I’m a game dev in Tokyo, so my first instinct was to treat it like a bug. I started journaling about my basic needs: sleep, food, actual human contact. Turns out, Carl Jung wrote about how modern anxiety often stems from a fractured connection to reality. When you ignore your foundation, the whole psyche crashes. I didn’t need a complex ritual. I needed to reboot my baseline.

Here’s what actually worked for me. I used shamanic journeying as a creative/debugging tool. I’d set up a simple drumming loop (made it myself in my DAW), closed my eyes, and visualized a thick rope of earth energy anchoring me to the ground. It’s basically lucid dreaming prep mixed with grounding visualization. I’d imagine the Ace of Pentacles tarot card manifesting in my mind’s eye—a green leaf sprouting from solid soil, representing stability and new beginnings.

I know, sounds woo-woo, but I treated it like a reality hack. Every morning, I’d do 10 minutes of barefoot grounding on my balcony grass, drink actual water, and step away from the screen. The anxiety didn’t vanish overnight, but the constant “low health” warning in my chest faded.

If you’re feeling that same root-level instability, stop trying to force productivity. Your nervous system is throwing a hardware error. Fix the base layer first. Eat real food. Sleep. Let the earth element do the heavy lifting. I’ve found that when your foundation is stable, the creative bugs sort themselves out.

What’s your go-to grounding practice? I’m curious if drumming or visualization works for others too.