Grounding strengthens our ability to feel oneself in the here and now. It supports our body’s proprioceptive system, (the body’s ability to sense where it is in space). This is first learned in our earliest relationships/first experiences of trust and support! This is especially significant for those with trust issues, fractured-relational experiences, or trauma of any kind…

Grounding is incredibly simple —just bring your awareness to the feet as they move in and out of contact with the earth, (take your socks off, go wild!) Tune into the awareness of…and simply sense the inherent connection to the earth. Your body will do the rest, it will inherently connect you to the largest amount of force-energy in the vicinity!

“Without nature, human beings can’t live normal lives. In other words, man needs nature more than nature needs him. Nature can exist without man, but humans can’t exist without nature.”

(PRACTICES)

Anchoring: Stand up and feel the soles of your feet on the ground. Rock forward and backward and a little side to side. Make little circles w/ your knees, feeling the changes of sensation in the soles of your feet.

Full-body surrender: Release your physical body weight into the ground. Sink, sink, sink, let Momma hold you! This one is my favorite 🙂

SHINRIN-YOKU: translates to forest bathing, “aligning ourselves in nature so that we may stand in the right relationship to the world around us.” A playful exchange with the natural world — (with the body, one can lightheartedly mirror a crooked tree, or a bird opening its wings).

“Studies have found that “forest bathing” (Shinrin-yoku) has positive physiological effects, such as blood pressure reduction, improvement of autonomic and immune functions, as well as psychological effects of alleviating depression and improving mental health.”

Meditation:
Picture your spine like a strong root that pierces through the layers of the earth’s crust, moving down, down, down, until it reaching the core-center of the earth. Let earth’s energy into your being, as you breath in, and breath out, allowing it to move through you, into your spine… simply feel where it’s going. Let the good energy move though you.

*I whisper thank you to the earth.