Grounding and Depolarizing

By Stephen Posner and Myra Jackson

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What can the word “ground” as a verb, rather than a noun, teach us about relationships? 

Creatively exploring the scientific meaning of grounding with diverse ways of knowing this concept can lead to insights for mindful action and collaboration. 

Energy accumulation and flow

In the natural world, energy moves, changes shape, and accumulates. When opposing energy* becomes concentrated in different places, it can give rise to polarization – for example, positive charge concentrated here, and negative charge accumulated over there.  

Life as we know it would not exist without polarization. This feature of the natural world enables fundamental flows, such as the movement of molecules inside our bodies on a cellular level, or the transmission of electrical signals along communication lines. 

Polarization can present challenges, though. When concentrated energy becomes stuck, it can continue to accumulate. As opposing energy builds up, potential grows for a strong depolarizing process. 

Depolarization in nature

The concentration of opposing energy is associated with a mysterious phenomenon in physics. As polarization builds, a motivating force seeks to move opposing energy back together into a balanced relationship. The larger the difference in accumulated and opposing charges, the more powerful the motivating force. Any tiny electrical shock is an example of this motivating force causing a flow of energy to redistribute accumulated charge. A lightning strike, on the other hand, is an example of a powerful and dramatic rebalancing. 

Lightning is a process that unfolds based on the presence of particular conditions in the air, water, and land. Photo: CC license, Pickpic. 

The conditions for lightning include clouds heavy with water that swirl in the air and become increasingly polarized as opposing charge accumulates in the upper and lower portions of the clouds. When energy concentrated in the lower clouds builds to become sufficiently different from the ground below, the motivating force can exceed the resistance of the air between clouds and ground. 

A lightning strike is an awe-inspiring process – a powerful, rapid flow of electrical energy through the sky that dissipates energy and restores a more neutral balance. This natural flow of energy depolarizes and can produce significant amounts of light, heat, and sound. 

Depolarization in human parts of nature

Nature holds important wisdom regarding energy flow. Ideas from physical science take on new layers of meaning in the context of human cultures, communities, and societies.

For example, energy accumulation and polarization are temporary. A natural flow eventually redistributes concentrated energy. We see this dynamic flow in many aspects of everyday life, from the way heat energy moves through food cooking in the kitchen, to the way storms assemble and disperse over the ocean. Our human bodies, relationships, and communities move in and out of dynamic balance, with energy circulating, concentrating, and redistributing. 

Polarization in nature is ok. In fact, how we regard polarization can hold powerful creative energy. For example, when tension is acknowledged and well-tended in dialogue and exchange, people with very different views and backgrounds can work together to find edges for learning and growth. Difference with mutual respect and safety can provide sparks of insight.

The world is full of examples of diverse groups co-existing in harmony. How we regard differences can enrich cultural expressions of life. Photo: UN Women/Lin Joe Yin.

Polarization can become problematic, though, when we regard difference as deficient, or when we forget respect and allow opposing views to separate people into “us and them.” 

Because of the impact polarization can have in the world, it’s important to contemplate how we can consciously create depolarizing processes – ways of living with each other that gently restore balance and harmony, rather than allow opposing energy to accumulate to the point of dramatic conflict. 

Grounding in science and culture 

In science, “ground” as a verb means to reconnect a flow of energy to the Earth. People across the world recognize a universal symbol for ground in technical circuit diagrams. 

In electrical engineering and physics, the symbol for “ground” evolved from early drawings of a return path for electric current in connection to the Earth.

In this modern age, scientists widely acknowledge Earth as both source and destination for electrical energy flow. When we build infrastructure to move electricity at any scale, from appliances to homes to regional power grids, we take great care to always ground by creating and maintaining a return path to Earth. Grounding is critical in engineering, because it reduces the risk of electrical shock created by the buildup of accumulated charge.

There are many cultures around the world where grounding practices are naturally embedded into traditional ways of life and knowledge systems. These cultural expressions of grounding are not the same as grounding in engineering and physics, but they similarly acknowledge Earth as source and destination. Sole-to-soil is an expression of the relational field of interrelatedness with Earth, where gratitude, respect, reverence, and reciprocity informs daily lives. There are many within industrialized societies who recognize the importance of maintaining simple flows and connections with Earth.

Grounding in embodied experience 

Your human body generates an electromagnetic field and exists within the Earth’s field. In fact, the strongest rhythmic field produced by your human body is from the heart. We can measure our heart’s magnetic field several feet away from the body with sensitive magnetometers, and it’s typically orders of magnitude larger than our brain’s field. 

Electrical fields are important carriers of information. For example, heart rate variability is an indicator of physical and mental health; the quality of our thinking, decision making, and creativity; our inner state; and the impact of our inner state on others. Given that the human body can be considered an electromagnetic field walking within and amongst other fields, grounding practices can offer simple ways to gently depolarize and restore balance. 

Visualization of Earth’s magnetic field, which is generated deep within Earth’s interior and extends out into space. Image credit: Elen11 via Getty Images/iStockphoto.

Today, the benefits of grounding practices are backed by a growing body of research documenting the Earth’s field as a direct source of regulating the emotional, mental and physical body system. In addition to grounding practices used widely in yoga, tai chi, qi gong, aikido and other Eastern practices, anchoring ourselves to the rhythms of the Earth can provide an important pathway from stuck accumulation of charge and polarization toward ongoing dynamic exchange (for example, conversations that matter).

A grounding practice applied in sports and martial arts training invites each person to connect with the power within their core body while standing still in the flow of the Earth’s field and the compassion in their hearts while looking directly in the eyes of another as they regain more contact with their physical and emotional states of being. 

This can be an uncomfortable process. It takes courage to be present, maintain eye contact, feel one’s own power, and respectfully engage with another stranger. The nervous system gets activated. Some participants want to shut down and quit. Others get angry and want to escape, and yet when they stay connected and continue in this grounding practice, they can notice all of the thoughts and assumptions that are arising about their partner as they stand facing them. Avoiding judging themselves allows one to consider that ultimately their assumptions have nothing to do with that person; it’s simply their story. In setting their assumptions aside, very often sensations surface in the form of nervousness, laughter, distractions, aggressive impulses, tears, resistance, and yet they can stay connected. 

There comes a moment when fully present and connected, the survival brain’s fight, flight, freeze, appease responses ease. Resistance falls away, assumptions and biases fade into the background, and suddenly, the humanity of each partner surfaces. With honor and respect, they authentically bond with one another, heart to heart. 

At this moment there is a heightened level of appreciation, balance, and flow. The letting go of falsely opposing rigidity makes room for shared creativity, possibility, and hope. Many people know the power of staying in the room during supercharged conversations where lasting bonds form and trust emerges after moving through what seemed unworkable. 

While much remains unknown about the source of these energy flows, we can apply what we know of its effects directly to the electromagnetic field of every cell and human being. Human beings are a part of Earth and the correspondence to universal laws that underlie nature becomes more visible through multiple ways of knowing, including the sciences. 

Approaches to grounding and depolarizing

How can we practically depolarize accumulated opposing energy in our lives and work? What do we do when we notice ourselves experiencing a heightened state with built up potential for a quarrel? Grounding practices can reduce the risk of conflict. These practices invite the movement and release of accumulated energy. By reconnecting a flow of energy to ground, they can help mitigate the build up of extreme differences and restore balanced relationships. 

Consider these approaches to addressing polarization:

• The Garrison Institute’s Contemplative-Based Resilience project includes a framework for resilient leaders designed to help develop mindful awareness, balance through movement, connection with peers, and compassion practices.  
• Acknowledging and holding space between worldviews, cultures, and people based on mutual respect can remind us of interconnectedness. Practices such as Two-Eyed Seeing, exploring ethical space, and living stories and agreements such as the Two-Row Wampum can provide valuable groundwork for peaceful coexistence among people. 
• Developing capacity for deep listening is a powerful way to navigate and transform polarized worlds.
• Rooted in Ethics is a living document that advocates for bioregional restoration that aims to honor and restore Nature and the broken bonds inherent within humanity with Nature.  The Pillars of Nature Relationships – receptive, reciprocal and respectful – represent entering into a beneficial relationship with Nature and are based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge and developed with representatives of Original Peoples and Nations.
• Fierce Civility for Transforming our Global Culture from Polarizing to Lasting Peace are skills and practices designed to break the gridlock of stagnant polarization, foster healing and reconciliation, discover alliances in surprising places, set the groundwork for inclusive, diverse collaborations, design new, resilient and sustainable solutions and utilize solutions as a blueprint for lasting peace. 
• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) offers a guide to effective collaborative action that focuses on developing collective capacity for collaboration and strengthening participatory and inclusive governance.

These approaches share common elements, such as mindfully noticing relationships, developing individual and shared responsibility for heightened states, facilitating healthy exchange, and restoring relationships with common ground. 

As we experiment with these practices – as individuals, small groups, and communities – we can learn to appreciate a complete view that ultimately sees opposing individuals as part of one greater whole. 

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* This idea of polarization is based on duality and the perception of contrasting opposites. 

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Stephen Posner is the Director of the Pathways to Planetary Health initiative at the Garrison Institute. His work applies scientific inquiry and contemplative practice across traditions to create a compassionate and resilient world. He brings together research and education in astrophysics, ecology, and economics with retreats in Zen communities and ceremony on the land. Currently, Stephen serves as contributing author for the first U.S. National Nature Assessment, conducts research on relationships across mindfulness traditions, and develops partnerships to address planetary health in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Myra L Jackson has enjoyed a diverse array of hefty careers including electrical engineer, organizational development professional, systems thinker, and master trainer. She has lived abroad and studied many of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions in service to her lifelong fascination with the belief structures and cosmologies that captivate people and inform their lives. Linking local and global policy-making, she is a founding wisdom council member of the Gaiafield Project and Subtle Activism Network. As U.N. Representative and Head of Delegation, Myra serves as the focal point on climate change and biodiversity for the Earth Law Center and the Mindfulness Innovator in Residence at Creativity & Innovation at Colorado College. Myra was named Diplomat of the Biosphere by the Stockholm Resilience Centre.