Daily Alchemy 003: Ground Your Energy

5 Simple Ways to Come Back Into Your Body

Have you ever noticed that after an argument, stressful experience, unexpected change, or emotionally activating moment, your mind may be ready to move on while your body still feels like something is happening?

Your heart is beating faster. Your shoulders are tense. Your stomach feels unsettled. You cannot stop moving, thinking, or replaying the experience. Or perhaps you experience the opposite and feel heavy, exhausted, disconnected, or shut down.

Your nervous system is constantly receiving information and adjusting your body in response to what it perceives. When something feels threatening or overwhelming, energy is mobilized for action. Your breathing, heart rate, muscle tension, attention, and stress response can all change to prepare you to respond.

Ideally, activation rises, moves through its natural course, and eventually settles as the body recognizes that the moment has passed. But sometimes we interrupt that process. We suppress what we feel, remain in stressful environments, immediately distract ourselves, continue feeding the experience with repetitive thoughts, or simply never give the body an opportunity to settle.

This can feel like energy becoming stuck.

It doesn’t necessarily mean there is literal energy trapped somewhere inside your body. It is a useful way of describing the very real experience of carrying activation that has not yet returned to baseline. You may experience this as restlessness, tension, irritability, racing thoughts, heaviness, emotional overwhelm, numbness, or feeling disconnected from yourself.

Sometimes we unknowingly try to bring ourselves back into order through behaviors that provide immediate relief. We scroll. We eat. We isolate. We reach for another person to regulate us. We overwork. We use substances. We control something outside of ourselves. We intellectualize the experience instead of feeling it. The body is looking for relief. Grounding gives it another option.

5 Ways I Ground My Energy

1. Put Your Feet on the Earth

One of my favorite practices is earthing, or simply placing your bare feet directly on grass, sand, or soil. Beyond giving your nervous system a physical anchor to the present moment, earthing has also been studied for its potential effects on inflammation, stress, sleep, and recovery.

Inflammation is part of the body’s natural immune response and can be influenced by many factors, including injury, illness, chronic stress, sleep, environment, and lifestyle. Some grounding research proposes that direct contact with the Earth’s surface allows the transfer of electrons into the body, which may influence oxidative stress and inflammatory processes. Early studies have reported changes in certain inflammatory and physiological measures, although this research is still limited and larger, higher-quality studies are needed before we can say that earthing itself reliably reduces inflammation. For me, the simplest benefit is also the most practical: it brings you back into your body. Feel the temperature beneath your feet. Notice the texture of the ground. Look at what is around you. Listen to the sounds of your environment and allow your breathing to settle naturally.

You don’t have to make grounding complicated. Let yourself be where your feet are.

2. Breathe With a Longer Exhale

When I notice activation in my body, I bring attention to my breath. Try breathing naturally through your nose and allowing your exhale to become slightly longer than your inhale.

For example:

Inhale for 4.
 Exhale for 6.

Repeat several times without forcing the breath. A slower, comfortable breathing pattern with a longer exhale can support the body’s shift toward a calmer state.

3. Move the Body

Sometimes grounding does not look like sitting perfectly still.

Walk. Stretch. Shake out your hands. Roll your shoulders. Dance to one song. Take the stairs. Clean something. Step outside and walk around the block.

If your body feels activated, gentle movement can give that activation somewhere to go while bringing your attention out of repetitive thought and back into physical experience.

4. Use Your Senses

When your mind is somewhere in the past or future, your senses can remind you that your body is here.

Hold something cold. Smell something familiar. Take a warm shower. Notice the feeling of water against your skin. Wrap yourself in a blanket. Listen closely to the sounds around you. Slowly drink a glass of water.

Choose one sensation and give it your full attention. You do not always have to think your way back into the present. Sometimes you can feel your way there.

5. Create With Your Hands

Writing, painting, gardening, cooking, playing music, organizing, working with clay, or simply putting pen to paper can bring attention back into the physical world.

Creative expression can also give an emotion somewhere to move without requiring you to immediately explain it.

Ask yourself: What wants to move through me instead of remaining inside of me?

Then create without worrying about what it looks like when you’re finished.

The Practice

The next time you notice yourself becoming activated, resist the immediate urge to ask: How do I make this feeling go away?

Try asking: What does my body need right now to feel supported while this moves through me?

Maybe it needs earth. Maybe breath. Maybe movement. Maybe sensation. Maybe expression.

You are not trying to force yourself back into regulation. You are creating conditions that help your nervous system recognize the present moment and find its way toward greater balance.

Grounding is not escaping what you feel. It is becoming present enough to safely feel what is already here.

Bent, Not Broken
Daily Alchemy | Mind • Body • Soul
Stephanie Lewin