GROUNDING IN ALIVENESS

Over-used, over-familiar expressions can lose their meaning. Let’s take a fresh look at grounding. In North American healing and spiritual practice circles, people often use the expression “grounding,” as in “I need some grounding” or, “I wish I was more grounded.”

“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread…Something very sinister happens to the people of a country when they begin to distrust their own reactions as deeply as they do here, and become as joyless as they have become. It is this individual uncertainty on the part of white American men and women, this inability to renew themselves at the fountain of their own lives, that makes the discussion…of…any reality — so supremely difficult. The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality — for this touchstone can be only oneself.”

 

 

The raw immediacy of sensations, emotions is always present; you just need to open the door that is in front of you. Vitality arrives through many different doors–myriad emotions and all kinds of sensations and body states. Whatever the door appears, open it. Acknowledge the fear, the anger, the familiar chronic-pain. Is your head buzzing? Are your legs leaden? Is your chest warm? Are you enraged, despairing, or delighted? Listen underneath the stories you are telling yourself about this moment. Beneath the story, beneath the sensation or emotion, is pure aliveness. Straight-up vitality, with no agenda.

 

Reminder 1 Practices:

 

 

• Say “yes” to whatever presents itself.
• Saying “yes” is a way to collaborate with what your body-mind is doing. Here is how it works:  When you find areas of contraction or tension in your body, say “yes” to them. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, tell them you trust they are working hard to take care of you. Tell them they are doing a good job! While you affirm them, gently increase the tension or holding for a few seconds. Act like you and your body are a team, doing something important together. Notice what happens when instead of fighting your body, you join appreciatively with it…the body always feels safer when we appreciate and support its efforts. Often with safety comes softening.

• Here is a practice designed to help you Trust Your Aliveness

• When you feel stuck, don’t try to get unstuck. Just sing about how “stuuuuuhckk I feeeeeel! Oh, nooo, I am so stuck!” etc. Or journal about what is happening (sensations/feelings/thoughts) right NOW. Do not pause or censor yourself. After a few minutes, check in with your body sensations. Notice if anything has shifted. Whether it has or has not, continue singing or writing for a while and be curious.
• If you are feeling physically or emotionally contracted or rigid, allow yourself to stand (or sit) and sway back and forth or side to side. Pretend your trunk and limbs are seaweed swaying on the ocean floor. Remember how it feels to watch someone doing Tai Chi. Make sure you sway several times and then notice how you feel. If it feels good, repeat it!
• Try out some micro-movements: wiggle your fingers elegantly, or frantically. Wiggling your fingers consciously can be powerful. Blink gently, with awareness. Speed up and slow down your blinking. Find that Goldilocks pace that brings all of you into the present. Any movement can be transformative. Focus on your breath and breathe with curiosity or passion; changing how you breathe can wake up your aliveness.

Safe Ground 

The prerequisite to being able to trust and ground in your aliveness is to first establish a steady sense of feeling safely held. Those of us who have had that steadiness robbed from us by trauma or oppression need to go back and rebuild that foundation.

 

Grounding in Shifting GroundTrue grounding is not static. For example:

 

 

• Babies do need to be held snugly. And also, rocked. Happy babies like to be bounced, or thrown (safely!) up in the air to laugh with delight;
• “Secure attachment” does not mean motionless clinging. It means having a reliable, loving reference point so a child (or adult) can move fluidly between home/family and larger social spheres;
• Our “solid” bones are–on a cellular level–brimming with movement and activity. Bone marrow generates blood cells, while bone tissues cyclically shed and rebuild;
• Even concrete vibrates and dances on a molecular level.

In these times of upheaval and possibility, we need to be able to find and re-find our ground in the middle of earthquakes. To blend—metaphorically and literally–with the earth’s cycles of quaking and stillness. Familiarity with our own body’s shake-ups and resolutions primes this resilience. Small and large movements constantly unfold in our bodies. We can tune in to the rhythms of digestion and elimination, of breathing and sensing in our organs. When we are relaxed with our own internal movements and can enjoy being a body in motion, it is easier to dance with life’s unpredictability. When Life undulates, we can, too. We can return, again and again to that raw, direct aliveness. It turns out that being deeply grounded in our bodies is earth-shaking. The more you embody your aliveness, the less predictable you become—especially to yourself! That is just what is needed in these urgent, unpredictable times. It is the collective awakening of our deep, fluid being-ness that will heal the earth.