Or walk shoeless on the beach. Connect with the earth.

Ok, I know it it the middle of winter. I realize that your environment is likely to be very cold, possibly snowy. I hope you’ll read on anyway! I live in southeast Texas, and a few days ago we had a wonderful warm day in the 70’s. I had been feeling emotional, cranky, and wanted to blame someone besides myself for my irritability.  In other words, I wanted to pick a fight with someone, and absolve myself of responsibility for my own emotions.

A few years ago when I felt this way, which was quite often, I would become reactive to other people, including, to my sorrow, my children. I was in a difficult marriage with a difficult person, but I made it worse by being extremely reactive. Now I share life with a peaceful person, my children are all grown and gone, and I knew that I needed to keep looking inside myself for a loving response (to my own emotions.)

I left work at 4:oo and drank in the warm sunshine as I walked to my car. I called Robert and said, “Let’s have a picnic in the park!” I wanted to feel the grass on my feet, gaze at the sky, and let go of the insanity in my head, which comes periodically in spite of  everything. By the time I got home, he had packed some food, and we grabbed a blanket and drove the half mile down the street to the park.

We had about 30 minutes before the sun went down and it started to get cold. I took off my shoes and buried my feet in the clover. I walked a bit, did a few yoga stretches, then lay on my back and absorbed the cloudless blue sky above the tall palms.  I felt the tension and static leaving me, peace returning to my inner being. We lay there until the sun was almost gone and it was too cold to stay, food and drink forgotten. I took this sunset picture that evening. Apparently this was all very needful and beneficial for Robert, too. We were both getting ungrounded from the busyness of daily life, needing to take time to stop and be in nature.

This experience is what I call grounding. It has something to do with connecting with the earth, and getting recharged.  It’s like we have all these ions that get  out of whack , fuzzy, and if we can connect with the earth it puts everything back in alignment. That’s what it felt like to be outside, touching the earth and embracing the sky and the sun. ( No this isn’t scientific, it is my personal experience and opinion.)

I’m very grateful that I can walk outside barefoot occasionally even during the winter months.  I live on the third floor and work on the fourth floor, and so have become more purposeful in literally connecting with the ground when I start feeling like a porcupine, and meditating on its own doesn’t completely bring me back to center. I love being outside, watching birds and nature, sunrises and sunsets, so I probably need to stay in the south.

What do you do to ground yourself, especially during the winter?