Basic Energy Skills - By Ness

Basic Energy Skills
By Ness
This article is about three things that are considered "basic" energy manipulation skills; grounding, drawing and centering. These are all very simple techniques that, although super duper easy, can actually improve your energy skills quite a bit. So, let's go!
~GrOuNdInG~
Technique number one is called "grounding". This is nothing more than attaching yourself to something, called the "source", usually the earth, and preparing for step two, drawing. That brings us to drawing energy.
To ground, clear your mind and visualize yourself standing on the earth. As you stand there, visualize your feet becoming roots and burrowing down into the earth, connecting you to it. Visualize them going down, deeper and deeper, branching out in all directions, until you feel you're well-connected. Once you're confident in your ground, move on to step two, drawing energy.
~DrAwInG~
Drawing energy, or "gathering energy", as some people call it, is simply taking energy from your source and adding it to your own. There are a lot of uses for drawing energy, so it's a pretty handy skill to have.
You can use the source's energy instead of your own, thus preventing most fatigue, you can use the source's energy to replenish your own energy, so you don't feel quite so "bleh", or you can use your energy in combination with the source's energy to help improve your energy manipulation. There are more, but that's enough to make you want to learn how to draw energy, right?
To draw energy, visualize the energy coming from the source, up your roots, and into you, adding to your own energy. To visualize the energy adding to your own, you could visualize a strong aura appear around you to represent the energy, and then visualize it being absorbed into you to represent the absorption; it’s all up to you.
Continue to draw energy until you feel that you have enough, but keep in mind that you can draw too much energy. If you do, your body will let you know, and it's nothing serious/lethal, but it's still a warning that you have too much energy for your current skill level. The warnings are small things, such as a slightly elevated heart rate, as if you just exercised or something, light-headedness, a headache, and probably a few other things, but this is all I've experienced. In any case, though, if you feel something bad, stop drawing energy and center yourself. That brings us to... well, centering.


~CeNtErInG~
Centering is simply balancing your energy. It's the process of letting go of all extra energy you have so you can feel more relaxed. This is useful for getting rid of extra energy that you drew, or even just to relieve stress.
To center yourself, visualize your energy relaxing and flowing on its own. It helps a lot to visualize your energy as water, as water can't move on its own; it only goes where something makes it go. Visualize the energy gently drifting around in you, finding its way to your feet and then just slowly floating down the roots, into the earth. Continue to hold this relaxed "do whatever you want" attitude toward your energy, and eventually you should feel a strange sensation of peace.
When you feel that you've released all the excess energy, visualize the roots pulling up from the earth and disappearing back into you. Once the roots are completely gone, you're finished.
Now, as you practice these things more and more, you'll get to the point where you can take shortcuts. For example, I don't ground myself very much anymore; I skip right to drawing energy. Then, when I'm done drawing the energy and performing the task I needed the energy for, I rarely center. I always feel fine, as if I used all the extra energy for the task, which is good; that's what I meant to do.
The bottom line is that you should practice these steps carefully for a while. Once you can perform them easily, start doing them faster and faster, and eventually you'll be able to skip straight to what you need.
Alright, that’s it. Good luck everyone!