practices, especially those which involve invoking, inviting, or summoning energies, entities, deities, or the like, astral travel, banishing, other world communications, group rituals, or any other things that potentially expose you to outside influences or disruptions.

Once you have done this a number of times, you will most likely find that you are able to quickly move through the phases, grounding and centering easily, in just a few moments, as it begins to become a natural part of your meditative practices.

As with all the meditations found on this site, you should read all the way through this page at least once before you try to do the meditation.

Before you start:

• Turn off any unnecessary, extra noise generating items, such as the radio or television, if you can, or consider using headphones with the guided meditation track for this meditation.
If there is music or television or other such things that other people are using, don't worry about it. You will be able to tune it out as you listen to the track.

• Make certain the room or area you are using is at a comfortable temperature, if you are able. Again, if this isn't possible, it's alright. The meditation will help you ignore that as well.

• Switch your phone's ringer and other notifications to silent or DND mode.

• If using incense, candles, etc, now is a good time to light them.

• Find a place to get comfortable. Is best to sit, cross legged, in lotus or modified lotus position or lie down flat on you back, on the floor/ground (use a mat or cushion if needed).
If you are mobility impaired, have circulatory problems which preclude sitting or lying on the floor, or are somewhere where sitting on the floor isn't an option, a bed, couch, bench, or chair is fine.
If you are using a chair or bench that doesn't facilitate sitting cross legged, or if other issues prevent such positions, place your feet flat on the floor or a stool, so that your knees are bent at a ninety degree angle, or as close to it as possible.

• Sit or lie with your back straight, tilting your head up/back slightly and tucking in your chin so that your neck and spine are aligned.

• Place your hands in a comfortable, relaxed position (on your lap if sitting, at your sides if lying down) with your palms up/exposed. They will probably naturally tilt inward, with your hands slightly cupped. This is fine. Do not force your hands into a a more open or flat position - just let them rest naturally. If desired, gently touch your index finger and thumb on each hand to one another, as in standard lotus pose.

• you should start the guided meditation track at this point, after you have read through this page once (or re-start it, if you have paused it to read this page).
Remember to make sure there is nothing else on your playlist that might jar you out of your relaxed state after the guided meditation track ends.
The guided meditation will take you through the rest.

• Find a place to get comfortable. Is best to sit, cross legged, in lotus or modified lotus position, kneel comfortably, or lie down flat on you back, on the floor (use a mat or cushion if needed).
If you are mobility impaired, have circulatory problems which preclude sitting or lying on the floor, or are somewhere where sitting on the floor isn't an option, a bed, couch, bench, or chair is fine.
If you are using a chair or bench that doesn't facilitate sitting cross legged, or if other issues prevent such positions, place your feet flat on the floor or a stool, so that your knees are bent at a ninety degree angle, or as close to it as possible.

• Sit or lie with your back straight, tilting your head up/back slightly and tucking in your chin so that your neck and spine are aligned.

• Place your hands in a comfortable, relaxed position (on your lap if sitting, at your sides if lying down) with your palms up/exposed. They will probably naturally tilt inward, with your hands slightly cupped. This is fine. Do not force your hands into a a more open or flat position - just let them rest naturally. If desired, gently touch your index or middle finger and thumb on each hand to one another, as in standard lotus pose.

Now, you are ready to begin...

The guided meditation track uses a chime to begin this meditation, as well as most of the meditations in this series. Eventually, you may find that the chime sound alone is enough to put you into a meditative state.

• If you have done this meditation before, and do not need the introductory instructions on the track, feel free to use the no intro version.

• Begin by focusing on your breath for a moment, counting each breath and and observing your natural inhalation and exhalation without changing anything. Notice whether you are breathing through your nose or your mouth, quickly or slowly, deep or shallow breaths.
If you find yourself becoming distracted by random thoughts, don't engage them or try to ignore them. Just notice and acknowledge them and then let them float away, bringing your attention back to your breath. Do this for five breaths.

• Next, take a deep, cleansing breath in through your nose, and blow it out through your mouth. The inhale should be as deep as you can make it, and the exhale should be somewhat forceful, as though blowing out several candles at once.

• Take another cleansing breath, closing your eyes on the inhale this time, and keeping them closed for the duration of the meditation.

• Now, focus on finding your "center" - The place where body, mind, heart, and soul all come together and become one in your physical body. There is no right or wrong "place" for this. It is wherever it is for you. Mine is around my Solar Plexus Chakra.

• Slowly, begin to draw all the bits of your energy back to your center. You may wish to place your hands gently on the physical location of your spiritual center, to help you visualise and feel this gathering of energy - All the different "tendrils" of energy you have been devoting to other things throughout the day - paying attention to the time, thinking about a project you are working on, planning dinner, your partners or children... Just let go of all of those things. Detach the tendrils of your energy from the outside tendrils to which they have been connecting, and bring your energy back into yourself. Just Be Here Now, only in this moment - breathing, centering. You are the only one here. This is your time.

• Focus now on your breathing. With every deep breath, as you inhale, you are calling more and more of your tendrils of energy back into yourself. As you exhale, any remnants left on them that came from outside of yourself are pushed out and carried away on your exiting breaths.

• Inhale... Bringing your life force back to your center, gathering all of those pieces of energy together - within.

• Exhale... Blow the leftover dust and particles that do not belong to you back out into the Universe. Let them go. They can go home, or wherever the wind takes them. They are not your concern. Only you.

• You may find that some pieces of energy you are pulling back into your center don't feel quite right. Perhaps they feel like they belong to someone or something else. Trust what your center tells you. Those pieces are not yours. Inhale, then visualise yourself detaching from those strands that are not yours. Let them go. See them gently, softly, peacefully float away on your breath as you exhale, to return to their own realms. They do not concern you in this moment. Everything now is only you.

• With all your pieces - your tendrils, drawn back into yourself, now bring them in closer, allowing them to coalesce in to a loose ball, bathed in golden light. The ball gently swirls and floats as you breathe. With every inhale and every exhale. Now that they are all together again, realise that this golden sphere of tendrils is your center - the point from which your branches reach for the sky, and your base is planted in the nourishing, stable Earth. like a tree.

• Envision yourself standing, barefoot, your feet planted firmly on bare earth. As you breathe in, smell the loamy fragrance of the fertile ground at your feet. Feel some of those tendrils of energy follow the scent, seeking, extending downward through your body, down your legs, and from your feet into rich soil, becoming roots.

• Now, with every inhale, draw the Earth Energy up through your roots, spreading through your body, and as you exhale, send your roots deeper into the Earth, where they can draw more of the stable, grounding Earth Forces through you roots, your body, your branches. Know that with your roots securely grounded in the Earth, you will be steady, no matter how far your branches reach in any other direction. You are still solidly connected, tethered to your roots.

• Now that your roots are firmly grounded, deep into the Earth, continue to draw more of the Earth's energies into yourself with your inhales, but now, on your exhales, send that energy outward, in all directions, to form a protective barrier around you. The shield surrounds you completely in a giant orb, the top half rising out of the ground like a dome, and acts like a one way valve. Positive energy, love, light, healing - all things positive and affirming can pass though this shield to gently embrace you, but all negativity is deflected. Negative energies flow harmlessly from the shield into the Earth, where it can be neutralised and transmuted positively. Your shield is flexible, and extends to protect every particle and facet of your being - Body, Mind, Spirit, Core - Grounded in the Earth.

• With this shield in place, nothing can intrude, and the strands that keep you safely tethered to your center and to the Earth cannot be touched or severed. You are safe, no matter where or how far your spirit travels whether away from your body or into your core. No matter how far your different aspects float from one another as you travel, seek, explore, or find, they remain safely connected - ready to rejoin one another whenever you are ready. Be at peace and rest, explore, or travel as you will.

• You are now ready for another spiritual practice, or simply to carry on with your day, allow yourself to gradually return to the surface realm - to feel your body's presence and position where you are. At your own pace, return to physical time and space, and, when you are ready, stretch, open your eyes, take in your surroundings, and rejoin this realm. Welcome back. Know that wherever the rest of your day or night takes you, you are grounded, centered, shielded, and safe from any harm from outside influences. The shield will only allow to pass that which you invite in, with consent and intent, and hold to you. All else will flow harmlessly away through your open hands, as you decide it is not something you wish to hold.