The one body psychotherapy exercise that could change your life

It all starts with grounding.

A few years ago just after finishing my presentation on grounding and career counseling in a conference a woman came to me and said: “Thank you so much! I was always told to ground myself, but for the first time someone told me how to do it!”.

Grounding is literally the foundation of all the success I’ve had in my personal life and working with my clients. Just to mention a few, I use grounding to:
help people plan their future;

empower and develop self-confidence on candidates to become Federal Judges in Brazil;

Build presence and strength on my clients so they can face their challenges and transform their lives.

Grounding is both a concept and an exercise. As a concept it relates to awareness and presence in the present, in the now, of what is happening within and outside. It is about standing your ground no matter what happens:

within you (fear, anger, anxiety, joy, pleasure) and;

outside of you (threatening situation, public speaking, presentations, having an argument, etc).

As an exercises it involves body postures, movement, breathing and self-expression with the purpose to bring awareness and presence to the body, with emphasis on feet and legs.

The logic is pretty simple. Your organism has a self-image that is based on what your body is capable or not. Let’s say you are walking in nature and come to a creek. You want to jump it but you don’t really know how many meters you can actually jump. You look at the creek and in a few seconds you assess whether you will jump it or not. This assessment is highly influenced by how much awareness you have of your body. You might be able to jump it, but due to a poor awareness of your legs’ strength you might not feel confident to make it.

In simple words, grounding exercise connects you with your real body strength and power. Moreover, it builds all the support and confidence needed to move through life and achieve your goals. We see some people who presents a very powerful facade, but are very insecure inside. On the other hand, sometimes we meet with people that look so simple and humble, but have a strong sense of inner value and self-confidence.

I have seen many people failing to achieve a goal, pass an exam, succeed on an interview and stand their ground not because they did not know what they were doing, but because they felt threatened and lost their confidence and ground.

My life, my client’s lives and the lives of so many people I have met improved because of grounding. Not that it solves everything, but it gives a solid foundation for a true and deep change. And that’s why I put together a document with a simple 4-stages grounding exercise. I wish everyone could learn this and apply to their lives.