Week Twenty-Eight: Getting Grounded in the Presence of Fear

Walking across Central Park the other morning, I was again struck by how vibrantly the birds sang, how enthusiastically the dogs jumped and played, and how beautifully the colors of the Fall leaves blended with the light and shadow of the sun and the green of the grass. Just before entering the park, I was listening to a report on National Public Radio about the latest anthrax scare. What drifted through my mind at that point was that this time in our history requires all of us to dig a little deeper into our resources and capacities for resilience, and to continue to develop ways to go about daily life without being hobbled by fear.
More than ever, it is essential to find a way to be grounded and centered in the midst of news reports about unknown possibilities for terrorism. One of the most basic and useful approaches is to find the sensations in your body that arise when you feel settled and centered. For this week’s experiment, I invite you to revisit the process and practice of grounding yourself in your body, in the present moment, in sensations of comfort and settledness.

As hard as it may seem to be able to do this, there is a process that makes it a bit easier. As I may have mentioned in earlier posts, I’m currently in a training program for a process called Somatic Experiencing and there is a very useful question that arises from the process. When you feel distressed, ask yourself, “Where in my body am I comfortable, even a little bit?” Or, ask yourself, “Where in my body do I not feel distress?” Then, allow yourself to find the place in your body where you’re actually okay. You may discover only a fingertip as a beginning point, but there will be a place somewhere in your body that has sensations that convey a sense of settledness, ease, or comfort. Once you locate that part of your body, spend some time simply noticing the sensations of comfort, ease, settledness, or whatever more grounded experience you discover. Remember that there’s no “doing” attached to this process. Instead, it’s about allowing yourself to be curious about how your awareness of greater ease will develop naturally, on its own, as you move through the process.

As you simply notice and experience sensations of comfort, ease, or settledness – or any other comfortable sensation that you may discover – allow yourself to be curious about where else in your body you may be feeling similar sensations, again without requiring yourself or your body to do anything at all. This exercise asks only for your awareness, not for any intervention on your part.
Even though your attention may be drawn back to a distressing thought or sensation, it’s all right to simply notice that, maybe to stay with the distressing sensations for a moment so that you can describe them to yourself, and then return to the place(s) in your body where you feel relatively comfortable. The process is a way to shift gears if you’ve gotten stuck in fear, tension, or worry. As with all experiments, allow yourself to be curious and open to discovering how this particular exercise may help you recenter when you need a moment to shift gears.

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