Getting Grounded with Leilani Cline: Ancient Practices for Modern Overwhelm

When you can't find your keys, when conversations slip past you, when you realize you haven't been fully present in days—these are the signs. "All of these things are signs of not being grounded," says Diane Leilani Cline at the opening of her session on releasing frustration and returning to presence.

In a world that can feel heavy, Leilani offers something deceptively simple: tools to come back to your body, your breath, and the ground beneath you. Drawing from three decades of Kundalini Yoga practice and 162 retreats spanning 12 years, she guides viewers through techniques designed not for transcendence, but for arrival—to this moment, this breath, this life.

What happens when frustration keeps us ungrounded?

"None of that can happen until we first get grounded so we can hear and be present with whatever practice or teacher it is that we want to absorb," Leilani explains. The session begins with hands pressed together—a gesture to balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain—and a collective om that fills the virtual room with intention.

Then comes the main practice: a Kundalini meditation for releasing frustration. The mechanics are unusual but precise. A deep inhale with arms opening wide, followed by a seven-part exhale as the arms sweep down in segments, finishing with a powerful clap. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, clap," Leilani counts, her voice steady as a metronome. Eyes closed. Two minutes to start, but seven minutes daily for real transformation.

Watch the full practice here to feel the rhythm for yourself—the way segmented breath and sudden sound create space where frustration once lived.

What are the 'Magic Three' grounding postures?

After the meditation, Leilani offers a bonus: the drumming. The low frequency fills the space, another pathway to ground. Then she moves into what she calls the Magic Three—a sequence she credits to Denise Kaufman of Kauai.

First, the squat: heels down if possible, hands to earth or pressed together at heart center, visualizing "a red cord or red beam of light coming from your root chakra into the ground." Five-second inhales, five-second exhales, all through the nose. Second, the forward hang: feet separated, knees soft, letting gravity do its work while the focus stays on the soles of the feet. Third, un-knees: big hip circles that open the lower back, five in each direction, swinging wide.

"We're offering several different tools," Leilani says with characteristic generosity. "Pick the one that you like. Which one do you resonate with today?" The menu includes left nostril breathing (right nostril closed with the thumb), barefoot time in nature, and of course, the Sedona vortexes themselves—"both connecting us in with our higher selves and helping us to ground the information and the wisdom that we get here."

How does grounding create peace?

Leilani's teaching style is warm but unsentimental. She doesn't oversell the practices; she simply demonstrates them with the ease of someone who has lived inside these techniques for three decades. When she suggests doing the frustration meditation for seven consecutive days and measuring the results yourself, it's an invitation to empiricism, not faith.

The session closes with a vision that expands outward like ripples: "As each of us work on ourselves and improve ourselves and get ourselves grounded and balanced, we become more grounded and balanced for those around us and that creates peace within ourselves, peace in our homes, peace in our city and then that's how we are creating peace on planet earth."

It's an ambitious claim for a squat and some circular hip movements. But perhaps that's the point—that transformation doesn't require elaborate ceremony, only consistency and breath and the willingness to feel your feet on the ground.

Stream the complete session to practice alongside Leilani and discover which grounding tool resonates with you today.

▶ Watch the replay on humankind →