Grounding in the Present Moment
Ojas, the mind, the feet
How to navigate these times? Talking with Kate O’Donnell on her podcast this week – it airs next Wednesday – I bravely spoke about protecting one’s mind stream, a k a consciousness. Yesterday I imagined calling this post Resting in Fresh Mind Stream, kind mind stream. By today my mind did not hold the sparkle or confidence to fly that high. This week my mind stream has been all over the place. Grounding in the present moment is the best I can offer today.
There are hazards and blessings in having access to so much world news almost instantly (thank you Marina). Which present moment am I grounding in? One friend said this week, I’ve de-newsed myself. That felt like a good way to put it!
In Ayurveda, we talk about ojas, the energetic cushion around us that protects us, strengthens our immunity, and filters stimulation to our senses and consciousness. When ojas is abundant, we’re grounded; we feel like we can deal with whatever is coming our way. When ojas gets low, every sound, every obstacle can drive us wild.
It’s easier to build ojas when grounded in the present moment. Literally foot work can be grounding. Not like fancy foot work on the dance floor – though you know, that could work too. I’m thinking more about holding one’s feet kindly. As a Polarity Therapist in my office, I love to do foot work, toe balances. It’s grounding for me, and grounding for the person with whom I’m working. They settle, get out of their heads, and so do I. Feeling sensations, can bring us grounding in the present moment.
Our minds are active characters. Mind stream feels like an apt way to put it – active, flowing, alive, forever changing. One moment I’m downcast, acutely feeling the sorrows and the harsh injustices of the world. As writer Angie Athanassiades wrote recently in an eloquent explore, so many energies arise in Spring. She captures the anguish, turbulence and joy of this moment well. With the rising vitality of Spring, deep and contradictory feelings can come forward. Like her, I can succumb to feeling responsible for it all.
Even the idea of unrelenting cruelty is tough, and there’s a lot of it around. People are facing unrelenting cruelty directly, losing loved ones to war, starvation, imprisonment and slander. Not even being on the front lines, I struggle to deal with what’s happening and see how little apparent power I’ve got to help, other than food relief, writing my congressional representatives, showing up. I stood on a busy curb at noon this week with other older women – many of them retired federal workers – protesting current policies. This felt appropriate. Yet it didn’t alleviate the mental anguish.
Weirdly, the announcement of the new pope, seeing his kind-looking face, and talking to a friend in the Dharma shifted my mind stream. Yet stable? Consistent? Clear? No, not steady yet.
It dawns on me, the slightest inkling of what people are experiencing who are in the face of very hard conditions. Historically how people lived and died in Tibet in 1959 as the Chinese invaded. What it must take to live with those memories. What it must have taken to hold with equanimity or loving kindness in the face of this. When children were dragged away from Hopi to boarding schools in the late 1880’s, how parents felt. The Ludlow Massacre in Huerfano, Colorado in 1914, when kids and striking coal miners were shot down. Being in the hull of a slave ship from the west coast of Africa, going across the Atlantic, in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s. These experiences are also held in our collective mind stream.
To be as grounded as possible now seems like part of what we can do, with respect for the living and the dead.
Action can be very useful for grounding in the present moment. A friend of a friend was quite downcast until recently he got a call to join a team working with schools. He is a fluent Spanish speaker; his role now is to go with the team to a school when the principal calls about impending ICE raids. He is there to explain to people their rights. He’s able to be more present with his loved ones again, being able to engage meaningfully like this.
Think of the others. How to do this with kindness and equanimity. Not forget or ignore what’s happening, yet not be swept away. Sometimes the best way to work with your head is not to work with your head, but to work with your feet. Often when our family is in anguish, we ask for a Toe Balance. It’s a simple Polarity Therapy bodywork process that’s easy to learn. Years ago OtherSide Wisdom Works recorded this with APTYI, my institute. It’s a relaxed home style movie available as a low-cost download here. it might be just the thing for you.
Grounding in the present moment helps all of us contribute to well being in our communities, however we can.
How to build ojas
Adequate rest
Good night sleep
Spiritual practices that have meaning for you
Being in nature
Enough healthy fluids
Nourishing foods
Rest by water, especially waterfalls
More about this in The Ayurvedic Guide to Polarity Therapy, pp 116 – 121.
Feet Circle Image thanks to Lian Reed Blair (and clockwise from left, Asha, Amanda, Dustin, Gordon, Iza, Amadea)
Amadea Morningstar is a writer and health educator working in the US. Her latest book is Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda. Past works include The Ayurvedic Cookbook with Urmila Desai and Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners.