It must be the moon … I blame it for almost everything … lol!
But really, over the last few weeks … there has been some strong energy brewing. Perhaps it’s something in the collective energy field. If you are a follower of astrology, you might have noticed it as well.
Intensity.
A stirring up of something.
On a personal note, the last few weeks have felt like I’ve been riding inconsistent waves in choppy surf … I feel like I’ve come through but it hasn’t been a very graceful or fun ride.
When emotional currents and tides can push and pull us to deal with the things we’d rather not deal with, the waters can get choppy and the ride can get rough. The last few weeks have had me leaning hard into the places in my life where I feel support, strength, resilience – reminders that I have the legs to get me through to the other side.
In reflecting today I thought it would be helpful to post some resources and tools I use and find helpful to stay centered in troubled time and choppy surf.
Grounding …
Support precedes movement.
I didn’t make that up. It is a fact that before we can move, we need to feel secure and sure that we will land onto something solid. From a physiological perspective, we first must sense a feeling of support and trusting in that support (usually in this case gravity or the earth) before we feel secure enough to reach out, take a step forward, etc. We need to know that the earth is there and will catch us securely so we don’t fall and hurt ourselves.
This concept is essential to understand.
Whether it’s from a physical or psychological or energetic perspective, feeling supported equals feeling safe. And feeling safe equals feeling resilient. It means no matter how rough the wave, how rough the ride, we can feel confidant about coming out the other side in one piece.
How can practicing grounding help with stress and anxiety?
Stress, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed emotionally are all normal parts of the human experience. That’s right. You are normal.
The stress response (I’m going to lump in anxiety, overwhelm, etc. into here too) is the bodies natural response to keep us safe from harm.
When we allow the normal flow of our stress response to happen, our bodies process whatever needs to happen, then returns to a state of neutral. At least this is what happens when we feel safe, supported, and our system can do its thing.
What often happens is this normal and natural flow can get stuck or blocked. We might not feel safe to express what we need to in the moment or it might not be the right place/timing and so the flow gets blocked and our bodies never get back to a state of neutral.
To make matters more complicated … if we do this over and over again, we reset the stress response state is the new neutral state of being … this puts our whole system into a constant state of stress (which feels “normal” or at least familiar to our bodies at this point) … and that’s super hard on our bodies, our relationships, our lives, our overall health and wellness.
So where grounding come in?
So back to support …
Here is the tricky thing … we confuse support and security for stuff – external stuff. We tend to get clingy with the familiar, confusing it for “support” when it’s just “familiarity”. The trouble is when things start to get shaky, it’s this external stuff that often gets shaken up too … our jobs, house, life, relationships, etc. True support isn’t outside of us. It is a felt sense experience. It’s our relationship with the literal feeling of connecting our feet to the ground.
Gravity is always there to support us. The earth is truly our constant. When we can connect to solid ground on the most basic and fundamental level of felt experience, our whole body … our whole being can plug into a deeper sense of safety, security … True Support.
The following is a simple visualization exercise to practice feeling grounded. Try it first as a daily practice and then once you have a good sense of what it feels like to be grounded, you can start trying to practice it when you’re feeling stressed or anxious. It’s important that if you are feeling stressed or anxious not to try to override your experience. You body needs to process what’s going on and it’s often better to allow it to do its thing … it’s intelligent. So, it’s important to remember that this or any other similar exercises are not meant to try to override your body’s natural response to stress but rather to give you a reference point of feeling safe and grounded.
Grounding visualization exercise:
Find a comfortable sitting, standing, or laying down position. Make sure you feel supported as much as possible and ensure that your feet are planted on the ground. I recommend if you are laying down to bend your knees and plant both feet onto the earth. If you are sitting in a chair, make sure your feet touch the ground (put yoga blocks or books on the floor and place your feet on them to connect to ground if your feet don’t touch) and if possible your back touching the back rest of the chair.
With eyes either open or closed, begin to bring your attention to the weight of your body touching the earth: your seat, legs, feet, and any other part of your body that is being supported by gravity.
Notice the quality of your body’s relationship to gravity … does it feel heavy, light, soft, held up, melted in? Remembering there is no “wrong” way to be or do this. Just notice the sensations. It’s ok to feel tense. It’s also ok to feel relaxed. We are just focused on sensation.
Begin to imagine that there is a fountain of light that starts above your head and pours downwards. It begins above your head, down into your skull, flowing down your spinal cord through all the parts of your spine, all the way down to your pelvis … if at any point it’s hard to follow the flow just keep following it down with your attention and trust that it reaches all of the places along your spine, even if you can’t feel it … from your pelvis, allow the light to pool and then slowly start to flow down each of your legs, all the way down through the thighs, lower legs, feet, and into the heels and toes.
Allow the light to flow out your feet, heels, toes and imagine it pouring down into the earth like roots of a tree. Allow the light to become more rooted, with the branches thickening, spreading, deepening … you might feel it’s one solid chord or many threads burrowing deep into the earth …
This is your grounding point. Your anchor. Notice what it feels like to feel connected to the earth beneath you by this umbilical chord.
Allow any feelings, emotions, fatigue, or anything else you want to “unload” to flow down this chord of light down into the earth. Imagining that the earth absorbs it all, composting and converting it into pure energy.
When you feel like the sense of discharging is complete, you can rest here or you can also begin to imagine that the flow of light reverses and through your roots, you pull up pure energy, light, resource, and all of the support you require right now, allowing it to fill you, nurture you, and energize you all the way up to the top of your head.
As you feel the flow reach your head, allow it to flow up and out of the top of your head like a fountain, pouring over your whole skin and around you. Allow yourself to be bathed in this pure energy from the earth – from the inside out.
Stay here as long as you need to, remembering you can come back to the felt sense of this experience at any time you want. It’s always inside of you, accessible whenever you need it.
Other ways of grounding …
If part or all of the visualization don’t work for you, it’s ok. Take what works and leave the rest. Not everyone is a visual person and grounding practices are not a one size fits all.
There are many ways to practice grounding and this exercise is just one of them.
Some other ways are grounding and embodied meditations and somatic exercises.
If you want to learn more or have questions you can always contact me. Helping you find solid ground is my jam … it’s why I am here – and it is my honour to share it with you 🙂
With love,
Jenn