Here I am, participating in a Heart Circle with friends. We are on the phone with each other. I just shared something about the inner stretching required right now to move forward into some new aspects relating to my work. During a time like that I usually alternate between some anxiety and doubt as well as lot of questions and a deep trust that everything will work out, as it always has. As I opened myself up to receiving my circle’s silent attention on what I wanted support with, an interesting image showed up.
I saw myself in the water and letting myself gently and slowly sink down, aware of the sun reflecting into the water, all being quiet and peaceful. I felt suspended in the water, held in some unseen way and was open to what would happen next.
Then a new image appeared: I was on the surface of the water, paddling my arms like crazy, and kicking my legs, creating lots of splashing and not being able to see anything around me. Lots of energy just went into keeping my head above water. At some point, I let my legs go down and realized that I was actually able to stand on firm ground. The water had been shallower than I thought, and I had been expanding all this energy for nothing!
I had to laugh out loud! It was such a perfect reminder of how I behave when I am not grounded. Does it feel familiar to you as well?
Being grounded means that you have a connection to the physicality that you live in, in other words to your body and your environment. Sometimes we release our sense of groundedness consciously through meditation or other spiritual practices to help us go beyond the limitations of the physical. We can then take the connection, trust, intuition and wisdom and bring it back to our day-to-day life in a body living on earth.
Most of the time though, not feeling grounded is an unconscious process created by busyness and stress.
You know you are not grounded when you:
• Have difficulty focusing on a task and completing it
• Talk from your head, using lots of words, but not feeling heard or understood by the listener
• React automatically, in the same old patterns, to challenges in life
• Are bored
• Are anxious and filled with doubt
• Feel restless and unfulfilled
What have you noticed about yourself when you do not feel grounded? Is there a particular behavior that pops up to let you know – if you are paying attention?
So, what can you do to feel more grounded? I have found that either focusing on my body or my environment will quickly bring me back.
Here are some suggestions:
Body Practices:
1. Breathing consciously in and out for 3-5 full, deep breaths will bring you back into the present moment
2. Doing a body scan, noticing where you are open or closed, tingly or uncomfortable
3. Placing your attention on your energy center or Dan Tien for a minute and connecting with the power and presence of that aspect of you. (The lower Dan Tien is located about three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel)
Environmental Practices:
1. Standing and imagining that you are growing beautiful, strong, golden roots into the earth
2. Putting your hands into soil and moving the earth between your fingers and palms
3. Holding a rock or crystal
4. Observing a flower, tree, a blade of grass for at least a minute, noticing lots of details.
Alternate your practices and incorporate them in your day. You can never do too many! The default will always be to move into being ungrounded.
Enjoy the feeling of being consciously in your body and consciously interacting with your environment! It will be so much easier to get things done!
Grounding now…