First respond by grounding (a meditation technique for everyday life).
A farmer selling her vegetables at the market remarked about identifying with a leaf being moved around by the wind. A customer said, “I often feel like a leaf in the wind.” I thought about how fast things are moving in our world and said “we need lots of grounding.”
What is grounding? I find gardening to be grounding. Grounding was the first technique I learned in meditation classes at the CDM Spiritual Teaching Center. Grounding is the foundation for taking charge as spirit by connecting to one’s body and the earth.
It is helpful to sit with an open system, hands and feet apart, and eyes closed to practice this meditation technique. Create a chord of energy that begins near the base of your spine at the first chakra and flows through all physical matter to the center of the earth. Allow grounding to be effortless. Grounding may be enhanced by using this flow of energy to release anything that is unwanted. Take a deep breath, relax and let tension flow down the grounding chord.
Grounding brings me home. Sometimes I do not like what is stored in my body and use grounding to clear my space. Other times, grounding gives me a sense of safety and the exhilaration of simply being spiritually present. Practicing grounding and meditation is a way to let go of what I do not want and move toward what I wish for. Grounding has helped me to focus, release expectations and pain, respond to difficult communications, deal with strong emotions, and shift potentially dangerous situations. When I am grounded and paint or play Pickleball, I am more likely to create what I want and have fun. We can be grounded at any time.
Do you ever find yourself wanting to run away from a situation? Another option is to ground. Instead of reacting, grounding could be a first response. I may know and be true to myself, as a lighthouse guides a ship to safe harbor in a storm, if I’m able to ground and face a disturbance, let it roll through like a wave, or send it to the center of the earth.
I have been increasingly getting the idea of grounding as a first response. It puts the ball back in my court. This kind of self-check helps me be conscious of what is mine that I can control and what I might have taken on that is foreign to me. Letting go of responsibility for external factors lightens my load, and it also makes it clearer to me what I might want to change within. Self-healing is like the ripples created when a pebble is dropped into a pond.
There may be instances when it is best to “make like a tree and leave.” Another choice is to just be, with roots firmly planted in the ground and branches rising upward, akin to a tree.
Lucia Burgess offers Clairvoyant readings, a wonderful format for receiving a neutral spiritual perspective of your life and creations.
