Grounding
Humans learn at a young age to rise on their feet and have their hands free to do things. This movement up from the ground has for some people, maybe most modern people, led to a psychological disconnection with the ground. They feel they ought to fly or at least hover over the ground in the sphere of clever hands and brains so important in human life.
Gravity becomes an enemy that holds you down and will eventually become your death. Many distance themselves from and become strangers to the lower parts of the body associated with the ground: the feet, the legs, and even the hips and the abdomen where the food is processed and where its sexual functions are seated.
The illusion that we can disassociate ourselves from the ground and gravity means that we lose the sense of a solid basis and support for our movements and our whole being, and it creates a "split" body-awareness where the upper part of the body gets all the attention, and the lower part is somehow tolerated as a necessity, but not valued.
Many people become aware of the problem. Feeling strangers to parts of their body they try to attain "grounding" by different exercises that emphasise the lower parts of the body, the way the feet interact with the ground, the power you get when you push off from the ground.
It does not have to be very complicated. If you walk barefoot in shallow water, either on soft sand or gravel, you are certain to become more aware of your feet because of the intense sensations. If you bow down as far as it goes (knees a little bent) and greet your feet, it is also a change of perspective. If you hammer a pole into the ground, either a real or an imaginary one, you are surely bonding with the ground.
A farmer who does this on a daily basis as part of his work probably does not have the same problems with grounding as an office worker whose workspace is on the 7th floor of a tall building and who is sitting on a sophisticated chair that gives all sorts of support and comfort to minimize the strain of sitting for hours.
The Japanese sumo-wrestlers establish grounding in a very demonstrative way, as they hammer first one foot, then the other in the floor, in a very low and broad stance with knees bent and feet wide apart. You can make an excercise out of it: Getting down in a low stance can be combined with breathing out. You can then alternately breathe in as you rise and breathe out as you sink again.
The best effect you get when you underline the ups and downs with hands and arms "pointing the way": lift up hands and arms when you are on your way up and lower hands and arms when you are on your way down. There are different ways of doing it. The simplest and very efficient one is to move hands up with palms up and then down with palms down.
Another way is to "rise up centre" by joining hands piously in front of your chest and move them up, maybe even over your head, when you straighten your knees, and, sinking your body, "spread out low" by separating your hands when they come down to a horizontal move to the sides signifying the ground basis.
One way to achieve grounding is through the imagination: Stand tall with both legs together, hands with palms together in front of chest like in prayer. Imagine that your body is the trunk of a tree. Then go on to imagine that the roots run into the ground, straight down and a little out to the sides to get a firm grip on the earth. Next you raise your arms in front, stretch out up and to the sides and imagine that you as a tree are spreading your branches, lay your head back. While you do this you breathe in, and you must at the same time also imagine that your roots are growing down. So imagining the growth upwards you also imagine growth downwards.
After this you return your arms to the original position, while you breathe out. Repeat slowly three times and let the roots grow deeper and deeper.
Other suggestions: Imagine that you are wearing very big snow shoes. Imagine that you are only feet and legs to concentrate your attention in this region. Imagine that you are moving in a kind of energy pyramid with the pointed top and the broad, square base. Or, a little far out perhaps, but quite effective, imagine that your foot soles touch the foot soles of an upside down underground you. Imagine that you are one, and that energy is flowing freely between the person over and under the ground.
A little massage combined with imagination is helpful, too. Stand with legs spread, bend down, touch your feet and let your hands massage the inside of the legs as you get up again, continue with hands over your belly. Then you massage the lower back, buttocks and backside of legs while you bend down and reach your feet again. Imagine that you stimulate a flow of energy from the ground when the massage goes up and imagine that you lead energy down into the ground when the massage goes down. Repeat a few times.
The goal is to feel attached to the ground with energy flowing between you and the ground. We have all seen a dog lie flat on the ground, totally at rest, enjoying the surrender to the force of gravity. For humans busy in their heads thinking of the past and the future it can be difficult to let go in the here and now and just lie flat and trust gravity to keep order. But the reality of life on this planet is that gravity holds you. The gift of gravity is invisible, but effective roots to your great advantage if you are ready to receive this gift.
The ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician and inventor of mechanical devices, Archimedes (287 - 212 BC), said something like," Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world". One of his fields of interest was determining the "centre of gravity" of different masses and objects. Heureka!