Ungrounded despite grounding – is this a mismatch?

[Kati]

Hi everyone,

 

I’ve been practicing Spring Forest Qigong for over two years. I’ve stayed with Level 1 exercises, didn’t experiment, and followed the instructions carefully. I also consistently did the grounding exercises exactly as recommended and for the suggested amount of time.

 

And yet, I often felt ungrounded.

 

There were many times when it felt like the energy was shooting up into my head and getting stuck there. Even though I was only doing beginner-level practices and focusing on grounding, I didn’t feel settled in my body. Instead, I sometimes felt more “up” than before.

 

And here is something which bothered me a lot: unusual experiences(like seeing stuff which isnt there)  started occurring in the middle of the night for several weeks in a row. For some reason it happened only at nighttime. They would wake me up or keep me from falling back asleep. Over time, this led to lack of sleep — and that’s when it became a real problem for me.

 

 

That’s part of why I started questioning whether this form is truly right for my constitution

 

So now my questions feel even more specific:

 

If a practice leads to feeling ungrounded despite doing grounding exercises, is that a mismatch?

 

If energy repeatedly rises to the head and doesn’t settle, what does that indicate?

 

If unusual experiences start interfering with sleep, is that a red flag?

 

How do experienced practitioners distinguish between “normal energetic adjustment” and actual overstimulation?

 

I’m seriously considering committing to one form for 100 days — but I also don’t want to ignore signs that my system may be getting overstimulated.

 

I would really appreciate hearing from long-term practitioners who have navigated similar phases. What were your markers for a practice being stabilizing versus destabilizing?

 

Thank you for reading.

[Gerard]

Are you doing grounding work at all?

 

If not, start now. It's a MUST not a maybe. It should become a priority in your daily practice.

 

How many hours do you spend every day looking at electronic devices and or doing mental work?

 

If yes, start trimming down the excess.

[Kati]

Yes i do.

As much as is recommended. But it seemed like i needed a lot more. Therefore i spend now almost most of the qigong practice time with grounding

 

Less media, because it makes me less grounded.

 

Thank you

[justjoseph]

11 hours ago, Kati said:

Hi everyone,

 

I’ve been practicing Spring Forest Qigong for over two years. I’ve stayed with Level 1 exercises, didn’t experiment, and followed the instructions carefully. I also consistently did the grounding exercises exactly as recommended and for the suggested amount of time.

 

And yet, I often felt ungrounded.

 

There were many times when it felt like the energy was shooting up into my head and getting stuck there. Even though I was only doing beginner-level practices and focusing on grounding, I didn’t feel settled in my body. Instead, I sometimes felt more “up” than before.

 

And here is something which bothered me a lot: unusual experiences(like seeing stuff which isnt there)  started occurring in the middle of the night for several weeks in a row. For some reason it happened only at nighttime. They would wake me up or keep me from falling back asleep. Over time, this led to lack of sleep — and that’s when it became a real problem for me.

 

 

That’s part of why I started questioning whether this form is truly right for my constitution

 

So now my questions feel even more specific:

 

If a practice leads to feeling ungrounded despite doing grounding exercises, is that a mismatch?

 

If energy repeatedly rises to the head and doesn’t settle, what does that indicate?

 

If unusual experiences start interfering with sleep, is that a red flag?

 

How do experienced practitioners distinguish between “normal energetic adjustment” and actual overstimulation?

 

I’m seriously considering committing to one form for 100 days — but I also don’t want to ignore signs that my system may be getting overstimulated.

 

I would really appreciate hearing from long-term practitioners who have navigated similar phases. What were your markers for a practice being stabilizing versus destabilizing?

 

Thank you for reading.

If a practice leads to feeling ungrounded despite doing grounding exercises then the grounded exercises don't work or you're doing them wrong. 

When energy rises to the head then it means you are in fight or flight or are you too much mental focus. 

Practices should NOT interfere with sleep. That is bad, as you yourself have seen. 
 

With regards to energetic phenomena there can be positive and negative experiences, it is best to ask your teacher. Always be mindful of your own health as well, not all teachers are wise, kind or helpful. 

Too much chi in the head is usually a bad thing unless it is a specific lineage that works with it. 


Here is a copy of a message i sent to someone else with grounding issues: 
 

Because of this i have a good amount of ways to bring the energy down which you could try. 

 

1. Food, lack of food causes a stress state, a stress state influences any chi that is in the system negatively; so making sure you are eating enough is important. Red meat, potatoes, rice, bread, lots of good vegetables, heavy food is better as it directs chi down to the stomach. 

 

2. Chi goes where it is required, meaning if you spend 8hrs a day on a computer your chi will rise to your head due to the activity of the brain. With this in mind it is better to do activities that are more physical, i know you said in your post that you get pains in your joints, so you should tailor the physical exercise to meet your needs. Maybe swimming or low impact walking, even cycling if that doesn't cause any issues. Could you do deep earth pulsing in a stream or lake ? to mitigate the friction build up.

 

3. Some other things that might be worthwhile would be: learning how to sink the chi (hard but probably the most useful), walking barefoot on grass, doing prostrations on the earth without a mat (forehead to the earth) preferably someplace private, Hakuin's butter meditation, not sitting for too long, sleeping before 10pm if possible, waking up naturally with the sun, sitting in a deep squat for extended periods of time, minimal intellectual activities, gardening. 

Edited February 16 by justjoseph

[Tommy]

Don't know Qigong. And don't know why there are so many repeat of the same thread??

But, looking it from an outside view point, which may nothing to do with you, ...

Grounding is usually finding that one is not grounded and how to proceed from there.

Do you have a teacher?? Certain exercises should be done with fore knowledge and guidance.

Energy flows where one believes the consciousness resides. So, going for the head?

Disturbing peace and sleep? Yes, it would seem to me to be a red flag.

Still the question comes up, do you have a teacher?

 

Well, I am sorry that I can not help. Hopefully you will find a teacher who can help you to move forward in your practice.

 

[SodaChanh]

. 

Edited Tuesday at 02:57 AM by SodaChanh

[Kati]

wow Thank you for your response!  it helps a lot. everything made sense and motivates me to take being grounded more serious. 

 

9 hours ago, justjoseph said:

If a practice leads to feeling ungrounded despite doing grounding exercises then the grounded exercises don't work or you're doing them wrong. 

bummer, i agree, these might be the only logical reasons.

 

9 hours ago, justjoseph said:

When energy rises to the head then it means you are in fight or flight or are you too much mental focus. 

this is helpful. thank you

 

9 hours ago, justjoseph said:

Practices should NOT interfere with sleep. That is bad, as you yourself have seen. 

yes it is! thank you  i will look for a qigong style which suits me better. i need more techniques rgarding grounding, my qigong form was really simple regarding grounding. It would have helped me if the Qigong form had included cues that show when grounding is successful and that progress is being made. Unfortunately, this was barely communicated, so I’ve only learned it by chance. For example: when grounding, you can imagine drawing energy up from the Earth or sending energy down. I was already familiar with sending energy down from Qigong, but drawing it up was new to me. Also, the more grounded you feel, the more your legs feel like tree trunks. These kinds of cues were not addressed at all in my Qigong form, and they would have been really helpful.

9 hours ago, justjoseph said:

Chi goes where it is required, meaning if you spend 8hrs a day on a computer your chi will rise to your head due to the activity of the brain. With this in mind it is better to do activities that are more physical, i know you said in your post that you get pains in your joints, so you should tailor the physical exercise to meet your needs. Maybe swimming or low impact walking, even cycling if that doesn't cause any issues. Could you do deep earth pulsing in a stream or lake ? to mitigate the friction build up.

true again. some folks from here, pointed this also out

 

9 hours ago, justjoseph said:

Some other things that might be worthwhile would be: learning how to sink the chi (hard but probably the most useful), walking barefoot on grass, doing prostrations on the earth without a mat (forehead to the earth) preferably someplace private, Hakuin's butter meditation, not sitting for too long, sleeping before 10pm if possible, waking up naturally with the sun, sitting in a deep squat for extended periods of time, minimal intellectual activities, gardening. 

i am learning to sink my chi.

i think i made some progress with it.

in my standing meditations my feet and my legs feel after some time like tree trunks but this sensations stops at the hip level,

any idea what could help here? i read something about "kua"/hip opening, have to look into that.

Edited Monday at 09:47 PM by Kati

[Gerard]

And by grounding I meant a lot of physical work thst is tailored for that purpose:

 

1. Squat

2. Asian Squat and maintain that position for a while

3. *Low basin walking

4. Hiking

 

He Jinghan has a lot of grounding exercises in his YT channel. 
 

 

 

 

Ma Bu/Horse stance is very grounding too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChiDragon]

15 minutes ago, Gerard said:

And by grounding I meant a lot of physical work thst is tailored for that purpose:

 

1. Squat

2. Asian Squat and maintain that position for a while

3. *Low basin walking

4. Hiking

Your meaning about grounding seems of out of sync with the true definition. The true meaning of grounding to be keep your body in a stable condition to maintain balance. The most effective grounding position is the keep both feet flat on the floor or ground. Nowadays, any exercise with the knee passed the toes is considered to be a bad practice. It is because it puts lots of tresses on the knee cap that might cause problems. As far as I know, there were many Taiji practitioners had made this mistake and caused permanent damage at the knee joint. The correct movement is always to point the knee at the same direction of the toes and do not go beyond the toes. If the knee was not properly align with the toes will cause permanent damage to the knee joint.

[Gerard]

Grounding as in keeping the Qi down and making sure Earth Qi is rising (digestive processes and to counter act Wood controlling the Earth ---> Wu Xing theory) and to prevent Liver Yang Rising.

 

My previous post is to illustrate Kati what grounding really means. 

[markern]

Springforest includes visualization does it not? That in itself can be somewhat ungrounding. 

I would just drop the spring forest practices until this issue is resolved and temporarily focus on getting the grounding sorted first.

Consider if maybe you need some psychological work/therapy to help with this issue. My observation has been that for some people energetic solutions aren't always sufficient if the imbalances are caused by strong underlying psychological issues. Then it is often necessary to always work in a more psychological way. Talk therapy, bodywork or more self enquiry types of practices or nervous system regulation practices. Human connection is often needed to make things move.

Say for example that the reason you got ungrounded initially was because childhood trauma made you dissociate from the body or have a fight response in your nervous system (which is also ungrounding). If you then start doing grounding techniques that may sometimes be sufficient and can even help resolve the trauma but it may also be insufficient because the wounded parts of you simply refuses to let go of its protective strategies just because you do exercises that bring energy down. Those parts of you may not feel safe enough to allow you to get back into the body unless they feel more safe. And that feeling of safety may require talking to another person. Or at least looking directly at the psychological knot causing the ungroundedness.

Not saying this is the case but I think it is worth checking in with yourself about. 

If you want to get the grounding sorted you could do something like this:

Do an internal martial art like Tai Chi. It is very grounding. It both gets you deeply in contact with your feet and your stability on the ground and with your dan tien.

Do standing meditation. I find it to be supremely grounding.

Do deep earth pulsing. A very simple and gentle grounding qigong you can find instructions for on YouTube.

Do Damo Mitchells anchoring the breath practice. It is meant to really anchor your awareness and energy and breath in the dan tien. Which grounds you. He has two videos on YouTube with instructions.

Maybe add some squats and walks in the forrest.

Maybe do walking meditation.

You could also maybe add some more general practices like the eight brocades and five animals. They are not especially grounding but more overall balancing (which also means somewhat grounding). Just so not everything you do is super earth focused but a bit more "even".

You could also consider trying Primordial Qigong/Wuji Gong/Tai Chi for Enlightenment (different teachers have different names for it). I find Primordial to be both extremely grounding while also gradually awakening higher energy centers. It kinda awakens one to deep witnessing states and more "heavenly" aspects of practice while integrating that into the body and into life instantly. 

[RiverSnake]

Simple trick for grounding and diffusing excess energy, I try to do it everyday. 5--30 min is a good metric, pay attention to when your system feels fully "released". 

-Bare feet on the ground 

-Tongue to the roof of the mouth 

-Just stand still.......allow any excess chi to be released into the earth 

 
 

[justjoseph]

Mostly being ungrounded means having too much qi in the head. This happens because qi goes where it is needed.

So one can increase the amount of qi in the head by doing tasks that involve a heavy mental focus such as studying, reading, thinking, visualising etc. 

Qi in the head isn't necessarily a bad thing on its own. A person's well being will dictate how the qi in their body behaves. For example, say you have a lot of qi in your head but you sleep well, eat well and generally live a largely stress free life; then the qi in your head will most likely benefit you with increased intelligence, creativity and understanding. There will still be downsides, just as with any set position in life, there is opposition. 

Negative side effects of large amounts of qi in the head can be quite detrimental so if you don't have the type of ideal life i described above then it is usually best to limit the amount that can go to the head. As always, a balanced life is the best and most sustainable one.

Sinking the qi is my most preferred method as one can still get qi in the head even if they do all these other things to counteract it, but it is difficult to do and not many people can teach it very well. So one should focus on being physically fit, eating well, sleeping well and living a wholesome life, then if the qi in the head is still there, it will hinder you less. 

Once that is done finding a proper energetic teacher that can help you sink the qi would be ideal but less desperate. 

The feeling of sinking the qi is unmistakable, it is like a warm stream of air/water flowing down your body to your belly or lower. It is not like anything but THAT. Your head should feel empty and light, not full. You should be less reactive and more joyful. There should be less thinking but that won't be intentional just a byproduct of proper practice.

[kakapo]

On 2/15/2026 at 7:57 PM, Kati said:

Hi everyone,

 

I’ve been practicing Spring Forest Qigong for over two years. I’ve stayed with Level 1 exercises, didn’t experiment, and followed the instructions carefully. I also consistently did the grounding exercises exactly as recommended and for the suggested amount of time.

 

And yet, I often felt ungrounded.

 

There were many times when it felt like the energy was shooting up into my head and getting stuck there. Even though I was only doing beginner-level practices and focusing on grounding, I didn’t feel settled in my body. Instead, I sometimes felt more “up” than before.

 

And here is something which bothered me a lot: unusual experiences(like seeing stuff which isnt there)  started occurring in the middle of the night for several weeks in a row. For some reason it happened only at nighttime. They would wake me up or keep me from falling back asleep. Over time, this led to lack of sleep — and that’s when it became a real problem for me.

 

 

That’s part of why I started questioning whether this form is truly right for my constitution

 

So now my questions feel even more specific:

 

If a practice leads to feeling ungrounded despite doing grounding exercises, is that a mismatch?

 

If energy repeatedly rises to the head and doesn’t settle, what does that indicate?

 

If unusual experiences start interfering with sleep, is that a red flag?

 

How do experienced practitioners distinguish between “normal energetic adjustment” and actual overstimulation?

 

I’m seriously considering committing to one form for 100 days — but I also don’t want to ignore signs that my system may be getting overstimulated.

 

I would really appreciate hearing from long-term practitioners who have navigated similar phases. What were your markers for a practice being stabilizing versus destabilizing?

 

Thank you for reading.

 

I can't speak for Spring Forest Qigong specifically, but in my tradition, we're actually taught to avoid the Microcosmic Orbit (MCO).

 

We believe it can cause energy to get stuck in the head, which can lead to severe mental imbalances or even psychosis.

 

We aren't allowed to practice it, and if it starts happening on its own, we're taught to shut it down.

 

If you're feeling off-balance right now, my best advice is to hit pause on all your energy practices and just focus on grounding yourself.

 

Try to stay calm, get a solid 8 hours of sleep, and cut back on caffeine.

 

For food, try leaning into heavy, grounding things like warm, high-protein meals to help pull your energy downward.

 

Spending some time outside can make a huge difference, too.

 

If the weather allows, try a little 'earthing' just walking barefoot on the grass or dirt is a fantastic way to physically draw that excess energy out of your head.

 

Aside from that, it might also help to shift your focus to some gentle loving-kindness (metta) meditation, just to give yourself some grace and care right now.

Edited 1 hour ago by kakapo