Life is wildly turbulent. One day life is mundane and structured. Spontaneity becomes a long-forgotten value. Then, the next day life slams us against the wall while despair pounds at the door. Grief, confusion, heartache, loss- we experience it all. And one day we even touch into bliss, joy and excitement but fear that we will lose those moments and so we don’t allow ourselves to sink into the good stuff. It passes right on by. And if we are honest, we don’t trust the good stuff anyhow.
How do we regain control? A sense of stability? How do we allow ourselves to learn to relish in the delights in life which are amazing resources for shielding the inevitable wounds of the human journey? How do we begin to trust the good stuff again?
No new news alert: I’m not going to offer any *new* idea here. But I am offering my own truth of what internal grounding has to offer. We all need anchors that bring us back to reality, to clear up the murky waters to reveal what we can & cannot control and what we need. We only have so much energy to meet the demands of life so directing our efforts intentionally is critical.
When we are unsettled, we lose focus, we lose contact with the breath, our anchor and perspective. Our mind becomes fixated on finding a solution to avoid pain. At this stage, wisdom has seemingly evaporated. And anxiety becomes addictive. The raging current has swept us down the river. We panic, we numb, we isolate, we over-control others, we act out- all in attempts to self-regulate. And wisdom whispers to us, “it’s not working”.
The practice of coming back to the self? First, recognize that your *true*self has not abandoned you. Buried deep inside, authenticity and courage exist. Through a regular mindfulness practice, we begin to see more clearly and get reacquainted with the authentic self to weather the challenges of life. Mindfulness practices offer us an anchor of grounded truth. These practices do no need to be complicated or even take a lot of time to be helpful.
How?
Thankfully the self-help & development movement has saturated us with information and research on mindfulness. Keep the practice simple, if you want. Make it complex and deep, if you fancy. The practice is yours and make it so. The gold is in forming a habit, sticking to it and making it work for you.
Connecting to internal grounding can only happen in the present moment. Fact. I know, it’s an absolute statement and how dare I! The present moment speaks truth. It reveals our heart’s needs and brings us into the reality that “right here right now, things are basically okay”. Can you take in that message? Breathe it into your nervous system and allow it to land on a fluffy pillow inside of you.
Let’s join together in practice
Can you pause right now and place one hand on your belly and one on your heart space? Perhaps the eyes wish to close to deepen the experience. Slowly inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth in a slow, deliberate manner. You are tending to yourself right now with this pause. You might even offer a bite size nugget of kindness to yourself.
In Buddhism, this is referred to as the “Sacred Pause.” Nothing to do, fix, or change. Simply be with your energy, your being, your nervous system. Accept your thoughts and feelings as they are with pure validation but know that these thoughts and feelings are not who you are. Set the intention to come back to the breath. This is mindfulness. This is grounding.
Come back to here and now….thoughts will come and thoughts will go. In this moment of grounding, you are protecting your energy. You are giving the heart a gift for which it is yearning; the sacred breath of vitality. You are home.
