You will have times in life where you feel disappointed, sad, and angry. That's normal because you are a human. An
d as a human being, you will feel all kinds of emotions. But an important lesson I learned, and had the chance to practice recently, is that no matter what you do or say ... always come from a place of love.
Last week, I had the opportunity to learn and grow with a group of 40+ amazing men and women from all over the country at a workshop in Prescott, AZ. I gained a number of new insights into things that have held me back from stepping up as my most authentic self at home, at work, and in relationships. Things that I have let get in my way to building deeper connections, sharing my passion, finding success, and creating solutions.
When I say “always come from a place of love”, I’m not saying that you neglect whatever anger, sadness or disappointment you are feeling. It's important to acknowledge, name, and express these feelings and not try to hold them in. Rather, you get to make the choice that when you respond to a situation. You get to come from a place of peace and love.
One of the ways I learned to do this is to practice grounding and centering. But, what does it mean to ground and center?
Grounding
Grounding helps to connect us to the present moment. It helps connect us to the earth and the physical world. And it promotes a sense of calm in us. It destroys stress, quiets the mind, and allows us to let go of all of the junk that is floating around in our brains, causing anxiety and that feeling of being scattered.
Practice grounding by imagining you are standing on the ground. Your feet are bare and planted firmly into the earth. Start to imagine there are roots coming out of your feet and that they are growing deep down into the earth. As you inhale, bring energy up into your body through your feet and as you exhale visualize and maybe even start to feel your roots growing deeper into the earth.
Then imagine that there's a beam of light coming down from the sky into the top of your head. This can be light and love from the Creator, the heavens, or the Universe. Keep breathing deeply, inhaling and exhaling through the nose, all the way into the bottom of your stomach.
You can be connected to both the sky and the earth and do this practice for any number of minutes, no matter where you are at. Try to stay here until your breathing feels slower and your mind and energy feel calm and relaxed.
Centering
So we’ve explored grounding. But what the heck is centering?
Centering is bringing back all of your energy that might feel scattered all over the place back to its home base. It’s closely linked to grounding, but is more focused on clearing your mind and beginning to focus. It is a time to quiet the mind, return to self-awareness, to own yourself and your energy, and to release anything that you feel is no longer serving you.
Once you feel grounded, start to clear your mind of all your scattered energies and then bring them into a single point of space in your body. You might start to do this by pulling the energies into a ball as you relax your body and breathe. Focus on an area in your body where this energy feels at rest. This could be in your heart or in the space right below your belly button.
Think of it like a center of gravity for your energy rather than your body. Concentrate on this area, bringing your awareness to it while you continue to pay attention to your breath.
You may want to also place a hand on that spot so that you can physically feel where the energy is residing and concentrating. After some practice, you’ll begin to feel a clearer mind and over time you’ll know the feeling of being centered.
Finding your center can also mean connecting with your soul. This is a place where you can focus on your own goodness. It’s a time to feel stable, confident, and able to freely express yourself. A place where you can trust your intuition, connect to the Divine, and a safe place that’s always there and available to you, to help you feel renewed and refreshed.
When we’re not centered, we might feel lost or out of touch with ourselves. When we center ourselves, we bring calm to our emotions. We do so by slowing down our breathing so that we “feel” more of what’s going on around us. Becoming centered is a way to find peace within the chaos that might be surrounding us. It’s about being “in check” with what’s going on. Individuals who are centered are typically calm and peaceful.
Bringing it all together
You can ground and center at any time. You don’t need to be seated or still. You can be standing up, walking, or engaged in activity. You might ground or center before a big event, meeting, job interview, or during a stressful time. You can also do it when providing feedback on when you might be in conflict with a child, spouse, or co-worker. Or really any time that it feels good for you. Once you find this space in your mind, you will find that you are easily able to go there and connect with the feeling no matter where you are or what you are doing.
When you are in a challenging situation, it can be very easy to react to the circumstance of what is going on and what you are feeling. Instead, try stepping back for a moment, taking a deep breath, and concentrate on what is actually going on, how you are responding, and what you are feeling.
Come from a place of love
There will be times where it will feel really hard to do this. But when you pause and choose to come from a place of love, the person that is benefiting from this is ... YOU.
It’s important at the end of the day to be satisfied with the way you handled a situation. Pausing to ground and connect, and making a choice to come from a place of love, gives you an opportunity to respond and react to a situation or person in an entirely different way.
Choosing to come from a place of love is one very important and valuable lesson that you can learn and apply to your life to grow in your overall well-being. It is love that nurtures our soul and it’s essential to make it a goal to always add more love into your life.
If you want to learn more about ground and center, or if you want to hear more about the training I participated in, shoot me an email at kellyskinner.soulcare@gmail.com.
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