find your feet
I woke this morning to roll over and open my phone to check the time. I did the Wordle, then I found myself scrolling through Instagram, seeing what was going on in the world.
Minutes later I was crying while listening to a speech given by a representative for the state of Palestinian to the United Nations last week. The sound of her courage and conviction and call for dignity and solidarity was deeply moving, and I also connected to my fear for the lives of those in this horrible conflict, and conflicts all over the world. In this I could feel myself getting overwhelmed by emotions and thoughts.
Then the thought occurred to me while tears rolled down my cheeks, “where are you feet right now?” So I took a deep breath and connected with the space of my feet, filling them with the breath. I was then able to hear the words, and feel the connection, and stay rooted to my body. My mind settled, and I felt the pain in my heart, the solidarity and the wounding, and most importantly the space that holds that pain — I felt big enough to meet it.
Ways to find your feet:
Yoga- in my daily yoga practice I work on finding the energy of my feet on the ground as I stand and move in my practice. This helps me feel the posture rising up from the earth.
Meditation- breathing into the feet, and taking your awareness down from the head, through the neck, torso, hips, legs and into the feet. You can use this as a way to begin the practice of arriving on the cushion, in your seat (no matter what posture you use for meditation).
Walking- get outside! There is so much research that shows that moving your body is so good for your mental health. Feel your feet in motion, the rhythm of walking — the off balanced way we move from one foot to the other. And while you are at it, feel your breath in your belly, and all the way down into your feet. And if you feel you need to move some energy, stomp around for a bit, and discharge down into the earth. Or shake your hands up into the sky. Take up space on the earth, and held in the sky.
“Touching into the ground” is such an important part of the work I do at embodied courage, as it helps us feel more rooted and can help us find our way back to ourselves when we get lost.
How we each “get lost” is different — some of us get lost in our thoughts/minds, others get lost in other people and their needs/wants/opinions, or we can get lost in repeating patterns of engagement from the past, or numbness. So whatever your particular way of getting lost can you find your feet and come back to this — this moment, these feet whether they are on the floor or not!!
What do you do that helps you “find your feet”?