Grounding and Learning Difficulties
Filed Under (NLP coaching learning difficulties) on 01-06-2016
Tagged Under : being grounded, centering, grounding, how get grounded, how grounding helps learning difficulties, nlp grounding, NLP grounding help learning difficulties, NLP grounding techniques, NLP learning difficulties coaching London UK, NLP learning difficulties coaching Toronto, use grounding learning difficulties, what is grounding
Have you ever wondered where ADD, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and other learning difficulties stem from and how you could help yourself or someone who has them? Where does grounding fit in with learning difficulties?
The root cause of all learning difficulties is a definitive lack of grounding.
This grounding is not the same as grounding a child for his/her behaviour when you don’t let him/her see friends! Most people are familiar with being ungrounded. It’s that overwhelming feeling of having a hundred thoughts and way too much going on in and above the head. People also describe it as overload. If we move our focus down to the belly, that busyness goes away. If we move our focus out of the body into the ground, that will give us even more relief.
Human beings are land creatures, hence operate best when they are connected to the earth. Grounding is a feeling of calmness in the mind and body, being at one with ourselves, being in control, on top of things, being connected with our bodies, and having clear focused minds. Grounding is a very natural process. If we want to stand on one leg, we have to ground the other leg or we’ll fall. People who do sports, martial arts, yoga, gymnastics, horseriding, skating, dance, etc. all find grounding essential, although they may use different words to describe it. People in different parts of the world use different names for grounding. Other names are earthing and centering.
The metaphor of earthing
reminds of the electricity system in our homes. And we know why we need the electricity system earthed. In exactly the same way we need to be earthed. Another useful take on grounding is the practice of reflexology. Reflexology is based on the principle that all the energy channels that connect our internal organs have endings in the feet and hands. To access vital energy from our environments we must have all energy channel endings in good condition to be able to connect with the earth = walk on healthy feet. If a nerve ending is damaged, the influx of energy to the ending is blocked. Blocked energy hurts. Trying to connect a painful congested nerve ending in a foot with the earth energy is like trying to put a plug into a defective socket. If something hurts in your foot, can you walk = connect with the earth properly?
In contrast, have you ever noticed a gentle tingling or warm movement in your feet? And what do your feet feel like when you’ve had a foot massage, a cold shower which stimulated the circulation, a hot tub, a swim, a good sleep, a good orgasm, or a walk in the fresh air? Do your feet feel revitalized and pleasantly tingling? Does it feel almost as if you can feel the blood flowing in the veins? Do your feet feel lighter?
Grounding ourselves is like earthing electrical devices
Connecting electrical devices / appliances to the earth = earthing / grounding. It protects devices from getting electric shocks, power surges, shortcircuiting, interference. Grounding protects the delicate electrical circuitry of our bodies from interference from our environment. Grounding enables us to receive free electrons and a vast array of energies from the earth. Free radicals that we pick up from the environment are not healthy for us. We can get over free radicals with a high volume of antioxidants which have negative electrons, but are available to free radicals. The ground also has a lot of negative electrons which are available to free radicals. But the soles of our shoes act as insulation between the earth and our feet, therefore negative electrons can’t access free radicals. Many people also walk in high heel shoes which is even less grounding!
People with learning difficulties notoriously lack grounding
People with dyspraxia or ADHD are often very physically wobbly, disorganized, overwhelmed. Dyslexia and dyscalculia are also products of movement – of pictures, letters, words, and numbers. Movement as a product of the brain often connects to physical wobbliness, fidgetiness, inability to stay still or in one place for long. Movement in the brain is a product of applying visual skills too well to seeing words and numbers. Lack of connectedness of the body to the earth – grounding – certainly makes it worse.
Have you noticed children with learning difficulties sit on their legs, with legs crossed, or legs stretched and the toes pointing up while only the heels touch the ground, or fidget when struggling at school? Grounding is a temporary state. And we operate best when grounded, even if we’re not in contact with the floor. If we cross the legs and arms, we can lose the flow of energy and be ungrounded.
When we’re born, we’re not grounded. We ground through our mother. After birth we’re carried around and can continue to ground through the mother for some time. If you observe very young children, you’ll notice that they’re very bouncy, legs flying all over the place. Around 7 years of age they start to get grounded. It is part of their natural development and growth. If a child is born to an ungrounded mother, the child may never experience grounding. Hence it may be harder for the child to naturally develop grounding. This is why some children grow to adulthood without having experienced grounding. Again, grounding is a temporary state. You can be grounded when relaxing, walking in the forest, etc. but your thoughts can instantly unground and make you feel very wobbly and psychologically insecure, uncertain, floaty, or confused.
People with learning difficulties often have fantastic visual skills.
Highly visual people are often very ungrounded as they struggle to keep up with their internal pictures. They have so much going on in their heads at once that it’s difficult to stay grounded. Being ungrounded affects their concentration, ability to hold imagined pictures still, thus read, write, spell, etc. It is a matter of choice whether you’re grounded or not at different times in different contexts. And at different times of the day you may prefer different states. Since grounding is essential for dealing with learning difficulties, I always teach people how to make it part of their lives. It’s free of charge and side effects, totally natural, and inevitable for dealing with all learning difficulties.
It’s easy to teach yourself how to be more grounded.
The reasons for lack of grounding are:
- the frantic pace of modern life
- traumas and pain
- not wanting to be in the body
- busy thoughts running rapidly in the past, present, or future – with worry or frantic planning
- too many thoughts all want attention at once
- energy blocks due to suppressed emotions, operations, injuries
- significant negative emotions that we buried in our legs / feet
- picking up energy from the environment that disturbs our energy system
- other people’s energy
- recalling a negative emotion or limiting belief
- using electrical / electronic equipment
- stress.
So how to do grounding? Here are a few suggestions:
- several therapies can assist: any massage, reflexology, Reiki, meditation, energetic NLP = using the power of your thought to clear your energy channels anywhere at any time
- drinking warm water. Water distributes electricity in the body, aids clearing the body of toxins / waste, and gives energy to the body and brain.
- try moving to a place away from electronic equipment. Electronic equipment gives off magnetic waves that can interfere with our energy system and result in headaches and other symptoms.
- practise focusing on the present moment = this very second. Not what happened 5 minutes, 5 days, or 5 years ago. Nor on what will happen 5 minutes, 5 days, or 5 years from now. Free yourself from “what happens if I do x or y” thoughts, because these thoughts race in the mind fast, especially before you fall asleep.
- you can imagine that you’re a tree. Let energy come into you through your feet while passing stuff that you don’t want into the ground [and releasing it to the center of the earth].
- ground through your male and female reproductive organs where energy often gets clogged up. Imagine a tube connecting them with the earth where energy flows through.
NLP has 6 levels of dealing with any situation. The 6 levels beautifully apply to grounding and learning difficulties:
- I’ve given examples of how grounding applies [or does not apply] on the level of environment
- On the level of behaviour you’ve witnessed how people act when they are ungrounded. They fidget, act inappropriately, have temper tantrums, can’t concentrate, comfort eat/drink, and so on. Grounding has the opposite effects.
- On the level of capability people know what and how grounds them, what and how ungrounds them, and how they can make more useful choices in this area.
- People’s beliefs and values play an important role in grounding. If people hold very ungrounding beliefs [such as that they don’t deserve to be alive, healthy, or successful], this will penetrate their
- identity – who they are.
- And beyond identity we’re here on the planet – either down to earth or flying in the clouds… etc.
Finally, if you would like more NLP help with grounding and to perhaps know how we could apply it to your or someone’s learning difficulties, let’s talk about it.