Groundedness

tkscovill ♦ January 26, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Groundedness has so many applications—trees, roots, feet, safety, security, connectedness, solidity…I will probably write five or six short articles on this topic.

I thought this morning I might take a picture of my feet standing in mountain pose.

Yoga feet. I am proud of them. Strong, slender, curved in all the right places. But they don’t always thank me for the challenges I give them. I think I am over the plantar fasciitis I had last year, but my feet still hurt and there are definitely tender spots. Still, I love my feet. I am grateful for them and the job they do for me every single day. So, when I do my own personal yoga practice, I end it with a foot massage. It feels good, like kissing someone you love.

Not to be trite, but our feet provide the very foundation we stand on, travel on, live on. Give your feet a little attention now and then. Wear good shoes. Stretch your toes, walk with awareness, then, let them rest, soak them in warm water, bury them in the sand. Give them a symbolic kiss.
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Ultimately, groundedness is a less obvious form of fluidity. You’ve got to feel the ground beneath you, know that at least something is there supporting you, before you can even think about going with anything like a flow. Ironic, isn’t it? that you have to plant yourself in order to let yourself move with the tides of life. Yes, that is the uncertainty we face every time we wake up and look out the window or down at our feet and realize that nothing is the same as it was yesterday and everything will be even more different tomorrow.
My collage this week fits with this notion of being grounded in order to flow with the challenges of life. The quote at the bottom says this: When the ground beneath you shifts, hold on to one thing that you know is true. Love? A partner? The knowledge that change is certain?

What is true to you?