As a witch who’s always on the go it can sometimes be hard to focus on magical self care. I’m traveling and moving and working with lots of people and life is kind of a whirlwind and I love it but sometimes it all gets to be a little… much. In all of the hustle and bustle my ability to take care of myself and my ability to take care of my magical practice can start to go south. I forget to practice good magical hygiene (such as cleansing and banishing) and I start to feel a little disconnected from the whole thing.
When this happens I like to turn to magical self care! Now, there are two types of magical self care: there’s magic that is used as self care and there’s self care for your magic. The methods I’m about to discuss happen to be useful for both!
Grounding is a vital part of learning to practice magic in a safe and healthy way. The term comes from the process of grounding an electrical circuit. Essentially if an object is negatively charged, grounding allows excess electrons to flow from the object into the earth, and if an object is positively charged, electrons flow from the earth into the object. It’s a method of balancing and equalizing the flow of energy.
Similarly, in witchcraft grounding is the practice of balancing personal energies. Many things can pull us out of balance, emotional turmoil (for empaths it doesn’t even have to be our own emotional turmoil, often we pick up other people’s emotions far too readily!), illness, performing rituals or spells, astral travel, even simple things from our day to day lives can create a state of too much personal energy or too little personal energy.
This can be an incredibly uncomfortable experience.
Symptoms of unbalanced energy:
Dizziness, feeling spaced out, light headed or a floaty feeling
Headaches
Forgetfulness
Misplacing or losing things
Feeling generally unwell or exhausted
Daydreaming and an inability to focus
Sensitivity to light and noise
Feeling over stimulated and nervy
Bumping into things or other general feelings of clumsiness
An uncomfortable sensation of buzzing under the skin
Nausea and vomiting
Pain
Irritability
Insomnia
These symptoms typically become more severe the further out of alignment you are.
It is essential that you learn to ground properly before beginning to practice magic. Often I see newer witches who have yet to learn this skill experiencing unnecessarily strong backlash from their spell work.
Magic is energy! When you move and manipulate energy in such powerful ways it can and will pull your own energy out of balance. Grounding allows you to avoid the unpleasant side effects of spell casting which means a you’ll be a happier witch and have more time and space to practice your craft!
There are many ways of grounding yourself, I suggest you try a variety of methods and find the one that is most effective for you.
Rooting Yourself
This method works best if you are barefoot and standing on grass or dirt. Imagine your energy extending down through your legs and sinking into the earth, becoming roots and burrowing into the soil to trade energy with the earth. Feel the earth’s energy flow up into your body, filling you all the way to your head and then back down and out through your roots. This energy will cycle through you and clear away any excess energy as well as solving any energy deficiencies you might have. Continue this until you feel calm and comfortable.
Laugh
Laughter is an amazing way to release pent up energy as well as building our personal energy from within! Give yourself time and space to have a good laugh, put on your favorite comedian and enjoy yourself.
Food
Nourishing your body can help to reconnect you to your physical self and refuel depleted energy. Sit down for a hearty meal and give it your full attention, this helps to pull you back into your body fully after astral work or other intense spiritual experiences and gives you a moment to rest and relax.
Water
Water is a wonderful conductor of energy, sitting with your feet in a stream, your hands under a running faucet, or drawing yourself a bath can equalize your energy very quickly. Playing in the rain can also equalize your energy but if it’s sunny out visualizing rain washing your energy clean will work just as well.
Go for a walk
Getting out in nature, especially if you can walk barefoot, will allow your body to trade energy with the earth and equalize your energy levels. Walking in nature also helps to build mindfulness and create a sense of ease in your life!
Wind Visualization
Sit comfortably and begin to visualize your energy body. When you have a solid image of it in your mind imagine a strong gust of wind blowing your energy around you, removing blockages, carrying away excesses and refueling any energetic deficiencies.
Exercise
Gentle exercise can help to release any excess energies. Do not ground this way if you feel lethargic, exhausted or in any kind of pain. This method is ONLY to be used when you have an energy excess!
Body Awareness
Simply giving your body attention can encourage your energy to equalize on its own. Take a few minutes to consciously take stock of every inch of your body. Begin at your head, feel your scalp, then move to focusing on each part of your face. Move downward and feel your neck, your chest, then your arms, your elbows, your wrists, your fingertips. Focus on your torso again, now placing your energy on your stomach, feel it move with your breath. Continue this all the way down to your toes. Try to remain relaxed throughout this process.
Let Yourself Cry
Crying or screaming will release excess emotional energy very quickly. If you’re the sort of person who loves a good cleansing cry then this one is for you.
Stones and Crystals
Certain stones and crystals can be grounding. Hematite is particularly good for this purpose.
Play in the dirt
Getting in contact with the earth through gardening or rolling around in the dirt like you did when you were a kid allows your body to exchange energy with the earth. So let go of your adulthood for a few minutes and get in the dirt!
Grounding is a wonderful tool to use but it isn’t a cure all. It’s also not always desirable to be completely grounded! There are certain types of magic that can be hindered by grounding and other types of magic that are simply not energy based and won’t require grounding to be effective.
When working with spirits being too grounded can make it more difficult to connect to the entity
If you’re fueling magic with emotions or excitement grounding beforehand will not help. You want your emotions and energy high in order to perform that sort of magic.
Sigils generally do not require grounding
Any kind of astral or out of body practice will be made much more difficult if you’re grounded beforehand. Ground after this sort of practice, not before
Dream work will be hindered by grounding
Grounding is most often used for post-spell backlash but it can also be utilized in your day to day life to enhance focus and happiness, lessen anxiety and protect you from emotional runoff.
If you struggle with any of the symptoms of being ungrounded regularly you might benefit from adding a few minutes of grounding into your daily practice!
Part 2 of Cheerleader Bakugou and Basketball player Todoroki 📣💥🍰🏀 (Again keep in mind these are old drawings 🥺👉👈)
Common occurrence:
Kissy kiss 001 :
Kissy kissy 002
Just a ton more kisses
Sheet masks
Diogenes gets into a heated argument with Tolkien over his fantasy races because despite the fact that hobbits, elves, and dwarves are all featherless bipeds Tolkien insists that they are not Men
Foods that could be common for Water Tribesmen, in case anyone needs inspiration:
Meat (eaten dried, smoked, boiled, or frozen) (note: in such harsh environments, wasting tends to be looked down upon, so as many edible parts would be eaten as possible. This would include the tongue, heart, and liver.)
Seal (canon) (also, seal oil as a sauce or condiment)
Chiton (possibly canon depending on how you interpret "sea prunes")
Crab (canon)
Fish (salmon, whitefish, trout), fish eggs
Walrus
Whale/muktuk
Ptarmigan and grouse (possibly canon, depending on how you interpret "arctic hen"), ptarmigan and grouse eggs
Rabit and hare
Caribou
Produce (eaten fresh, added to other foods, or more rarely cooked)
Berries (bluberry, low-bush and high-bush cranberry, salmonberry, cloudberry, wild raspberry, rosehip) (can be made into jam)
Fireweed shoots (roots can be roasted as well, flowers can be made into jelly, leaves can be processed into a tea)
Eskimo potato/masru (just the root, the rest of the plant is poisonous)
Seaweed
Sourdock
Dishes/specially prepared foods
Soups
Akutaq (whipped fat with meat, fish, and/or berries; sometimes sweetened)
Mikigaq (fermented whale meat and muktuk)
Tepa (fermented fish head)
Fry bread
Pancakes
Imported foods (may have been intercepted by the Fire Nation navy and thus even more scarce at some points in the South Pole)
Cereal grains/flour
Yeast
Dairy products
Tea
Hardtack crackers
Sugar
Seasonings like garlic, pepper, ginger, etc (salt can be gathered from seawater)
Vegetables like carrots, cabbage, onions, etc; and fruits like pears, stonefruits, and citrus (likely dried or otherwise preserved ahead of time or soon upon importing because repeated freezing and thawing causes faster spoilage)
Meats like chicken, beef, and pork
Types of oil that don't come from animal fat
Gentle reminder that the human eye is naturally drawn by noise and movement, so the next time you walk into a crowd or a bit late into a lecture or something like that, they’re not staring at you or judging; it’s just an instinctive reaction that has nothing to do with you doing anything wrong.
adhd just makes your really bad at capitalism, unfortunately
This is the Lucky Ace. Reblog to recieve a wad of cash that is oddly specific to your current needs.
surprise
I live
Here’s some advice I wasn’t told from the myriad of posts before that I wish I’d been given before
Wash the OUTSIDE of your pots and pans as well as the cooking surface. I’ve had a few roommates now who have only cleaned the inside and I’ve had to replace a $150 set of cookware twice.
“its only one time, how bad could using metal on nonstick cookware really be?” very bad. don’t do this.
Buy a rice cooker. Buy the middle tier rice cooker. Cheap ones will burn your rice, high tier ones are too expensive. Rice is good and cheap and, really, you don’t actually have to wash it if you don’t care about making gourmet food.
Buy band-aids. You don’t think you need band-ads until you need a band-aid, and by then it’s too late. (if you don’t follow this advice, a paper towel and some tape is an acceptable solution while you go get real bandages and neosporin)
You are on tumblr, which means you probably spend most of your time in one spot on a computer or phone. if this spot doesn’t have a trash can in arm’s reach, put one there.
I spent 4 years piling trash on my desk in increasingly precarious ways until I had a designated area to put it. Trash cans can and should go anywhere there is a frequent generation of trash, typical locations be damned.
If you live with one or two roommates, discuss placing empty boxes in the back of your fridge and freezer. You probably don’t need all the space that the standard 5-person-family fridge provides, and tupperware will be shoved back there and left to stink up the entire appliance.
Get a wall calendar, put it somewhere communal, and have everyone put their household-relevant schedules on it. Communication is by far the weakest link with roommates (even good ones!) and having something to reference for appointments is always good
i only have $4.32 to my name but i would give it all to whoever decided to draw zuko’s contact photo from the latest chapter of unconditionally and irrevocably
if cats aren't meant to be kissed on their heads then what's that little space between their ears for
Just a place for me to keep all my random musings and fangirlingishness... Yerp.
165 posts