4 Things to Find Your Ground Again
Be where you are.
I woke up recently with this phrase in my encephalon and information technology stuck.
Be. Be you. Where y'all are. Here.
Existence coupled with presence. This is the dream, the aspiration.
How often are nosotros doing the exact contrary of this (I know I can speak for myself here). Sometimes I am there while I am hither, then while I am now. The net issue of this, of course, is a foreboding sense of nowhereness, a no-time kind of place where there is nowhere to bear upon the ground.
The footing becomes a fantasy even when it is right underneath you. Without grounding, it's and then difficult to put our all-time foot forward in life (and then to speak). We need a base from which to fly, a grade from which to embrace all the rewards formlessness can bring.
You know grounding when you see it. I'yard living in Japan at present, and one twenty-four hours my husband and I were visiting his aunt deep in the countryside. She is a marvel of a woman, deeply rooted to where she comes from, and the meals she cooked were right from that gorgeous place where gut, center, and heed merge.
Subsequently dinner, we were watching ane of the seemingly endless diversity shows that air on national television receiver. They were featuring a man they chosen "the establish hunter." His job is to rails downwardly exotic trees for import. He's considered an expert in international plant life.
He climbs trees, (lovingly) uproots them with the utmost care, precision and sensitivity, prepares them for transport. He endures injuries of all kinds as he wades deep into the wildlife of countries the world over.
It was unmistakable. This guy would never autumn over doing tree pose, whether he's ever "done yoga" or non. His whole being emanated at-oneness with the World. He was broad-faced, shiny-eyed, utterly healthy-looking and bulked upward with the muscles that come from a life spent in the forests of his dreams.
It'due south been months since I've seen the evidence, merely I haven't been able to become him out of my heed, how hands his trunk moves, because he'south doing what he loves, and considering what he loves is in accordance with the laws of nature that seem to elude the states then often, despite our best intentions.
Nosotros can certainly all learn something from the plant hunger. Hither are a few things we tin practice every bit we piece of work toward leaving the confines of an over-thinking, core-challenged being and into a state of groundedness.
1. Pretend y'all're a tree (visualization exercise).
Yous tin can exercise this continuing or sitting straight-backed in a chair with your feet planted firmly in the ground. Either way, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and begin to visualize yourself every bit a tree. Imagine in that location are roots emerging from the soles of your feet, and on each deep exhale, picture the roots moving deeper and deeper into the core of the Earth. Your feet slowly go more firmly planted in the ground. Experience the elevation of your caput reaching upwards toward the sky as your lower half roots more and more into the world.
As a tree, you are as strong, unshakable and certain equally yous are gentle and upward-gazing. After a few minutes, come up dorsum to yourself, take a few deep breaths, and open your eyes.
2. Reduce your caffeine intake.
Sometimes nosotros detest what we know is good for united states of america. Many of u.s. know we love coffee. We also know that feeling we get when nosotros potable also much of it – queasiness in the gut, flightiness, jittery nerves for hours, and an utter inability to keep the mind in one identify. Non a neat playmate for groundedness!
I couldn't imagine why life would exist fun without java when I first started reducing the amount I drank of the stuff, and was shocked to find out that my body could discover a new normal later on just a few days, and it felt great to exist in control of myself in this way.
3. Do walking meditation.
We can exercise this anywhere, any time. It feels all-time when you don't have to be anywhere in detail, and when y'all can be in nature, just a city block is as good a place every bit any to find your footing through meditation. Simply walk slowly – or very slowly, if you lot don't feel too conspicuous, being fully aware of how you raise one human foot off the ground, move information technology through the air, and how it lands once more on the ground, followed past the other foot, again and once more. You can fifty-fifty say to yourself, "Left human foot rising, left human foot in the air, left foot dropping," and echo with the right foot.
Try to notice every sensation, focusing on your anxiety but also including your legs and anywhere else on your body something might arise. Also exist aware of how you lot run across – actually encounter, get one with – the ground with as much sensitivity as possible.
four. Find your centre and give information technology some dear.
We tin call it the dantian, dan tien, the core, the belly or umbilicus, simply information technology all boils down to finding that place in you that holds the key to your groundedness. Practitioners of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, the martial arts, and yoga work hard to attain a perfect centering or grounding, from which power, strength and stability emerge. These are traits we can all learn to accept.
I suggest lying downwards on a relatively hard, merely comfortable surface. Shut your eyes, and place your hands on your belly, palms down. Breathe, in and out, in and out, and visualize that you are pouring white light into your omphalos. Yous can even picture a luminous ball growing stronger and more vibrant in your navel area as you pour dear into your center. Once y'all experience comfortable with this, try the aforementioned exercise standing up, feet shoulder-width apart.
5. Discover a moment of stillness each day.
Busy lives don't get whatsoever less busy by willing the busyness away. Nosotros demand to piece of work to find that place of peace, that will re-energize u.s. for what comes next. Whether you lot meditate, sit outside while sipping your morning tea, have a few minutes to get re-acquainted with your yoga mat, or become into a room where you can be on your own for a few moments at some point in the mean solar day, find that time to connect with yourself, breathe, and calmly bank check in with your body and mind. They really want to tell you how they're doing, and only demand you to listen—they won't be shy!
6. Do what yous feel you lot don't have time to do. And honey it!
This ties into the last one. If you feel y'all don't accept time to clean the house, take an hour and think of nothing else simply the deportment required to make clean. Become one with the infinite you are tidying upwards. No fourth dimension to prepare a repast? Grab some fresh produce from the farmer's market place, devise a scrumptious recipe, and put love and intendance into your repast.
Can't discover time to read a book? Take even fifteen minutes to sit down downwardly with something inspiring and blot every word. Your day, and your life, will be enriched considering of information technology, and the ground beneath y'all volition sing in support of your efforts to center, calm the heed and still the trunk.
"If a person's basic country of mind is serene and calm, then it is possible for this inner peace to overwhelm a painful concrete feel." ~ The Dalai Lama
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Editor: Catherine Monkman
Photo: Author's Own
Source: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/07/be-where-you-are-6-ways-to-find-your-ground/
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