Somatic Grounding Meditation.

For being in your body... your glorious body that belongs to YOU.

“Women have been programmed to view our bodies only in terms of how they look and feel to others, rather than how they feel to ourselves, and how we wish to use them.”

-Audre Lorde

image by Inge Poelman on Unsplash

Because we live in a system that demands control over our bodies, the practice of being fully present and embodied can serve as an act of defiance. It’s a kind of fuck you to a system that polices, over-works, and erases so many of us. When we connect to our aliveness in this moment, we can say no thank you to this system of racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia; reclaiming our autonomy, reclaiming our power… even just for right now.

In their book What It Takes To Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change The World, Prentis Hemphill talks about how national politics can be so overwhelming and disempowering. However, through a practice of embodiment, they suggest that we can work to reclaim our power, and then make the choice to wield that power in a way that serves one another and the world. :

“The force that brings about political change is power. Martin Luther King Jr. once defined power as the relative ability to achieve purpose. The more power we have in any given situation, the easier it is to do what we intend. The less power, the harder it becomes to exercise choice over our lives and what happens in them. Power is necessary for anything to happen, though many of us were raised to fear it. Because of the way we see people use the power we give them, we assume that power is only domination and exclusion, not generosity and protection. The test of power, how we show what guides it, is in how we wield it. To me, the root of any power is in the body, specifically in our ability to be embodied in a way that organises our cells and our self to act out a vision.” - Prentis Hemphill

I recorded today’s meditation a while ago, but it seems appropriate to share it this week. It’s a somatic practice that helps to shift attention to the body, and reclaim the power that’s held there. The meditation was inspired by Staci K. Haines, who is a brilliant somatic practitioner and activist who I have studied under.

This practice is so simple, but can be quite profound.

If nothing else, this meditation might help to give a little respite from the metal noise... or the deep sense of grief, or dread, or nihilism, or whatever. When it all gets too much for me… when the panic sets in… when I start fearing the worst… that’s when this meditation is most helpful. It reconnects me to the material world: the present moment and what’s tangible and within my control in the here and now (… even though there are many parts of my physical body/present moment experience that are not, in fact, tangible or within my control… but anyhoo… it just makes me feel a bit better stop with the questions already).

When I do this meditation, I don’t listen to my own voice. That would drive me absolutely bananas.

To being in our bodies. To reclaiming power. To generosity and protection. To connection. To fuck you-ing the system.

Sending love out to all of you. Take care out there.