you're grounded!

If only those words produced the actual results of grounding, I would have been oh-so there as a teenager. But unfortunately, I actually have to do some (ok...a LOT of) work to feel like I am happily inhabiting my body. My intention through yoga over the past several years has been trying to bring an increased awareness to my body and to act from a centered place.

We hear these words "grounded", "centered" and we have some sort of vague notion about what that means. As I have been tuning into the energy body more and more, I have become hyper-aware of how disconnected from my physical body it can become throughout the day. I mean, I'm still here, I still can function and think and act...but I am noticing that when I'm "in my head" or "ahead of myself", that my energy level and vitality drains from me much more quickly. I notice that I can more easily drift off into thought, or bump into things or miss my exit, for example. And that interacting with others, especially during my work can really drain me if I am "putting myself out there" too much. And try being a good listener when you aren't in a centered place.

So being the curious experimenter that I am, I have played with noticing what is happening inside during my basic daily activities and if I notice that my attention/intention is outside of myself I try to tune my awareness to bringing that vitality inside and literally try to center it in my body (which for me tends to be bringing it down and toward the back of my body). It's actually pretty fun, and I feel so much better when I can really be in there. The most fun I have is while taking a walk outside. I will sometimes intention my energy in different directions and feel what it does to my body. Then I try to move and walk at different paces while trying to stay in the center.

Being light and airy by nature, it's really been cool to feel how heavy I can actually feel, how connected I actually can be with the earth. I get to really experience how amazing it is to be here, in this body, on this planet. (Something that has taken me years, maybe lifetimes to appreciate fully)