Rooting vs Grounding

Taking a deep dive into Rooting, which is a practice similar to grounding in that it helps us get out of our heads, calm down, consolidate back into ourselves after being over extended and allows us to practice mindfulness, but it does so through a both/and approach which includes and encourages us to connect. The key is into what and how.

Transcript

Rooting vs. Grounding

Grounding

Common wisdom sees grounding as a means of bringing things to a conclusion or of tidying things up. We ground ourselves to get out of our heads, to calm down when things get too busy and frenetic, or to bring ourselves back to mindfulness. This way we can recharge our batteries, get still and hear some of our inner wisdom, and come back to a sense of our true selves if only for a moment.

Grounding is built into many spiritual practices such as savasana in Yoga, silent meditation after Tai Chi, or downing the energy in Wicca. It is also the purpose of having a meal after doing ceremonial work. Food grounds us not only back into our own bodies, but sharing a meal with others grounds us in community and common experience. 

Most of these practices are done after the fact, as a means of cleaning up after the work is done or of coping with what the work, or just living, entails. However, grounding can also be done proactively to provide additional resources for us while we work. Think of it like the burner under the pot we will be cooking with. Grounding is how we turn on the burner.

Like electricity, life force has the ability to be constructive or to destroy depending on how it is utilized. In order to be constructive, it must have a clear channel, just as electricity is conducted via a wire, and it needs to have a ground in order to manage overage or discharge. It can seem counter intuitive to be securing yourself in the physical when you are attempting to energize yourself, to move heavenward, as it were, but in order to become more fully yourself you must first be fully in yourself. If you don't ground well before working with the Akashics you can suffer negative side effects such as coffee-style jitteriness, wooziness, and lightheadedness instead of being able to experience the full import of your journey. Being grounded also provides a comfortable and easy means to return to your body refreshed and balanced with clear memory of your experiences and the ability to integrate all you have received from the Akashics.

Grounding is also a generator of energy. It is something to plug into which provides us monumental support for our lives and our work.

There is a counterbalance to our bodies and our lives in each and every moment. If all you do is reach upwards, you'll lose your balance and fall. We've all experienced this when stretching up to grasp something on the highest shelf while standing on our tiptoes. Or think about heavy lifting. If you are going to lift something (safely without tweaking your back) then you first get a wide stance, sink low to the ground, then push up. You go down to go up. Grounding is this process in your spiritual life as well as the physical.

With all this said, what common wisdom doesn't discuss is the underlying assumptions and actions of grounding, mainly that they are a means to unplug from the main activities, energies, and beings of life. They are a way to step back from doing, get into being, check in with the now of who we are, and replenish us so we can focus on what else we might be lacking or need.

Grounding is a solitary practice. Even done in a group setting it puts pause on our interconnection and allows us to be an "I" again, at least for a moment. 

What it does not do is change anything about the externals of our world or how we are going back to them. Grounding is internally focused so looks at us and our own mindset, energy, resources, physicality and perspective in order to repair and restore us. From there we can choose how we reconnect, or if we do, but the reconnection is a choice we make. Grounding doesn't change what we're going back to, only what we have at our disposal to do so.

Rooting

Rooting is a practice similar to grounding in that it helps us get out of our heads, calm down, consolidate back into ourselves after being over extended and allows us to practice mindfulness, but it does so through a both/and approach which includes and encourages us to connect. The key is into what and how.

Grounding, to a certain extent, encourages us to see life as either connected or not, like a light switch. We are either fully engaged or able to step back and be only ourselves in connection with divinity. Rooting helps us recognize, or remember, life is like lasagna: there are layers, and you can choose where you operate within them.

At the far ends of the spectrum there is the pure Universal and the pure Elemental Earth energies. Both are amazing, but we are not meant to be fully involved in either while embodied, but somewhere in between. There is also the personal energy which grounding helps to support, the relational of family – partner – friend – community, the bigger concentric circles of neighborhood – city – country/province, and then the various overlapping cultures we are in from our country to our ethnicity, politics and more.

It is a feature of embodied life to have only some of these in harmony with any of the others at any given time. Each is moving at its own rate and rhythm which can bring harmony, disruption or chaos, sometimes all within one day. 

Rooting gives us the ability to choose how we navigate these various layers of our lives, minimizing some while enhancing others which can supercharge our manifesting goals or help us survive through difficult times, or even both. There are a variety of ways to choose to root into a specific layer of energy. Focusing on one will naturally reduce the number of interactions we have in others like changing the ratio of ingredients in a cake or a mixed drink. It's not that you won't ingest the ingredients, but how much of them and to what effect will most definitely vary.

If you are wanting or needing to tune down the amount of input you're getting in your life, like muting empathy or turning down the volume of other's conversation, I recommend Reverse Mindfulness Meditation

To reduce the amount of energy, information and/or emotions which you receive, you can pull your receptors back.

•           To do this, start by turning your awareness to how much of the external world you're perceiving at the moment: entire neighborhood, city block, office building, neighbors on my block, people in my office or the rooms/buildings near me, anyone near me physically...

•              Once you're aware of where your awareness edges are, start pulling them back to you incrementally. Think of this like changing the focus on a camera. Pull the focus closer so what you're attending to are less things. 

•              Move from a neighborhood to your block, from the block to a building, building to room, room to area around the self, then focus on being centered and grounded in your own body.

•              Do this gently and without force. Breath and allow yourself to be aware of resistance, new information appearing, or desires for physical action. This is the wisdom of your body and soul pointing you towards the next steps to take or your current limits. 

•              Honor what your body and soul are able to do in the moment. Patience and persistence build strength and skill.

Empathy is not a call to action nor a signal we are meant to be in service and it's not something we're meant to suffer with or feel afflicted by. Instead, it is a sense, like hearing, which we can learn to use to our benefit and as a means of enhancing our life and relationships. By learning how to focus it when we wish, but protect ourselves from unnecessary or intrusive energy and information, we can extend our positive experiences of life and the spiritual path we choose to walk.

If you want to connect more, but to the lasagna layer which is life affirming and more earth grounded, I suggest Connecting Directly with Life Force.

There is an energy system or grid which is the constantly generating life force of all living things on this planet and flows like the ocean tides.  We are part of this, our lives adding to it and being supported by it in each second of our day.  This is in part what is meant by the phrase, "The Web of Life," but in its energetic form rather than day to day interactions.

The life force grid is a positive, life affirming energy which continues to flow unfazed by the difficulties in the moment. Connecting with it doesn't cause all the worries, pain, fear, or distress of others to come crashing in.  Instead, it allows us to feel the pulse of life, the affirmation of the eternal "Yes" which is flowing and emanating all around us.

To connect into this grid, imagine seeing your neighborhood, city, community or region from the air at night. See all the living beings as emanating golden light and all of those lights connected by golden threads weaving intricate patterns which light up the darkness, a dark which is velvety smooth and comforting rather than frightening.

When you can see this, notice you too have a golden light which is emanating from your core. From this light stretches golden threads in all directions.  Allow yourself to feel your positive connections, to breathe into them and feel your light moving through them into the world, but the world also flowing golden light back through those connections to you.  Let yourself fill with it until you are fully made of life, breathing life into yourself and the world. Stay as long as you wish.

If you're struggling to do either of these and your mind/energy won't allow you to focus, then don't bother. Instead, feed yourself with things which make you happy. Do Yoga listening to your favorite pop music or audio book. Practice Tai Chi while listening to your guilty pleasure podcasts. Try Qigong while watching your favorite comedian. If your mind is a Doberman patrolling the building because the world seems to be an overwhelming or unsafe place, give it a steak to keep it busy while you save the day by moving your body the way it was intended to move.

If even this is too much or you need relief in the moment while you're in the midst of things, there is something you can do with almost no effort anywhere you are: Dance Posture.

This is Rooting at its finest and most direct, which is why it often shows up in indigenous dance practices as well as various traditional martial arts. To do this:

*Stand evenly on both feet, with feet parallel and toes pointed forward.

*Stand so your weight is on the middle of your foot, the space where the ball of your foot meets your arch. You can find this by rocking forward onto your toes, then back all the way onto your heels, then settling in the middle between them.

*Bend your knees slightly and have them right over your toes. You can do this by rotating your upper thighs outward if necessary. Sometimes taking your hands and encouraging the thighs to gently turn out at the hip joint helps.

*Tip your pelvis up. Most of us stand like our pelvis is a martini glass held by a drunk at a party. It never tips all the way over but is constantly headed in that direction. To change this, you can hold your legs in their current position while using your butt to push your hips forward. Or find your pubic bone in front and tip it upwards towards the sky.

This has the positive effect of elongating your spine, relieving lower back pressure, and causing a feeling of your torso floating a bit, as it's meant to. You may also notice your legs are now doing work they may have not done since you were a toddler so expect some messaging from them. :)

*Raise your rib cage. Take a comically deep breath like someone in a bad B-flick who is trying to show off by holding their breath. Let your ribcage expand, your shoulders move back, and your head come up. But then, release your breath while at the same time leaving your ribs, shoulders and head where they are. And don't let go of how you're holding your legs, and pelvis.

Your top half should feel a bit like a balloon floating above your pelvis, which is a good thing. More relaxation of the spine and room for your organs to relax and work.

*Lower your shoulders, but keep your ribs expanded. Focus on your scapula in the back and try gently to pull them even closer to your spine by moving them towards the center of your back and down. Don't push down with the tops of your shoulders as this will just cause more tension, not less.

*Push your chin in. Take a finger and very gently push back on the tip of your chin so if you look down you can't see past your chest. You should feel this in the back of your head and your neck. It's a small thing, just a slight adjustment, but it does amazing things.

*Eyes forward. Lift your eyes away from your body and look at something directly in front of you. This will allow your attention to focus on the whole of your body or how you're feeling rather than the mechanics of what you've just done. 

Once you're in this position, or any variation or even portion of this, your mind will be flooding with all the messages from each part of your body which is doing something new or different. Allow those to come in, but don't act on any of them unless they are reporting damage or extreme pain. Let yourself be in this position for a few seconds to a few minutes. If it feels good and you're in a place where it's possible, let yourself move in ways your body is wanting to move. Let it explore, for just this moment, being itself without demands or requirements.

Once done you can keep going with your day, but you'll find things are much more manageable at least for the moment.