Originally posted in 2015
Whenever I teach Reiki or other healing modalities, I tell students to center, ground, and shield before they begin a session. Moreover, I advise them to follow those steps no matter what they are doing, just to keep themselves balanced and able to handle the stress of everyday life. In this post, I am sharing a method I use. It incorporates centering, grounding, and shielding in an effective and efficient process.
Relax, be at ease, and become still. Do not cross your arms. Do not cross your legs unless you are seated on the floor with your root chakra firmly grounded. Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth to help cleanse your system, and then simply breathe at your own natural rate. Close your eyes.
When you feel centered, put your attention on your crown chakra at the top of your head. With your inhalation, imagine that white light comes in through your crown, down through your head and neck, and reaches your heart chakra. This white light is the clear, clean essence of your spirit; it infuses your physical body with pure life-force energy. Take your time to feel the flow of light down through your crown and into your heart. Once you are comfortable with drawing in the light, on your exhalation, send some white light back up from your heart and through your crown. Keep the channel and your heart illuminated, but also let your exhaled life-force light form an umbrella-like shape about 12 inches over your head. This umbrella creates a protective shield; do not breathe it back in, just reinforce it with each exhalation. While it protects from negativity, this shield also lets in beneficial influences, so the white light keeps streaming through. Continue until you are aware of a balanced flow from crown to heart and back up, following the rhythm of your breath.
Now switch your attention to the Earth beneath you. As you inhale, bring white light up through your feet and legs (if you are not sitting cross-legged on the floor), into your root chakra, and up into your heart center. When you have a clear awareness of the upward flow, begin to send white light down past your root and past your feet as you exhale. The channel remains illuminated, but the light forms a broad, round cup (or upturned umbrella) about 12 inches below your feet (or root chakra, if you are sitting on the floor). Notice the grounding effect that occurs when you draw light from the Earth and send your shield down below the planet’s surface. Continue until you are comfortable with the imagery and the flowing sensation.
Next, combine the two actions. Inhale, drawing light up through your root and down through your crown at the same time. The two flows meet in your heart, filling that chakra with white energy. Exhale and send light up and down, creating rounded shields of light above your head and below your feet. Follow this step as long as desired.
Focus on your heart chakra. This time, as you inhale, bring white light into your heart from the front, right through your chest, through the funnel-shaped opening of the chakra. On your exhalation, send light out the same pathway and allow it to form a cupped oval over the front of your body. When you are comfortable with that action, repeat the process from behind, bringing the light into the rear aspect of your heart chakra between your shoulder blades and sending light out the same way, creating an oval shield behind you. Then combine the two, so that you breathe light in through your chest and back at the same time, projecting white light shields ahead and behind as you breathe out.
Now begin to alternate the front-and-back flow and the down-and-up flow. Allow the light shields to merge until you are completely surrounded by the protective white light projected from your heart center. Take your time. Then breathe in and out from all four directions at the same time: down, up, front, back, all meeting in your heart chakra. Spend at least three complete breaths in this step. You should now feel relaxed, focused, and secure. Open your eyes and greet your world.
With practice, you will be able to skip steps and go straight to the four directions at once. If you imagine your heart chakra as a ball of energy, you might eventually find yourself breathing light in and out from all directions (360°).
I rely on this technique daily, repeating it as necessary before I enter a healing session, when I find myself around unpleasant energy, or when I feel scattered, vulnerable, or exhausted. In a similar manner, I create personal sacred space when I meditate, chant mantras, or do shamanic practices at my altar. Working with the breath, I expand the light from my heart to create a bubble, larger than my auric shield, which encompasses myself, my altar, and any tools and materials I am using. When I’m finished, I consciously draw the shielding energy back into my heart to open the space and return my awareness to the current time and place.
