Grounded Movement

A daily stroll is widely recognized as a useful tool for becoming healthier. It benefits your heart, your lungs, your muscles and your mood. There are also more subtle and less quantifiable benefits to stretching your legs and finding open ground.

In my second week of an intuitive development class, we were assigned homework; a daily meditation that would help us connect to the energy from the earth simultaneously with the energy of our life force. As our teacher guided us through the meditation in class, I found that I was able to access both streams of energy in an exciting and dynamic way. The sense of deep stillness from the earth intermingled with a sparkling, dancing life force energy left me feeling giddy, yet grounded. I was eager to bring this practice into my daily life.

Daily life being what it is, I decided to bring the energy practice into something that was already a part of my daily routine. It’s a proven way of integrating new habits that will ‘stick’. I walk nearly every day, sometimes it’s only for 15 minutes, but there’s a spaciousness and vitality that I feel when I get my blood moving that I miss when it doesn’t happen.

Translating what was a new practice for me from being seated to moving was not entirely smooth. At first, it was hard to connect with the two energies while I moving. I found I couldn’t listen to music, and at first, my mind raced without the steadiness of a bass line to guide it.

Finally, I found my breath to help steady my attention, and focused on the directions of the meditation. Each step connected me with a deep, full sense of steadiness, while as I lifted up through the crown of my head, I drew in a shimmering light, the image of sunlight dancing on the surface of water. As these two energies spiralled through me and out, I felt once again connected to that experience I had in class.

It reminded me that as we move through the world, there are always different levels to connect to. How we move, the thoughts we think, the levels of awareness that we bring into our experience all work together to color our inner and outer lives. It’s worth paying attention to more than just the numbers and parameters that prove themselves. It can feel like unlocking a treasure chest that you didn’t even know was there.