Feeling Ungrounded? Here's What It Means Energetically
Have you ever felt like you're just a little bit… all over the place? You might feel physically present, but somehow your mind is somewhere else. Maybe you're having a hard time settling, staying focused, making decisions, or following through on things. You have plenty of ideas and plans, but turning them into reality can feel strangely difficult, or sometimes you just lose interest. Someone can tell you to do something, but for some reason, you do something completely different. And not intentionally! It's simply the way you heard it or took in the information. And then they tell you how they wanted it done, and it's like hearing it for the first time.
It can also be much more subtle than feeling scattered or spacey. Not everyone experiences all these qualities when they’re ungrounded. You may simply feel like you're not quite here. Like you're moving through your day without feeling fully connected to yourself, your body, or what's happening around you in the present moment. If you're reading this and thinking, Okay, this sounds a little too familiar, you may be energetically ungrounded.
Being ungrounded isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn't always mean something is wrong. There are lots of reasons we can become ungrounded, from stress and major life changes to simply spending a lot of time in our heads. Sometimes there's just a lot going on! Sometimes there’s just too much on your plate, and you may feel overwhelmed.
From an energy healing perspective, however, there is also something specific happening in the energy body, and that's what we're going to look at here.
In this post, we'll explore what it means to be ungrounded from an energy healing perspective, signs to look out for, why it happens, and things you can do to start feeling grounded again.
What Does It Mean If Someone Is Ungrounded?
What does it actually mean to be grounded? What is going on when a person is ungrounded, and how does that show up in everyday life? For me, it earned me the nickname ‘Space Cadet’ in my late teens, so that should probably be your first red flag - but in all seriousness there’s quite a bit that can come along with being ungrounded.
Feeling grounded can help you feel more calm, steady, and able to be present in your daily life. It can support your ability to make decisions, manage your emotions, follow through on things, and actually take action in the physical world.
Grounding is also about more than simply feeling settled. It helps us bring our spiritual and energetic experiences into our everyday lives. Many of us can have the ideas, intuition, spiritual experiences, and all the inspiration in the world, but at some point, it's good to bring that energy down into the physical world and do something with it.
This is where grounding can become incredibly powerful. It can help us create stability, build our lives, and turn ideas into something tangible.
Signs of Being Ungrounded
Here are some signs you should look out for. These ungrounded symptoms can look a little different from person to person:
A general spaciness. This can also include constantly losing things, dropping things, being accident-prone, forgetting where you put something, etc. I lost my debit card like 12 times when I was 17 or 18, so I speak from experience!
Being there in body- but not really in mind. This can show up as not really listening, or listening but not actually taking in the information. (Aka marriage—just joking!)
Bouncing around with work or other areas of life. You may have a hard time maintaining a job, constantly move homes - just because you feel like you need a change, or you may frequently change relationships. You get the picture.
Procrastinating and delaying. Being ungrounded can show up as being super disorganized, having difficulty keeping appointments or commitments, or generally struggling to follow through on things. You may feel stuck, unable to begin, or weighed down by the responsibility of everything you need to do.
Indecisiveness. This was a big one for me when I was younger. I am a Libra, but being ungrounded on top of that was next level!
Being in your head a lot. You may have lots of ideas, plans, or goals, but have difficulty actually executing them in the physical world.
So at this point if you’re thinking this sounds A LOT like the Root Chakra blog post from last month - you’d be right about that. The Root Chakra has a huge influence in how grounded we feel.
If you’re in perimenopause and thinking, “That sounds a lot like me,” it may not necessarily mean you’re ungrounded. For some people, hormonal changes can also bring anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, or changes in mood and emotions, so it’s worth considering what else may be going on.
Also certain times of the year, like when we transition into Autumn can cause feelings of ungroundedness for some people as well. Big life changes, periods of stress, or when we’re going through something can also produce this result. If that’s you, working to become grounded can be a good fit.
Why Do We Become Ungrounded?
There are lots of reasons we can become ungrounded. Sometimes life is simply a lot. Prolonged stress, trauma, major life changes, having too much on your plate, or constantly having to juggle and manage different things and demands can all contribute. Even being constantly overstimulated can have an effect.
For some people, this may be temporary. You may normally feel quite grounded, but go through a particularly stressful period or major life change and notice that you're suddenly feeling different. Once things settle down, your sense of grounding may return as well.
But there is another piece that I think is interesting from an energy healing perspective: we're not all starting from the same energetic place.
We're all born with different energetic strengths and weaknesses. For some people, the lower chakras are naturally stronger, and they tend to feel quite connected to their bodies and the physical world. They’re very grounded individuals. For others, they may be naturally more spiritually or mentally oriented. They may be highly intuitive, imaginative, or naturally drawn to spiritual practices, but may need to put more conscious attention toward staying connected to the physical world. It simply means that grounding may be an area that requires a little more attention and development.
And this is one reason why some people can feel ungrounded even when nothing particularly stressful is happening in their lives. It may simply be an area where they need to develop more balance.
Being Ungrounded from an Energy Healing Perspective
Energetically speaking, when a person is ungrounded the lower chakras are weaker than other areas of the energy body. I talk more about why this happens in my underactive Root Chakra post.
Because the lower chakras are weaker, they tend to be smaller in width, which means their capacity to hold energy is limited compared to other areas. When the chakras are small and have less vitality, they’re not in the driver's seat, in fact, I don't even think they’re in the back seat. They’re more in the trunk, really…
This is important to note because there is a grounding cord that extends from our lower body and goes straight into the Earth. This grounding cord is a two-way street. On one hand our own personal energy runs down this cord and at the same time energy from the Earth runs up. This Earth energy or Earth Prana is quite different compared to other types of life force. It’s the perfect energy to nourish the tissues of our body, our legs and our joints. It’s also the perfect energy to open up and strengthen these lower chakras so we can be nicely balanced. In a perfect world we would be spiritually wealthy AND financially/materially wealthy. Being too much of one or the other causes issues.
So there you have it: when someone is ungrounded, the lower chakras aren't holding as much energy as they should, and there isn't enough Earth energy moving up through the grounding cord into the body.
Our first goal is to increase the size of the lower chakras, so they can hold more energy which in turn will create that grounding effect. The benefit of this is that you may begin to feel more present, settled, and connected to your body over time.
Grounding Techniques to Help You Feel Grounded Again
If you’re naturally more ungrounded, or if you’re going through a period where you’re feeling this way, you’ll need to make sure you have some daily support. Ideally, make an effort to get grounded first thing in the morning after waking up, or during the early part of the day.
I don't recommend doing grounding techniques right before bed, as grounding tends to bring you more into your body and into the physical world, which is the opposite of what you want when you're trying to wind down for sleep. Instead, leave space at night to slow down, shut off distractions, and prepare to fall asleep.
If you have a spiritual practice, do your grounding right at the very end of your practice, whether that's meditation, prayer, or something else. This helps anchor you back into your body after spending time in a more spiritual or energetic space. It strengthens your lower chakras and helps bring all that beautiful energy you generated into the physical world with you.
Coming at it from a few angles is a good idea. Here are some suggestions:
Walking, Running, and Exercise
Physical movement can be very helpful for grounding, but you'll need to make it part of your routine. When you move your legs, you're also working with your lower chakras. From an energetic perspective, they're releasing stagnant or “dirty” energy and taking in fresh life force from the environment. In this way, you're helping those lower chakras strengthen and develop over time.
The Grounding Exercise from My Root Chakra Post
This is probably the most important suggestion I can give you. Do this Root Chakra grounding exercise earlier in the day, and if you have a spiritual practice, do it right at the very end. It's quick and effective. I did this exercise for years and years myself. Grounding is not the opposite of spirituality, in fact it helps spirituality become embodied.
Grounding Oils
Certain essential oils can also be helpful when you're feeling ungrounded. Oils such as vetiver, cedarwood, patchouli, or sandalwood have a naturally grounding quality and can be used as part of your grounding routine. For our purposes here I would apply them to your body. Please do some research on this, some oils need to be in carrier oil. When safe to apply to the body, you can apply to the bottom of your spine and the bottom of each foot. There are minor chakras on the bottom of the feet that also draw up that Earth energy.
Grounding Crystals
Wearing a crystal specifically for grounding can be another way to give your energy body some additional support. Crystals can work with our energy body and stimulate particular chakras, making them useful when you're trying to strengthen your connection to the physical world. I'll be doing a deeper dive into working with crystals for grounding in my next blog post, so stay tuned for that…
There are other things you can do, of course - getting out into nature, getting your feet on the Earth, and so on. But I wanted to suggest things that you can do at the start of your day that are quick, easy, and can get you on your way.
Grounding needs to be a regular thing, not just a one-off. It’s a process of continuing to return to yourself. Especially if this is an area that needs to be worked on, consistency is what will help you develop and strengthen your grounding connection over time. Eventually, you’ll get to a point where this is no longer an issue. It may even become your superpower.
Finding Your Way Back to Feeling Grounded
If you've been feeling ungrounded for a while and can't seem to get yourself back to feeling settled and connected, you don't have to figure it out on your own.
Energy healing can help identify where your energy is weak or out of balance and support you in strengthening those areas. If grounding is something you've struggled with for a long time, it may be worth taking a closer look at what's happening in your energy body.
If you'd like some help with this, you can book an Energy Healing session and we can work together to get you feeling more grounded and connected.
