Grounded
“Being
grounded is an essential skill...It means that you're present in your
body and connected with the earth, allowing you to feel centered and
balanced, no matter what's going on around you.”
Irene
Langeveld (Website: mbg-Mind Body Green)
Being grounded is
something we hear about a lot, but understand little. We, in the
West, spend a lot of time in our heads—we live in a world of ideas
and talk. We rely heavily on technology to do our work. Our exercise
programs, if we have them, are in gyms with machines and not in the
natural world. Rarely do we involve ourselves in activities that
cause us to sweat or get dirty—and that's a problem. It is these
very things that keep us grounded. The common, everyday things done
by humanity throughout the ages for the purpose of maintaining life
bring us mentally and emotionally down into our bodies, and out of
our heads. Washing dishes, chopping and cooking foods, digging in
dirt, dancing, walking, jumping, sanding a piece of wood—whatever
brings our focus into our hands, bodies and feet—these are
grounding activities. They keep us real.
There is nothing wrong
with living in a world of ideas, but unless those ideas are grounded
in reality, unless they connect in some way with earth and with
flesh, they are like disembodied spirits. They are ghosts that have
no connection to the real world of everyday people, and often miss,
or miscalculate, their impact on other human beings. Here's an
example: There are plans for a pipeline to run from shale fields in North Dakota to
Patoka, Illinois for the purpose of transporting crude oil to storage
and refining facilities by the most direct route—it's called the
Dakota Access pipeline. That's a good idea, right—get the oil to
the refinery by the most direct route. The problem is, it runs right
through an Indian reservation—through sacred burial grounds,
through tribal lands. It has an out-sized impact on Native people.
They don't want it, and the oil company that's already built most of
it is in a difficult position. “What's the big deal!” they say.
“It's underground!” Someone on NPR summed it up this way—“What
if this same oil company wanted to build a pipeline underneath
Arlington Cemetery?” Sometimes our great ideas are not so grounded
in reality.
Keeping oneself centered
and balanced requires getting out of our heads and into our
bodies—being visceral, and barefooted. We can be creatures with big
brains, but we still need to recognize that we came from clay and to
clay we will return.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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