How do you ground yourself?

 It's been a couple of weeks since my last post due to the break with school. Our school non contact time is always such an important time to refresh, to repair ourselves and usually to catch up with all those other things that we tend to let go during term time. This break was a particularly hard one with a bereavement.  However, along with this was the time to get away for a few days, have a few laughs, take some time with loved ones and reflect on all the great things that make life so fulfilling. 

One thing that I have been focusing on is how to include more ways to develop more spiritual practices within my daily life. I have used tai chi, chi gong, yoga and other breathing practices but never really connected with them deep enough. I like to go for a walk, but even then find it hard to slow it down and really just appreciate all that is around me. However, over the break I made one  discovery, which led to a conversation with my girlfriend who was staying with me at the time and has changed how I think about what I need to do. 

I'm a water person. Through and through. I love everything about the water - I love being in the water,  near the water and under the water. So I spent a number of days at our local pool over the break - just floating around really. It was here that I figured it out - this is my tai chi, my yoga, my place where actually I can forget everything and just feel the water around me. It is the place where nothing else matters and I can settle my body right down - my happy place. I practiced tai chi in the pool (yes I looked mad) and then I practiced lying face down in a starfish pose. This was really effective when I realised I literally felt every muscle in my body relax (especially in my face). I practiced blowing out and lying on the bottom of the pool (had to make sure that I did this by the lifeguard so they didn't think I was drowning...)and seeing how long in a relaxed position I could be. I practiced walking up and down the pool, just breathing and being. And I came to my realisation that this is what I need to do more regularly. It links to my love of diving - the slow breathing that is required, the slow pace that we use when we deep underwater, the purpose and contentment of just looking at the wonders under the sea. The water is what is grounds me. 




I've tried other things - I've tried grounding myself to the earth, I've tried yoga outside, I've tried just being surrounded my nature - but nothing like water has had the same effect. 

This led to the conversation with my girlfriend around what she was - how did she feel grounded? What did she do? Was it Water? Air? Earth? Turns out for her it was Air - after much discussion about how she loves being on her paddle board  but not necessarily in the water (she's extremely lucky living by the beach!) and how for her she can feel grounded by just being outside, in nature, in fresh air. For some people its the Earth - just being grounded by wearing barefeet on the ground, or those who just love being in the garden with their hands in the dirt. For them spending time in the garden is their grounding (not for me!) 

Through all of this it made me reflect on how important that in our very busy lives and for those teachers out there who have a crazy last term how can we take time for ourselves to really ground ourselves. Not to spend time watching a movie or racing around our kids, but to actually stop and ground ourselves. The first thing I think we need to do is to try and figure out when do we feel most grounded? Spend some time thinking about this. It took my girlfriend and I quite a while to get to the bottom of what she was. I was able to do this by using good coaching questions and helping her see the patterns - and once she did we were able to start to identify why. 

Don't get me wrong - I still love spending time in my vege garden and going for a walk, but if I really need grounding then it has to be water (knew there was reason for buying the spa pool). It's why I love my beach holidays, going diving and just chilling around anything that has water attached to it. I try to jump in the spa pool each night before I go to bed - it puts me straight to sleep - so I have developed this as a daily habit. I try to get to a pool when I can and when things aren't feeling great or I am feeling overwhelmed and busy I make even more of an effort. Busy and overwhelmed means for me that I need to ground myself now. Not later. 

So ask yourself the question - what grounds you? What will you put in place to ensure that you take time each day to ground yourself? How can you make it easy and simple to fit in with our already hectic lifestyles? Are you Air, Water or Earth? Have the conversation with your family - how do they ground themselves? 

Something to think about over the next 9 weeks of an extremely busy time!

Until next week. 









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