Friday, April 30, 2010

The Basics - Step 1 - Ground

All of life really comes down to two things, energy and awareness (or consciousness). We are beings of awareness inhabiting bodies made of dense slow moving energy which we call “physical”. We are force inhabiting form. If we shift our belief that we are physical beings trying to become spirits and begin to see ourselves as spirits choosing to manifest in the physical realm, life will take on new context and dimension. It is a very subtle difference but opens us up to the deeper truth of our existence. That shift in consciousness will also help you more fully integrate the teachings which are ahead in this series.


To honor the process of manifesting in the physical realm, there are some “energy basics” which we need to learn and keep in place. I’ll begin this series with instructions on these basics. They are:

• Ground

• Clear

• Bind

• Core



SPIRIT MANIFESTING

Each of us is an eternal energy being that inhabits a temporary physical body which enables us to manifest in the physical realm. Our spirit, or soul, is our direct connection to the spiritual, energetic realms. As an energy field it is more fluid than our physical body and is able to move beyond the physical limits of our bodies. Most of us function under patterning, or unconsciously repeated actions, and limiting beliefs passed on to us by our ancestors which holds us in the “we are humans trying to ascend to Heaven” paradigm. As we journey deeper together, I hope to help you see how you already are that “heavenly being” trying to manifest on Earth.

Each night as we sleep our spirit is able to reconnect with the spiritual realms and journey to other places. This happens when our awareness shifts from our conscious mind into our subconscious mind. When we awaken our awareness returns to our conscious mind. As we disengage our consciousness from our dense, physical bodies, it withdraws up and out of our bodies. When our awareness returns to the body however sometimes we do not reconnect fully with our bodies and are ungrounded.

Our natural energy home is in the energetic or spiritual realms and physically manifesting requires a great deal of energy but not all of the energy that we have available. We are so much more energetically than just our bodies. If our bodies are experiencing physical pains, if our lives are chaotic or unfulfilling or if we’re highly stressed, our spirits are more attracted to the loving, peaceful non-physical energy realms. When this happens or when we are too caught up in thought or fantasy, we are not grounded into our bodies and this can cause problems.

Most spiritual practices and organized religions in particular draw our awareness up into the upper energy centers in the body. They keep us focused there and direct our awareness to the non-physical. If we don’t ground that awareness and energy into the body then it remains nothing but energy. Many believe themselves to be focused on their spirituality but yet are almost completely disconnected from their body. The body is our “ticket to ride” in the physical and grounding helps secure a platform for that energy to come into. Later in this series, I’ll be showing you techniques for increasing the energetic capacity of the body to enable you to pull in even more of the spiritual energy, but first we have to create a platform for that experience to occur.

Think for a moment of how you feel when you are daydreaming or just really focused on something which requires a great deal of thought. Typically when we do these things, our bodies become very still and quiet. If you tried to suddenly move across the room, you’d probably stumble, crash into something or even fall because your awareness was on your thoughts and not the body. For various reasons, including physical and emotional trauma, this is how most of us go though our daily lives and why so many people feel disconnected from life and their bodies. This can lead to feelings of depression, the inability to connect with others and a whole host of physical dis-eases.


WHY GROUND?

In order for us to be fully present and able to engage energy in the physical realm we need to be fully grounded into the physical body. I’d like to offer a technique for you to work with that will help you become more grounded as you move through your day and through life. This technique is especially good to use for starting your day after waking up, during times of high stress or after periods of intense mental processing to help you reconnect with your body.

Grounding helps us to stay “in the body”. If you find yourself bumping into things, having silly accidents, dropping things or just generally unable to focus this is an indication that you are ungrounded. Many people live such highly stressed lives or are just so generally disconnected from their bodies that they are almost constantly ungrounded. People who deny their physicality and only focus on the spiritual aspects of themselves will typically be very ungrounded. Trying to focus on deeper meditative practices for example without being fully grounded in the body is like building the roof of a house before you build the house and wondering why you aren’t getting anywhere. With a strong base firmly anchored into the Earth, greater heights can be achieved.


SHARPEN YOUR FOCUS - TAKE YOUR TIME

The main key to this technique is to do it consciously with your full focus on the activity. While you are learning to do this process it will initially take a bit longer than it will once you are comfortable with it. Gradually the process will become almost automatic and can be done in a matter of seconds once you know what you are trying to accomplish. Being able to be in a constant state of groundedness can take years to fully develop and that ONLY happens by beginning the process and staying with it.



STEP 1 - GROUND

Begin by sitting comfortably upright and relaxing the body. Take three slow conscious breaths and really focus on the movement of air into and out of the lungs and abdomen. Next take a full, slow, deep breath and as you do gradually increase the tension in the body by squeezing the muscles tighter and tighter as you inhale. At the top of the inhale, your body tension should reach its maximum. As you consciously exhale, slowly allow your body to relax until you reach the bottom of the exhale where your body should be fully relaxed. Coordinate the clenching with the inhale and the relaxing with the exhale. Repeat this for at least three cycles. Do not retain the breath for more than a second or two at the top or bottom of the cycle.

The next part of the process will involve some visualization. We all process energy differently. Some of us “feel” it, some “hear” it, some “see” it and others just have a “felt sense” of it. If you don’t consider yourself good at visualizations, begin with just allowing yourself to “think it” and trust that it will be occurring. Over time your ability to visualize the process will increase as you work this energetic muscle. Don’t worry if this doesn’t happen easily for you right away.

Our energy system responds to our thoughts or awareness. We communicate between our unconscious (or subconscious) mind and our conscious mind with images or visualizations. Language is the product of humans and is not an energetic vehicle. How our energy system will actually accomplish our request is far more complex than any visualization that we can use but the visualizations are how we communicate our desires to our subconscious mind to begin that process. Non-consciously created thoughts or visuals that come back to us is our subconscious communicating back to our conscious mind.



Grow roots

Focus on the tip of the base of your spine, known as the coccyx. Now imagine that one thick tap-root begins to grow from this area down towards the Earth. See (feel, intend, imagine, will) it go down through your chair, through the floor and into the Earth. Really think about each part of the structure above the Earth that it would have to grow through to reach the Earth. You will have more detail on the upper layers because we are familiar with this area. For example: the chair, carpet, flooring, perhaps the ceiling below, then the room below and next floor (if you live over others), and finally to the physical ground, deep into the soil.


Continue to imagine it growing through the ground, through the outer layers of the planet, the deeper layers and all the way to the core of the Earth. You’ll have less detail here as most of us can only imagine how far down we’re actually traveling through the Earth’s crust. Once there, focus on the entire connection from you down to the core and allow the root to fully connect (grow into, surround) into it.

Next feel like you’re drawing energy up through that root as you continue to reach down with the roots. Feel the energy moving up the root from the core, up through the Earth, the housing structure, the floor and back to you. Allow this energy to be visualized as a zesty deep red as it makes its way to you. Imagine it coming up into your system as if it were filling you up from the bottom. Let it fill you up until it spills out the top of your head. Imagine that any excess energy flows out through your body, surrounds you and radiates out to others to help them ground.


Focus on this connection for at least 30 seconds or more. Really allow yourself to focus on the visual of all of that and hold your awareness on it. Research has shown that it takes about 22 seconds of focused awareness for the subconscious to engage and continue the action. Intend (affirm, decide, think) that this process will continue without your conscious mind being focused on it and it will happen.

Once you complete it and get a sense of how your body feels after doing it, check in on that feeling 1000 times through the day. You really cannot do this too much for you can never be too grounded. Ultimately what we’re after is being able to constantly feel grounded while engaging our regular activities. That only comes with repeated practice. If you feel it missing or just think about the roots for some reason during the day (especially after stressful interactions with others or high-stress periods), mentally feel that you are reconnecting those roots and drawing that grounding energy up. The reconnection process can be as simple as just getting a quick image of that root going to the core of the Earth from the base of your spine. Your unconscious mind will do the rest from there with that image...but start the day with the full visualization to set that up.


EVERYTHING IS AN EXPERIMENT 

Feel free to experiment with this technique and allow yourself to be creative with it but just be very conscious with what you’re doing. You should notice a decided difference in how you feel before doing it and after. When we operate from a centered and grounded place, we’re able to make better decisions, move more confidently and react more calmly. We also begin to become more connected to and comfortable in our bodies.

Click the following link to go directly to The Basics - Step 2 - Clear

3 comments:

  1. I'm not unfamiliar with this process but find your guidance particularly helpful right now. This guidance is/will be very good for me. Thank you and I'm glad I found you. I will continue reading.

    I will pass it along.

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  2. @tsisageya
    I'm delighted to hear that. Sometimes a slightly different turn of a phrase can open familiar things to you in a new way. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. I find allowing the breath to assist in visualizing the energizing process giving the necessary energy to the roots to grow, expand and continue its journey as an aspect of oneself delving deep into the core of the earth to be beneficial by connecting the physical act of breathing with the visual extension of one's energetic body with the earth through the root grounding and connecting the energetic body with the physical. I probably could have articulated that better, but that's the basics for me.

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