Grounding is more than walking barefoot...

In a world where asking, "What's the Wi-Fi password?" often comes before "How are you?", it's easy to see why we've ended up living more in our heads than in our bodies.

We spend hours sitting, gradually weakening our core (the group of muscles in the abdomen, lower back, pelvis, and hips that stabilize the spine, support posture, and serve as the body's center of strength and balance), while screens, notifications, and multitasking constantly pull our attention upward. The result? We're always thinking, planning, replying, and reacting... but rarely noticing our own bodies. It's no coincidence that practices like yoga, martial arts, and meditation place so much emphasis on "coming back to center." Feeling the weight of your body, strengthening your core, and bringing awareness back to your torso are powerful ways to restore both physical and mental stability.

Interestingly, research has linked excessive screen time to poorer proprioception, impaired postural balance, lower levels of physical activity, as well as increased cognitive overload and mental fatigue. Perhaps that's one reason why grounding practices have gained so much attention in recent years: they invite us to step out of our heads, reconnect with our bodies, and regain a sense of presence, stability, and connection to the present moment.

https://www.grazieprokopetz.com/post/managing-anxiety-with-ayurveda

🌱 But what is grounding in practice?

More than one person has asked me if I practiced “grounding”. I reply “what is grounding to you?” To which they answered: “walking barefoot on the soil/grass”. So I chuckled and said “I grew up in a house with a large orchard, so I just call it ‘walking’” 😄

Jokes aside, there are other groundling techniques that can help with anxiety, stress, sleep, fatigue and overall pain and immunity. All of which are symptoms of Vata imbalance. Vata is ruled by the element AIR, hence why the opposite element EARTH balances out these symptoms.

Read: What's is your dosha?

Let’s get to other grounding, vata balancing practices:

🍠 FOOD: roots and root vegetables, like potato, yuka, yam.

🤚🏽 BODY: treat yourself with a warm sesame oil self-massage

🧘🏽‍♂️ YOGA ASANAS child, corpse, mountain, tree, pyramid, warrior 2, goddess, chair.

🧠 MEDITATION: Seek mediation practices that focus on the chakras, root chakra especially and earth element.

🪡 ACUPUNCTURE/MASSAGE: an experienced acupuncturist or massage therapist (especially shiatsu) will know which points and directions to use for grounding effects

📺 🚫 SCREENS: avoiding excessive exposure to screens as they are the key component for ungrounding.

🪴 ACTIVITIES: gardening, farming, or any other that connects you to the soil

🦵🏾Bioenergetic Therapy Learn more about grounding in bioenergetics

🌿 LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT. Life only happens in the now. While your mind insists on being somewhere else, you miss out on experiencing life's greatest PRESENT (see what I did there? 😏). I once read the phrase: "Eternity dwells in the absolute present." Since then, I've never been able to forget it. Sit with that for a moment.

To a balanced life!

Namaste,

Grazie Prokopetz, Doctor of Ayurveda

ABOUT AYURVEDA         

INSTAGRAM           

APPOINTMENTS