AYP explains that deep meditation can bring up energetic sensations, and I’ve definitely experienced that. I understand this as purification — pathways being cleared as inner silence integrates into the nervous system.
I’ve also followed the advice about self-pacing. When the sensations became too distracting in daily activity, I reduced my meditation time.
During meditation, when strong sensations arise, the guidance says we can easily favor the mantra, or if they are very strong, briefly allow attention to rest innocently on the sensations until they settle. And in cases of overload, the Passive Awareness technique is suggested — basically allowing attention to rest with sensations for the whole sitting.
Grounding activities (walking, gardening, physical activity, etc.) are also recommended when we’ve overdone practices.
My question is about grounding: is it area-specific? For example, if I feel strong sensations in my legs, would moving or exercising the legs specifically help dissipate overload in that area? Or is grounding more of a whole-system effect?
Grounding practices can be area-specific at times, but it is usually a whole-system process. There can be times, such as when there is excess prana in the legs, where moving, or shaking the legs can help to dissipate prana. It can also help to activate the energy channels in the legs which can help us to feel more grounded and rooted into the Earth. The same can happen with the hands and arms. If there is excess prana there, this can be “shaken out”, or “flicked out” sometimes and this can help with the grounding process.
However, most grounding practices such as walking, swimming, working in the house, or garden, etc. are system-wide in their effects.
Could you describe in a bit more detail the process of “shaking out” or “flicking out” the excess energy from arms and feet? E.g. are there any particular movements you would recommend for hands or feet?
I recently started a Tai Chi course where we do some Qigong practices before the actual Tai Chi. Some of these exercises feel like shaking out or flicking out energy.
For instance the practice around minute 7:20 here has a lot of shaking and flicking.
And if the grounding effect of walking is essentially relying on the natural movements of arms and legs providing some shaking and flicking out, could this be exaggerated during walking to increase the effectiveness of grounding?
Yes, similar to the movements shown in that video. It could also be slightly more vigorous.
Walking is grounding because of the repeated contact of the feet with the ground and the movement of the whole body. So, that works in a different way. Hard, fast walking can be more grounding than slow gentle walking. Walking barefoot can be more grounding than when wearing shoes. Walking in nature can be more grounding than walking in a city. And walking barefoot in a stream or river can be more grounding than walking on dry land. So, there is a lot to play around with there. But the grounding provided by walking is not based on “shaking” or “flicking” the arms or legs.
