Guided Meditation · Free Resources

Feet-on-Floor Grounding

The fastest way down from your own head.

When thinking has run away with you, arguing with the thoughts only gives them more to work with. This puts your attention somewhere the thoughts are not. It takes about thirty seconds and works in a meeting, a queue, or the middle of a disagreement.

Sit with Aparna

Audio Session

A short guided grounding you can do sitting or standing.

Aparna is recording this one. Until it arrives, the written practice below will carry you.

Recording coming soon

What it's for

A spinning mind does not respond to better thinking. Every attempt to reason your way out adds another lap. What interrupts it is sensation, because the body only ever reports on now.

The feet are the most useful place to go. They sit furthest from the head, they are always in contact with something solid, and nobody can tell you are doing it. This is the practice you can use while someone is still talking to you.

How to practice

Thirty seconds · seated or standing

All the way down to the floor

Keep your eyes open if you need to. This one is designed to be invisible.

  1. Put both feet flat on the ground. Uncross your legs if they are crossed.
  2. Press down through your heels, then through the balls of your feet, then let the pressure go.
  3. Feel the actual contact: the sock, the shoe, the floor underneath, its temperature.
  4. Notice that the floor is holding you and has been holding you the whole time.
  5. Take one long exhale down through your legs, as though you could breathe out through the soles.
  6. Stay there for three more breaths before you go back to whatever is happening.

If this is more than a hard day

Lemon Dojo teaches meditation. It is not therapy, medical care, or a crisis service, and a practice is not the right tool for an emergency. If you are struggling to keep yourself safe, please reach a person today rather than a page.

Where to go next

I'm angry and can't think Back to the remedy Body Scan Meditation The long version All free resources Every practice in one place