Grounding Our Self

Two members of our Eden Energy Medicine community have become grandmothers recently (congratulations Kelmie and Caroline) and with that in mind I do not know a more grounding experience than watching a new baby with their chosen family for the first time. It is sacred and it is profoundly grounding.

 

Grounding is inherent within our being; just watch a baby. Babies are present, focused, and available. As we age our physical body will continue to grow and adapt to stay in contact with the Earth, but our energies can become ungrounded for a myriad of reasons.

 

This is a vast topic and I feel it an injustice not to expand upon this a bit. I thank you for inviting me to share.

I begin by offering what it feels like to be ungrounded as it registers within my system...It feels disorienting. Scattered. Washed out. Over compensatory. My speech is fast, cluttered. Thoughts are distracted. I become externally detached from emotion, yet what is felt internally runs the gamut of sadness, irritability, panic, withdrawal, and fear. My body feels incredibly disconnected from the rest of my system. Movement is staccato, awkward. I hold my breath unconsciously and what eventually does make its way in is received shallowly. Life is lived reactively in a mechanical, robotic fashion. I am the untethered ship lost at sea during a great upheaval.

Please summon a deep breath. Ahhhh…better. Now enter the feeling of being grounded. Thoughts come with ease and clarity. My body holds the Earth with firm confidence. I feel balanced between Heaven and Earth and I am keenly aware of my body in space. I am weightless. Movements are effortless, unwavering. My shoulders relax down and my breath is deep and even. My voice is clear, singsong. I intuit my environment and those around me with deep precision and vitality. I am the sleek female tiger dancing elegantly, silently, swiftly through the jungle.

Do you feel discord reading through these two descriptions? I feel it as I type here!

The following is just a sample of what is available and I thank you for inviting me to share. Our daily situations and environments are unique and methods to ground ourselves may be as strikingly different as the colors of a spring sunrise. The Five Rhythms and Earth energies sing sweetly to me and so the list below will interweave these enchanted components. I invite you to experiment with some of this palette to craft your own daily choreography since grounding can be a very individual process.

Deep Hook-Up

I hold one hand on my sacrum with fingers pointed downward, while the opposite hand holds the heart chakra. It also feels right within to hold the power point and the heart together until I feel a “settling in”. I find I fall asleep like this often and will wake with my hands in this position.

Five Rhythm Movements and Sounds

I just love the Five Rhythm movements and the corresponding sounds. I start with the season I am in and invite the movement and sound of each to proceed as I move around the wheel. I write this during the month of July (Taking Down the Flame) and proceed through Cradling the Baby, Human Touching Divine, Blowing Out the Candle, Expelling the Venom, and then repeat Taking Down the Flame. The sounds are incredibly potent and I find offering the sounds when I am not able to go through the positions (when driving a car for example) will help achieve the same result.

Honoring the Feet

Nourishing our feet is a beautiful way to honor our souls/soles. I spend a lot of time on my feet so at the end of the day I will soak my feet in Epsom salts or baking soda. I follow this with massaging sesame oil infused with fresh herbs from my garden. It is a great way to free energy in the joints and to remind the K1 points of their great importance.

Going Barefoot

The soles of our feet are intended to be in contact with the Earth and, when covered, are designed to retain that energetic connection flowing through natural-soled shoes. I do not know many people who wear those types of shoes anymore so a great suggestion is to go barefoot as much as possible, especially when outside. This is a great time of year to walk the Earth during the warm summer months. Soak it in…literally.

Color Play on the Toes

While on the subject of feet – this is a great time of the year to paint our toe nails! I look for the hottest shade of red I can find. It makes me feel sassy and it gives me ten colorful reminders to stay in touch (literally) with the gifts of what are at the end of my legs.

Inviting Elements and Totems

I carry with me small reminders of what activates heart blessings. I keep close by a small photo album of those who are close to me. I also find it helpful to place a small stone or an animal totem in my bag and oftentimes hold this in my left (receiving) hand. Items representing the elements offer a gentle reminder of creating balance. When my fire element becomes over-energized this time of year I find it helpful to hold mementos from the ocean. In addition the weight of an item (physical and symbolic) holds potential: a precious piece I currently carry is a small cast-iron turtle of my daughter’s. The weight of it and what it represents begs me to slow down and relish the moment during these eventful summer months.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

All right, so perhaps these particular four-legged creatures do not resonate with you, but we do happen to share this magnificent planet of ours with amazing creatures of the land and sea. Animals intuitively work energies without second-thinking why or how. Creating a relationship with a creature not like our self is a beautiful introduction to understanding compassionately that there are many others who embrace intelligence far greater than current comprehension.

Working the Soil

The garden is my sanctuary. It is where I start and end my day to replenish and decompress. I go barefoot most often here unless I’ve got big projects and gloves are not a part of my garden gear unless I need to be mindful of an injury. Working the soil and holding the “ground” in our hands is effervescent! Any time spent with your hands in the soil (no matter whether it is a pot on your windowsill or a vast tract of land) is a worthy opportunity for grounding.

Stepping Stones

A note about stepping stones…inner mixed within our one garden are fossilized blue-grey stepping stones collected from a local creek bed. I bring two of these in during the cold winter months, warm them in the oven, and place my feet on them during moments of rest. They also prove to be delicious tools to share with winter-weary clients.

Taking a Soak

Connecting with the waters of the world connects us to the yin within. I love to swim in whatever body of water I can find, be it a local creek, lake, or the ocean. Please fear not if you are not a fan of the water ~ even dipping the feet in can be incredibly healing.

Setting Your Root with the Sacred Tree

Can you bring to mind anything which grounds itself better than an ancient tree? There are a number of trees in my area I sit with often and find great solace beneath the spreading branches above. A deep grounding practice is to set up camp beneath pine trees. I invite you to try it some night when there is a soft breeze, a star-filled sky, and see how well you sleep. Old-growth forests are havens to seek out. The energies within those uncommon places here in the East cast a very different color, language, and energetic texture.

Color Play

Inviting color in to your life is an uplifting habit to create for our self and our clients. The recent trip to Miami and the Caribbean offered up a great opportunity to grab economical, colorful scarves in a myriad of colors to add to my growing collection. I wrap these around me to ground my system and to boost my mood. Each of us respond individually to color so I invite you to see what draws you in and self-test. This past year or so has particularly called my system in to ground with a rich eggplant color. It is everywhere in my house right now from the door and trim of my entryway to my pillowcases and duvet cover.

Sound

Close your eyes and bring to mind a sound which summons you in to a deep space. For me it happens to be whale song, bird song, metal and wood wind chimes, rushing water, chanting, childrens' laughter, and the sound of the wind in the pine trees surrounding my property.

Music ~ Dance ~ Drum

I would feel remiss not to mention these ancient and timeless practices as beautiful gateways to ground the root chakra and subsequent systems to the primitive recesses of our Being. We are meant to move and respond to rhythm! Dance and drumming have connected me to an exceptionally primal level within myself and I love to introduce this to clients who are self-conscious about movement and skill. Vibration is innate within us all and is powerful medicine. I encourage you to find something to beat upon, meet up with a local drum circle, and sit in on an experience which will bring you joyfully in to the present moment. Other indigenous instruments worth mentioning are the rattle, didge, native flutes, and our voice! Creating vibration with the breath is exceptional for moving energy through the body, especially as experienced in a live setting, where the vibration can be perceived with the entire body.

Time Out

We are wired for time outs. It is great to connect with any of these tools listed above, but it is essential for us to simplify and disconnect from everything from technology to the presence of others. It provides time for our bodies to recallibrate. My energies are incredibly "spongy" in environments where emotions and crowd-potential are thick. The more I take my time outs, the happier my system remains balanced and grounded.

Prayer ~ Meditation

Connecting with a power higher than ourselves is incredibly humbling…and grounding. We are but wee specks of bright light within the cosmos, but what great potential we have to shine our light radiantly! Connecting with the Earth grounds our physical body to the tangible, but prayer and meditation connect us with the ethers of Hope, Love, and that which creates Life. We possess the power to make a positive change for the betterment of not only ourselves, but the planet by exquisitely tuning in to the possibilities of where we can fly…

In deep respect of all which you find grounding ~

Jennifer