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Grounding is a vague word for a specific state. What these sessions address is the feeling of being slightly above yourself, unsettled without being anxious, present in a room without quite occupying it.
What these sessions are
The mechanism across all three is weight. The breath is directed low, the exhale is given more time than the inhale, and attention is kept at the parts of the body in contact with the floor or the chair. Nothing about that is metaphorical.
Heavy Exhale Grounding is the plainest version and puts almost all of its attention on the out-breath. Earth Root Breath works lower still, at the base of the body, and is the most traditional in its framing. Breathing Into Stability is the most talked through and the best of the three for a first attempt.
This is not the same as calming, though the two are often confused. A calming practice lowers arousal, and you can be perfectly unaroused and still feel unanchored. These sessions work on where you are rather than on how activated you are.
The tradition associates a downward-moving breath with steadiness and treats it as the counterweight to practices that lift. What people commonly report is feeling more solidly in the room afterwards, which is a modest and honest description. Any stronger claim would need clinical evidence and is not made here.
The sessions
3 sessions, 9 to 10 minutes. Every session in this collection needs Premium. Four other breathwork collections have a free session in them, and the free tier covers twelve guided sessions across the app.
| Session | Length | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Breathing Into Stability | 10 min | Premium |
| Earth Root Breath | 9 min | Premium |
| Heavy Exhale Grounding | 10 min | Premium |
Which one to start with
Start with Breathing Into Stability. It gives the most instruction and asks the least familiarity with the idea, which matters in a collection whose subject is hard to name.
Take Heavy Exhale Grounding when you want the mechanism without the framing. It is the most direct of the three and the easiest to reproduce afterwards without a recording.
If what you actually feel is wound up rather than unanchored, the stress and anxiety sessions are the ones for that. If you feel flat, the energizing collection is. Grounding is for the state that is neither.
How to use them
Practise with your feet flat on the floor, sitting rather than lying. Contact with the ground is doing part of the work and lying down removes most of it.
Let the exhale be long and unforced. Pushing the air out makes the chest work, which is the opposite direction from the one you want.
Keep the eyes open and low if closing them makes you feel less present rather than more. That is common in this particular state and it is a reasonable adjustment.
Use these after something rather than before. They suit the end of a scattered day better than the start of a demanding one.
What usually goes wrong
Confusing grounding with calming. They are different states and different sessions. A calming practice on an unanchored day leaves you calm and still not quite there.
Lying down for it. Lying flat removes the contact these are built around and tends toward drowsiness. Sit with your feet on the floor.
Forcing the exhale. A long out-breath and a pushed one are different things. Pushed emptying tightens the chest and works against the weight you are after.
Expecting a dramatic shift. What most people report is a small, specific change in where they feel located. If you are waiting for more than that you will miss it.
For the day you are not quite in
PanchPrana keeps grounding separate from calming because they answer different states, and reaching for the wrong one is the usual reason a session does nothing. The stress and anxiety collection is the other half of the pair.
Who should take care
These are gentle, slow practices with nothing forceful in them, and they carry the lightest cautions in the breathwork library alongside breath awareness and the creativity sessions.
If you are pregnant, these are generally suitable practised gently, with no breath holding. If you live with uncontrolled high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma or epilepsy, keep the breath easy and leave out any hold.
If you have asthma or COPD, ease off if the long exhale makes you want to empty the lungs further than is comfortable. The exhale should be unhurried rather than complete.
Stop if you feel dizzy, faint or breathless, and let the breath settle before standing. If feeling detached from yourself or your surroundings is persistent rather than occasional, that is worth raising with a doctor rather than treating with a breath practice, and it is not what this collection is for.
See our full Health & Safety Disclaimer.
Common questions
What does grounding actually mean?
In practice it means feeling located in your body and in the room, rather than slightly above or beside them. It is a specific state despite being a vague word.
Is this the same as a calming practice?
No. Calming lowers arousal; grounding changes where you feel situated. You can be calm and unanchored at the same time, which is what makes reaching for the wrong collection so common.
Can I do this standing?
Yes, and Earth Root Breath works well standing with the feet planted. Sitting is the default because it is easier to sustain.
How is this different from the subtle body sessions?
Those move attention through a traditional map of the whole body. These keep it low and stay there, and they use the weight of the exhale rather than a sequence.
When should I use this rather than the sleep sessions?
These are done sitting up and are meant to leave you present and awake. The sleep collection is for lying in the dark and is built to be left halfway.
