Are you grounded in your body or your head?
Most people if they were honest would probably say their head. You know when you’re in your head when you think too much, can’t sleep as you are thinking and suffer from analysis paralysis. You can also tell if you are in your head if life lacks that fullness and luster that you have experienced before.
Just because you are in your head now, doesn’t mean you always are or always will be.
Times that you might notice you are really in your body is when you play sports or exercise. Notice the great feeling after you have exercised. Most people really feel in their body, their legs feel solid (even if shaky!) and all the endorphins are kicking in and there’s often a little smile on the corners of the mouth.
The problem with our society is we value people being in their head. We want them thinking all the time and the media then fills the television with stories of fear, theft, murder, rape and all sorts of awful things that again keep us in our head. When we are in the head, there is always an element of fear and mistrust. We don’t quite trust people when we are in our head.
So why bother getting grounded in your body? Well the benefits are massive. First you can start to feel that zest for life on a more regular basis. You will also deal with stress in a more functional way and you’ll spend most of your time feeling calm and relaxed and focusing on doing the things that you know help you remain in this state.
When you are in your head it’s hard to switch off and do the things that we know would be great. I’ll go for that walk … later. I’ll do that meditation … later. The brains job is to think all the time so when it’s allowed to go into overdrive it goes straight there. That’s often when people start telling me that they can’t get to sleep or can get to sleep but can’t stay asleep or can’t turn off the nonstop chatting that goes on in there. Or they feel anxious as the self talk is so loud or they are getting sick as they are not taking care of their body.
When you’re energy is in your body you are a creator of your life. You are focused on what you want and what you don’t want and if you choose to turn off your thoughts for a while you can. You can also think through problems in a whole different way gaining new perspective due to being fully embodied.
When I am in my head I feel stressed and anxious. Things go wrong during the day and all the little stresses add up. Missing the traffic lights all of a sudden become a problem and I am more likely to snap at my kids for little things that I would normally be able to be patient with. When I am in my body and calm I enjoy to sit at the lights for a little break, I want to go walking and refresh my body and I want to get stuck into the things that make me happy.
The first step to changing where you are living is just by checking out where you are. Ask yourself, where do I spend the most time in my body and notice the parts. Might be head, stomach, legs, back, chest and some of these areas might also be areas that you often have soreness or injury in as well.
Then start bringing your energy down. Bend your knees and feel your legs shake under the gravity of your body. Take your shoes off and feel the blades of grass under your feet and notice the sensations associated with that. Take 5-10 really deep belly breaths so your stomach sticks out (most people in their heads only breath in the upper chest area which is not relaxing and actually can cause neurosis). Do a relaxing mediation and then create your own shortened version that you can do anywhere that brings your energy down. Also keep a journal. Notice how the days flow more easily when you are grounded and how the days in your head are rushed, frantic and frazzled. The more evidence you find to stay grounded, the more effort you’ll make to stay there. And believe me, it’s worth it.
