The first practice that was passed to me in a formal setting was that of grounding, centering, and aligning. Every act of magic, every meditation, every ritual begins, and ends, with this. Here are 3 reasons why this practice is so essential followed by 3 easy steps you can take for your practice.

There is also an unexpected side-effect of having an effective grounding, centering, and alignment practice. This is shared in the special bonus section at the bottom of this article.

Reason #1: A tree without roots topples over. A house without a foundation is not safe to live in. To balance well, we must be strong in our center. This is also true externally: To balance on a ball or a bike, or anything else for that matter, we must place ourselves at the center. Without alignment, it is very hard to function and move with ease and grace. When we do what we can to align our minds and bodies, we are more efficient, effective, and feel better! All three are necessary to make the most out of life.

Reason #2: Remember, it is a work in progress! That's why it is important to neither stop nor give up on the practice. If we don't work out our mind and body, it will atrophy. One nourishing meal will not keep us full for the rest of our lives. We have to keep eating. Gardens require constant care if they are to feed us. The same is true for grounding, centering, and alignment. If we want to keep experiencing the profound and useful effects of such a practice, it is vital to show up for it regularly. We brush our teeth in the mornings and evenings to keep our teeth clean and gums healthy. Similarly, we can spend 3 minutes every day on strengthening our foundation, coming to our center, and aligning our mind, body, and soul.

Reason #3: Spiritual practice can have an incredibly positive effect on all areas of our lives. It is easy to forget that every spiritual practice begins and ends in the physical world. This is where we are anchored for the duration of our lives. We are in a body, that needs to eat and sleep. Even when we are processing information and working predominantly with our brains in sedentary bodies, we do so with our physical senses as our main interface. An effective grounding, centering, and alignment practice connects our body with our mind and soul, connects our internal world with the external world, and the physical experience with the spiritual experience. Breath is usually at the core and helps oxygenate, enliven, and relax us. 

Now that you know 3 reasons why grounding, centering, and alignment are so important, let's take a look at how you can practice it. Here are 3 simple steps to help you get started. Want to dive deeper? Our membership offers multiple courses and meditations that help you deepen your practice and increase the effectiveness of your magic and spiritual practice. Join today!

Step 1: To Ground
Bring your awareness to where your body connects with the earth. As you breathe deeply, let your breath travel down into the land beneath you. Feel your roots grow, reaching down until they anchor into the center of the earth. Feel your roots are strong. Feel your connection to the earth that is your home.

Extra tip: Plant your bare feet onto grass or soil.

Step 2: To Center
Close your eyes and let your mind and vision drift within your body. Feel where your center is right now. Is it in your heart? Your solar plexus? Somewhere else? Breathe into your center until the harmonious feeling of being centered fills your body.

Extra tip: Plant your feet firmly on the ground and raise your hands high to open up your body. Where do you feel your center now?

Step 3: To Align
Inhale up through your center, from between your feet to the crown of your head. Exhale back down. With each breath, extend your reach until down is the center of the earth and up is amongst the stars. Do this until you feel your body, mind, and soul aligned with the earth and the stars.

Extra tip: Do this outside at night when you can see the stars up above.

This is a very simple approach to grounding, centering, and aligning. It is also effective! If you want to go deeper, then our unlimited membership gives you access to more than 30 hours of courses, meditations, and magical practice. Not only that, you can join live for our new moon mystery teachings and full moon celebrations, or listen to the replay in your own time. Join today for more effective magic in your life.

BONUS: This practice offers an unexpected side-effect that you might not have thought of! It can be enormously effective in supporting you in setting and upholding your boundaries. How does this happen? By regularly grounding, centering, and aligning, you tune into your mind, body, and soul. You learn to hear what messages they have for you and you become used to when something feels aligned.

This means you will be able to instantly feel when something is not right if you practice a form of this regularly. Here are some examples of how this might take effect:

1. You can feel when a type of food feels right in your body and when not. You will learn to feel what amount of food feels right when it is too much, and when it is too little.

2. It becomes easier to say, "no" to some things, and yes to others. Feeling grounded offers strength. Feeling centered and aligned gives a sense of what is right for your path in life and what is not. This makes it easier to make the right choices for your life.

3. Overall you will feel more clarity, and joy in your life. Taking action from a place of being grounded, centered, and aligned, will have an effect on the choices you make in life, and for the better. It is not always easy. It is not a quick fix and requires perseverance. Yet, the effects are utterly profound and impossible to ignore!

Finally, this is just one way of approaching this. There are many roads to Rome and this is meant as an effective introduction that allows you to try out this practice right away.

Special thanks go to the WildWood Tradition and author Fio Gede Parma for being the first to teach me the many beautiful and effective variations of this practice. Though it's been more than a decade of practicing, I continue to learn more each day.