When participating in any activity that could put you in touch with unpleasant energies there are two important practices that I think should always be undertaken: Grounding and Clearing. What kinds of activities? Any sort of encounter with haunted items or locations, any sort of séance or attempts to connect with paranormal entities, even situations where you are going to be dealing with people who you find aggressive or draining are all situations where these techniques could make a big difference. They help you release the negativity that you are bringing into a situation and to put a protection around yourself.

These are simple techniques that can be done any time, anywhere. They are also subtle, so you can do them without drawing a lot of attention.

Grounding

The purpose of grounding is to stabilize your energy and put you in a more neutral state. When working with energy or going into a location that interacts with energy (like a haunted building) you want to be as much in control of your state as you can. Negative emotions and energies that have accumulated throughout your day can be amplified or, even worse, turned against you. Just as grounding your self will discharge the static electricity that has built up walking across the carpet in your socks mentally grounding your mind will help remove the emotional build-up.

In addition to helping with energy work this is an excellent exercise to perform whenever you are dealing with challenging situations at work or with other people. It doesn’t take long to do this and you will find yourself calmer and more at peace when you are done.

1. Put yourself in a quiet place where you can sit comfortably. This is not absolutely necessary as, with practice, you will be able to perform this exercise standing on a crowded bus. To begin, however, quiet is helpful.
2. Sit down with your feet planted flat on the floor. Your back should be straight but relaxed. If you have problems achieving this posture try rolling your shoulders and letting your spine settle into it’s naturally straight position. (I had a theatre teacher who called this “stacking your bones.) Rest your hands loosely in your lap.
   If you need to stand, stand straight with your hands resting naturally at your sides.
3. Close your eyes and imagine yourself transforming into a tree. Imagine roots shooting gently out the bottoms of your feet and branches coming out of your torso and spreading out far above your head. Your branches reach high and your roots dig down deep. You are planted in the earth. You are one with the earth.
   You may be tempted to stretch out your arms to simulate the branches, but this can become tiring. You don’t want that distraction. Let your arms and all your limbs rest while your mind reaches out to make the roots and branches of this tree.
4. As your roots reach deep into the ground, imagine all the negative energy, all the frustrations in your mind, all the anger and sadness and anything else that you consider toxic falling down through your roots and going deep into the earth. The earth can take it all. It will absorb these toxic thoughts and emotions and nurture them into new life. Let them go, deep down into the earth.
5. As your branches reach up into the sky imagine a bright white light that you can feel at the top of your head. It is warm, pleasant, and nurturing. Imagine all of the toxic things flowing down into your roots making room for this warm light. Let that light fill the spaces and infuse you with a glowing feeling of good energy.
6. Continue to go back and forth between flushing negativity deep, deep into the ground and absorbing the bright nurturing light from above. Do this for as long as you need. If you’ve never done it, or haven’t for a long time, you may have a lot to cycle. Don’t rush it. Enjoy it. With practice you’ll find the process happens pretty quickly and automatically.
7. Once you feel like you have grounded the negativity it is time to withdraw the tree elements back into your self. See the branches shrinking back down and the roots pulling themselves back up to the bottom of your feet. When all has come back together you may feel an actual release as your feet are no longer connected to the ground. Be careful if you are standing as this can affect your balance.
8. Shake your body out as needed and enjoy the fresh feeling of being grounded.

Shielding

Once you’ve managed to clear out that negative energy you want to try to keep it out. Shielding creates a barrier that protects you from negative energy. Just like grounding, you don’t have to wait for a ghostly encounter to use it. Shielding works for other kinds of psychic attacks and influences. Many people that make you uncomfortable are engaged in psychic attacks, though most of them don’t even know that they are doing it. Once you learn this technique you’ll be surprised at how much more comfortable you feel in various situations by using it.

1. Close your eyes. Imagine a golden light in front of your eyes that gets brighter and brighter. (Sometimes it is difficult to imagine this light. As you learn to visualize it you can turn your closed eyes to a bright lamp or to the sky on a sunny day. Of course, never look at the sun. Once you get a feel for what this light should look like it will be easier for you to bring it up.)
2. Let the light grow in intensity until it obscures everything else. The light is not harsh. It does not hurt. It has a pleasant warmth to it. You enjoy the light, even when it is at its brightest.
3. As you picture this light, know that it is not just in front of you, but completely surrounding you. It is as though you are standing in the middle of a small sun. The bright, golden light is before you and behind you, above you and below you.
4. Now, imagine that you have a dimmer for this light. You are going to turn down the dimmer, further and further until the light is no more than a little candle flame, just out of your view. It is there and you can still feel its warmth, but it no longer obscures your view. This is how your shield will be when you are going about your business.
5. Go ahead and turn the light back up. Let it grow brighter and brighter until it outshines everything around, until you can see nothing but the golden light. Again, it is not harsh or uncomfortable. It is calming. This is your shield turned up. Know that harmful energies cannot penetrate this shield, that this golden light, while comfortable to you, is unpleasant to negative influences. They do not want to enter into it. They are repelled by it.
6. Turn the light back down to a candle flame again. If you wish you can imagine something that makes you uncomfortable, then turn the golden light up until it is obscured. Now turn the light down again and imagine that the negative thing is gone. The light has sent it away.
7. When you are comfortable that the light surrounds you and obeys you, you can leave it as a candle flame and continue with what you need to do. Know that you can bring that light to bear whenever you want. Turn it up a little when you feel like you are with negative people or in negative space. You’ll find that some of those things just simply avoid you or ignore you.

Bear in mind that your shielding will not necessarily tell the difference between positive and negative energies. You can repel friends as well as enemies. Use the dimmer to turn things down when you are with people you trust. Your shield does draw upon your own psychic energy, so it may make you feel drained if you use it for long periods of time. Rest will replenish you as will positive connections.