Standing, Breathing
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Grounding means connecting to the earth. The nervous system naturally activates, charges up, and discharges. This is a constant rising and falling of activation, ongoing, with the taking in of information and charge and expressing of it accordingly, it is in the breath, in the heartbeat in all processes of life in the body. Rise and fall, waves. This is an ongoing principle found in all of creation, "In the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day... there are signs for those who reflect" Qur'an. This is a great ayah for understanding both the hikmah of the body and movement in the entire creation. Our body charges and discharges in various ways.
When this discharge is disabled the charge remains, seeking an outlet, or if the discharge continues to be disabled, the system begins to shut down to manage what would be a destructive, overcharged system. Grounding happens to an "earth" of any kind. For the nervous system, the earth itself it an excellent ground and nature, an extended earth, serves this purpose well. We all know how a walk in the forest can be so calming and healing. Connection is necessary for "earthing" and connecting to something solid is the other requirement for the grounding experience. Connection to Allah in our deen is practiced by actually using water and then earth, ground itself to do this. "For those who do the salat on them there shall be no fear and no anxiety". While this physiological benefit is not the reason for prayer, Allah in His perfection of our deen has designed it so for these last days of hyper-charge and the resulting anxiety, violence, or the shutting down modes of depression, dissociation and hopelessness that follows on it.
The integrity of Islam from practice in form, consistent, to meaning and belief, is what distinguishes it from all other ways in this time. We are Muslim in the outward by prescription in physical form, action and shariah to Mu'min in belief by the inward in Haqiqah and meaning. They are consistent and point always to our basic stance in recognition of tauhid, oneness, and wholeness. Health, after all, is nothing other than Islam. We can speak of black seed and honey or eating habits, but the reality is, the Medicine of the Prophet, May Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon him, was, Islam.
After connection to Allah, Mother is, for us, the next perfect ground and we seek her as well in many things for this release and ability to regulate the charge and discharge for a sense of wholeness, completion. Unresolved discharge is not wholeness. With the mother and child there is constant charge and discharge. Connection and disconnection. There is a natural rhythm to this in all healthy relationships but if the natural flow of this rhythm is disrupted and connection and disconnection is not made accordingly, there will be either the need of charge, from disconnection, seeking "her" even to obsession, or aversion, even hatred, from too much connection and over-charge not successfully released. So much of our culture and our pathologies rest on this fact. After mother there is father, and siblings, friends and neighbors, neighborhoods, house and home, even the house of cardboard and mud, family and familiar, all serve to ground, clubs, gangs, place, country, affiliations, tariqas, cults, race and ethnicity, foods clothing and cultural artifacts, from anywhere and anything to which one feels connected, works.
When a person feels this connection, with his senses, the grounding happens. The feeling is necessary for the nervous system to take part, whether it is conscious or unconscious. When feeling connected has diminished, grounding is diminished. This need for connection is worth remembering when someone expresses a loyalty beyond reason to a group. Remember that if they identify themselves with that group and find a grounding in that, the issue can be then, one of survival on some level. In the cult the leader often pushes the envelope beyond not only all reason but to the limits of well being. The need for the connection to both the leader and the group is so great that the person may create a situation of great hardship or even pervertedly, destroy themselves in order to sustain this elemental root need. In our presnntv times, the traditional means of connection, to family, friends, neighbors, land animals, culture, in conversation and all that would connect us has been so disturbed that this becomes an issue not only in our social and spiritual health but immedietly in the functions and helth of our bodies.
One Shaykh said that the flood in the time of Nuh was one of water and in this age it is one of disconnection. The exercises represent methods for reconnecting on our individual experiential level, for reconnecting on a very primitive level in our own bodies to our own selves and a means for integrity that can, insha Allah, God willing, extend from there outward in our lives and actions.
The exercises:
The first step in grounding is to remember the natural way to stand, with the knees slightly bent, unlocked.
1. When standing at any time, in line at the market, whenever, observe your knees and legs, how you are standing.
Are your knees locked? If so, recognize that this is NOT a natural way to stand as the entire lower half of the body becomes immobilized. Unlock your knees and observe what this feels like. If it feels unnatural, simply recognize this as your habit and that to stand in a natural way seems strange and unfamiliar to you.
2. Stand with your knees unlocked, slightly bent and feet about six inches apart, almost parallel.Balance between the balls and heels of your feet and let your upper body relax but remain upright.Bend more at the knees until you feel the weight of your body on your legs, keeping your upper body upright and relaxed.Keep this position for two to three minutes.Observe any shakiness, trembling, pain or burning of any kind. If you feel unsteadiness, or trembling recognize this as not as weakness, but as the strength of the vital force returning to your legs.*Now straighten up, keeping your knees unlocked.Observe now how you feel the weight of your body on your legs and feet. Observe how your legs feel.
Is there more of a sense of weight, fullness, solidity? Do you feel more connected to the ground? Try shifting your weight from foot to foot and see if you can better sense the full weight of your body on the pad of each foot. Pay some attention to how your entire body feels, how you feel on the whole. Spend some time and notice what sensations are present.Consider how you might remember these sensations at another time without the exercise and how to become more familiar with them in your body.Try raising yourself on the toes of one foot. Notice how easy it is to perform such a delicately balanced task. Realize that this is only possibly by the awesome interaction of sensation, involuntary and voluntary aspects of the nervous system and the muscles and mechanisms of the body. This interaction, input and output is with us every moment in our lives.
Breathing and feeling go together. You will not find a depressed person fully breathing. We shut down our feelings by limiting our breathing in order to manage overwhelming experiences. To regain our full experience of life we must breathe. It is said in a tradition that Sayiddina Musa Alayhi salam, asked Allah what His greatest hidden secret was and Allah replied: "Breath" Remember also that we have to some degree shut down this part of ourselves for survival and adaptation to the experience of trauma and our particular social setting and to awaken it we may face some sense of fear or danger. Awakening feeling means to experience both joy and pain. If any of these exercises seem too much or overwhelming, relax and leave them off or return to the standing exercise. If the experience seems too much you may want to find a practitioner of somatic therapy to assist you with more work.
1. At any time or place stop and pay attention to your breathing.How full is it? How shallow?What parts, how much of your body moves in response to the movement of your breath? Can you sense it in your belly, chest, arms, neck, head? What do you notice that may obstruct the breath, tightness or tension? How about your posture? Does it disable your ability to breath deeply and fully. Just observe this.Do you recognize any impulses for movement as you recognize any tension? If so, simply recognize them. See if you can identify any movements of your back shoulders, spine or any stretches of arms shoulders, neck that could fulfill the impulses. Take some time with this to see how closely the movements match the impulses.Take some time to just observe and reflect before making any movement. Let you body guide you and begin to make the movements but very very slowly, as if in slow motion. Let your body move however it wants. See if you can let your body guide itself , not with your mind.
Observe very closely your felt sensations as you do this and keep it very, very slow to enable you to fully experience all sensations. Know that your body can guide you; it knows how to do this, let it.
If you have found the movements that your body wants to make, explore, let it continue as long as it wants, let it move however it likes. Continue moving and stretching for as long as you like until you come to a state of repose. Take some time and pay close attention to all sensations you are experiencing in this state, take your time.Notice your breathing again. Observe how your body feels with each in breath and out breath. Notice the quality of the sensations.
Consider how you might, in the future, remember this experience, the physical sensations of it. (At any time to simply stop and carefully pay attention to the breath and to feel it as it moves the shoulders and even the neck [it's actually the opposite, they move the breath!] can be a rich awareness experience, a building and meditative but relaxing, healing, and integrating process that should not be underestimated).2. See if, by repeating this, your breathing becomes deeper or larger and if more of your body takes part in response to the breathing.Notice how your whole body feels if you're breathing is deeper and more of your body takes part.Notice how your arms and hands feel with more breathing.
Notice if any emotions arise as you do this.If so, does any sound seem appropriate to make with feelings that arise; this can be an "ahh" or "uhh..."Make the sounds with the breathing and see if you can do so with the emotion that has come up.Notice how your body feels and what sensations come as you continue this.
3. Using an exercise ball or a short padded stool, lie back with the ball just under your shoulder blades. Relax and stretch back opening your chest and expanding your ribcage, arching your back. Relax into this position and let your chest expand. If you are able, raise your arms above your head and let them fall back making the arch even greater and lifting and expanding the chest even more. Be gentle at first and carefully observe the felt sensations and the stretching of the chest that occurs. If there is pain try breathing and relaxing with each exhalation. See if this gradually lets the tension causing the pain to go. If this is difficult, try doing it little by little and day by day, increasing the stretch. Doing this easily and gently daily can bring surprising results.
4. Observe at various times in the day, your breathing. Remember the exercises and respond accordingly. It knows what to do, give it its due with appreciation of its wisdom. Sitting in your car, on a sofa, a chair, notice if the position you are in facilitates or obstructs your breathing, adjust your position and observe with your felt sense your overall experience. Make this practice a habit and it will become automatic. Stretching and adjusting slowly with awareness will teach your nervous system to remember what it once knew so well. By Allah.
* Some may find even this, resourceful for most, somewhat overwhelming. If so, finding a well informed somatic therapist can help in the first steps of this work.
posted by Tabassum @ 10:22 PM
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