Overwhelmed or anxious? Try this.
A discussion thread.
If everything around you seems dark, look again. You may be the light. ✨ Rumi
Hi friends,
If you’re like me, you feel like Neo when he takes the red pill and realizes that life is just a simulation, and he has to save the world. Except, in this movie, the world needs all of us to save it, not just one lone superhero (lol, American rugged individualism).
Having married into a Venezuelan community, I watched the fallout from beautiful countries that suddenly collapsed under dictatorships. All of my Venezuelan friends in California wished they could return to their home country and how it used to be.
I’m so lucky my country isn’t like that, I’d think. But think again. Because the resemblances between Chavez and #47 are startling. In some ways, chilling.
Lately, fear’s been holding me hostage; some days are better, some worse. But then I met with my therapist last week, and she saved me. Okay, maybe superheroes do exist.
She guided me through a somatic exercise that made me feel rooted, resilient, and ready for any weather. If you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, let me walk you through it:
She asked me to think of something that made me feel grounded and strong. Naturally, I thought of the old-growth fir trees outside. Despite the gale-force winds that blow the shingles off our roof and knock over our weighted trampoline, the trees don’t break. Why? Their massive roots burrow and tie themselves to the earth and each other, so they stay standing no matter the weather.
I closed my eyes and imagined my feet growing roots like the trees. I imagined my roots digging into the earth and finding the roots of other trees, deep into the dark soil where creativity and resistance seed. At one point, I even felt the bottoms of my feet as if they were sprouting roots from the soles and arches. Like those beautiful, solid trees, I felt my body growing roots out of my feet into the earth, tangling with all the other roots out there, until I, too, became as grounded and solid as the trees.
Weather? Come at me.
Now for the discussion part. Please share with us what exercises, visualizations, rituals, prayers, etc., help you feel grounded or calm so that your words can grow roots, connect to others, and hold others up.
Sending you quantum hugs through the cosmos.
Xo, Summer
I wrote a post about this a couple of weeks ago: My Top 3 Stress Relievers That Aren’t Sex
1. Guided meditations on the InsightTimer app: Sarah Blondin is a new favorite, especially her Self-Love Dialogue: 15 Minutes To Inner Peace
2. Reading and listening to Letters From Love with @elizabethgilbert every Sunday (new posts drop at 11 a.m. Eastern Time). It really is the “kindest corner of the Internet” where members can share their own letters from unconditional love or just read others’ letters. Over the last year, this community has encouraged and supported me through some of my darkest days, and provided a space where I can give back to others along our journeys in Earth School.
3. Listening to Brainspotting: BioLateral Sound Healing – David Grand PhD: • 2014 • 17 songs, 2 hr 5 minutes.
For extra credit:
If you just want to feel better about your stress levels and what it’s doing to your body, check out this Stanford Report: Embracing stress is more important than reducing stress, Stanford psychologist says:
"The three most protective beliefs about stress are: 1) to view your body’s stress response as helpful, not debilitating – for example, to view stress as energy you can use; 2) to view yourself as able to handle, and even learn and grow from, the stress in your life; and 3) to view stress as something that everyone deals with, and not something that proves how uniquely screwed up you or your life is."
I'll try not to be overly long here...
Visualizing yourself as a tree is helpful. Going outside and walking barefoot on the grass or sand is a practice called Earthing, and is also very grounding. Reconnecting with Nature, and remembering you're part of something bigger than human nonsense is also good.
Indoor stuff I do:
I ground every night by getting into the shower and shaking myself, not so hard that I lose my balance, but enough to dislodge stuck energy. Vocalizing is a bonus (something simple like "bla bla bla" repeated very fast). Then I brush the dross off of my body with my hands and into the drain. I brush down each arm, then rub my hands together and clap them to end.
Then, one big sweep from head to toe with a "whoosh!" followed by raising my arms above my head and snapping my fingers, then bringing my arms down in front of my body while crisscrossing them scissors style, snapping my fingers until I reach my feet, then putting my hands in the bottom of the shower to finish.
We form connections with others through our chakras every day, but are rarely taught to disconnect at day's end! You can get rid of a lot of heaviness with cord-cutting techniques like this one...and the connections that matter most will reconnect in the morning, no worries.