The Power to Change: A Practice of Breath, Movement, and Grounding
The world is experiencing an unprecedented amount of grief and sadness at the moment. The earthquake in Turkey & Syria, where 35,000 lives have been lost and counting; the ongoing war in Ukraine; the derailed train in Palestine, Ohio, that has caused a devastating leak of toxic chemicals in the air; the murder of Tyre Nichols at the hand of five Memphis police officers, and then there are our trials and tribulations that we’re doing our best to navigate day in and day out.
We see death, destruction, and grief on television, the internet, social media, and the radio, giving us reasons to fear life and living itself.
We see these images of human suffering and experience many feelings and emotions. We are unsure what to do with all of this energy that seems to build into an unbearable pressure, causing us to implode.
But if I’ve learned anything in the past seven years from my embodiment journey, emotions are powerful beyond measure. They can become conduits for remarkable power and even more significant change if we allow them to. If we allow them to, they can show us what isn’t exactly working in our lives and society and lead us toward a more fruitful future for ourselves and the next generation.
But because we aren’t sure of how to channel this energy for our highest good, and because the power of our emotions can feel intense, we either numb what we’re feeling or we try to push it down so far into our bodies hoping that feelings of discomfort will eventually go away.
But it never does. It usually turns into something else. It turns into anger toward the ones we love. It turns into anger towards yourself. It turns into frustration. It turns into feeling like we don’t want to do anything with our lives. It turns into feeling stagnant, lost, and confused. But I’m here to tell you that it’s perfectly fine wherever you currently are and your emotions and feelings, whether you know why you feel the way you do or don’t. It’s never too late to choose something different. I can’t tell you how often I have felt down and out about life, not just my life but also how life is going for everyone. It seems like a giant dumpster fire is happening right now, with no end in sight.
And that big dumpster fire of frustration, confusion, skepticism, uncertainty, and doubt can become overwhelming, overwhelm can turn into hopelessness, and hopelessness can lead to complacency.
This is a cocktail for burnout, and nothing creative comes from a space of burnout.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, complacent, or burned out, the best way to process this energy and channel it in an empowering way is to breathe, move and ground.
Breathe, Move, and Ground Practice
Breathe, close your eyes, and take three deep breaths. Breathe past your diaphragm, deep into your belly, expanding it as big as possible. Do this three times or as often as it takes to bring you into the present moment and center your energy.
Move your body; the sensations of overwhelm and helplessness can flood your nervous system with hormones that can cause your flight, fight, freeze response to kick in. Moving your body allows you to move those responses through your body, bringing your body back to homeostasis and enabling you to act from a space of clarity instead of survival. So move your body, jump up and down, do jumping jacks, run in place, and get that energy moving up and out.
Ground yourself. Stand with your feet planted firmly on the ground. If you can do this outside with the grass or dirt supporting you, this is highly recommended. Feel yourself being held and supported by the earth. Release sensations, feelings, and thoughts that are not serving you into the ground. And let the earth’s energy replenish or energize you with warm and loving vibrations. You are not alone. You are held.
I also encourage you to:
Choose one issue that you deeply connect with. Find a reputable foundation to contribute to. Decide what kind of resource you’d like to donate. Is it your time, money, or energy? Decide how much and for how long.
Get in community, and invite family and friends to help. Doing this with family and friends can help make sharing resources feel more like a community effort instead of a solo one.
Share. Share what you’re doing with others, and encourage them to do the same. Perhaps share causes that you deeply care about but don’t have the resources to donate to at that time. Maybe this will inspire others to get involved with those causes too.
Now you can act from a place of clarity and heart and mind alignment.
This is mobilization and getting into action.
Know that however you decide to show up is perfect. Don’t make yourself wrong if you feel like you’re doing too little; just doing what you can creates a world of difference.
If I’ve learned anything in the past few years, it’s that this world is incredibly small, and we are indeed turning into a global community because we see things that are happening on the other side of the world and we see how it affects other people, and we see how it changes their lives forever. And we feel how it changes us forever because we share in their grief; we share in their pain because we understand that these are just other humans trying to do their best to live the best lives that they possibly can. Also, if I’ve learned anything in the past few years, it’s that life is so fucking precious. And I know that’s very cliche, and so many people say that, but it’s fucking true.
Life is precious. Life is so fucking precious, and I know so many people say that. I know that it can sound cliche, but it’s fucking true. When I was pregnant with my son, I couldn’t believe how magical my body was, how magical the process of building a child from fucking scratch was. I didn’t have to think about anything, but I was creating life.
I have hope in humanity. I hope we can turn this all around, but we can’t do it alone; we must do it together. Though I believe that we all must go on our healing journeys and find the path toward feeling whole and complete on our own, there is a collective journey we must go on together. One of forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation. One where we let go of our individual stories, and realize that we are all one. And not in a woo-woo way, but we must recognize that our freedom is tied to one another. If one of us is not free, we’re all not free. If one of us is oppressed, we’re all oppressed. Everyone’s oppression looks different, but we’re all in chains. We must realize that our lives are interconnected. What hurts one hurts the whole of us. And until we begin to live this Universal truth, I’m afraid we may be doomed. But I do believe there is time for us to turn this around. And it begins with taking care of one another, looking out not just for our good but for the good of everyone.
It is time to get our heads out of the sand and face some hard, uncomfortable, and inconvenient truths.
Life is a miracle; it’s time we treat one another as such.
Watch on YouTube: The Power of Your Emotions
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