By Richard Adelman
“He lived at a little distance from his body.” James Joyce, Dubliners
To be grounded or not to be grounded? That is the question—and a central issue in human life. This question becomes especially relevant for North Americans living in San Miguel, who have ventured into a new physical and social environment. An aging population is faced with negotiating unfamiliar, uneven, and unpredictable streets. In addition, in moving to Mexico, these foreigners have uprooted themselves from their familiar cultural matrix. How can they re-ground themselves in order to feel “at home” in an expatriate community in a foreign land?
What, exactly, do we mean by grounding? Grounding is often thought of as being supported or grounded on something. It is associated with having secure, reliable footing. Being grounded in this way evokes stability and self-confidence—one has an orientation and can manage oneself correctly. Thus, physical and emotional elements of grounding are complexly intertwined. Instability on the ground, due to weakness, co-ordination problems, postural distortions, musculoskeletal pain, or vision difficulties, may give rise to uncertainty, anxiety, or fear. Being able to repress or deny this instability, incidentally, will not make it go away. It may make a person more vulnerable: “pride goeth before a fall.”
On the other hand, imagine someone with difficulties in standing his emotional ground, in self-assertion. This could manifest posturally as an insecure, unsure relationship with the physical ground, the earth. It is very possible, in fact, that these two hypothetical people are actually one person seen from different perspectives. In any case, our physical postures have emotional consequences even when they don’t have clear emotional causes. If we feel insecure physically, we are likely to also feel insecure emotionally—and vice versa.
As you may have guessed, besides being grounded on something, the human being can also be grounded inside of something. Being inside something is a primordial experience of such profundity that we may not even consciously recognize it. For each of us, this began with being inside our mother’s body. As an adult, we may experience being held and contained in our own body. This can generate feelings of belonging, of having a place. Yet how many people really feel comfortable and secure inside themselves, inside their own skin, as it were? Clearly, many of us do not, or not very often. Most people have their own personal continuum of experiences ranging from being peacefully settled into themselves to being “unsettled” and “beside themselves.” A person can be “beside himself” with anxiety, worry, pain, or even happiness. And opportunities to lose yourself abound—such as exiting from your body and into your computer.
The key to grounding yourself is deepening self-contact through a slow, deliberate process, a grounding ritual. Just start where you are, taking the time to experience how you are sitting or standing. Notice where you feel the pressure of any parts of your body on the ground or your chair. Explore how you are supporting yourself or holding yourself up or holding yourself together. Where do you feel the muscular effort? Also notice how you are present: Are you present? Are you inside yourself or outside of yourself looking in? Notice if you are distracted, scattered, or dispersed or if you feel contained. Are you allowing room for yourself to exist and pulse freely inside your body, or are you squeezing and constricting yourself?
If you devoted 10 or 15 minutes to this exploration, you have started to ground yourself in your own immediate reality. Even if you found yourself to be pretty distracted and disembodied, making contact with that state is a place to start. Grounding begins (and ends) by deepening our contact with what is.
These grounding principles are incorporated in my Feldenkrais classes in the Salón Semilla in Mercado Sano (Mondays and Wednesdays, 12-1:30pm) and in my private sessions in San Antonio or in your home. I have 50 years experience in Feldenkrais and somatic psychology. richardadelman@gmail.com 415 197 7895.
