By Kristen Budd
With a two and a five year old, my meditation practice has definitely changed. Some days, I don’t have the space to commit to my 40 minutes, twice daily meditation routine. To be honest, this once lengthy and consistent practice has become a rarity.
I have, however, worked out ways to be opportunistic with my time and also look at alternative techniques and allies to reap the benefits of meditation without my long sittings in play. Meditation is still one of my non negotiables! It brings me to my calmest state of being. It relaxes my body, soothes my soul and brings energy to my spirit. It releases all the stress and energies of my day that either don’t belong to me, or that block me from being my best when I am with my family. Without a meditation practice to release and calm my being each day, I feel like I am wading in concrete. Instead of creating peace in my home and holding space, I feel myself adding to the chaos and feeding into the heightened reactions and emotions.
There is no doubt, a consistent meditation practice opens you to experience a reduction in stress and anxiety, improvements in various health conditions, more energy and vitality, creativity and concentration. I teach people how to incorporate a consistent meditation practice into their daily lives. With this, I also look at the realistic goals and techniques that are going to work relative to someone’s lifestyle. As parents, naturally our lives change on all fronts and fluidity to any meditation practice is required.
I still need my meditation practice, however I am a lot more flexible with it and I have moved away from feeling the guilt and shame when I miss a session.
With my second child, life became a lot fuller! I was utterly exhausted constantly and the idea of sitting to meditate was ludicrous. I couldn’t get sleep, shower or eat on my own, let alone find time to zen out, even though mentally I needed that space. I placed guilt on myself for not meditating which added to my mental strain. I had to change my approach. I needed the benefits of meditation, however I couldn’t physically or emotionally commit to a consistent practice. What I did manage to comprehend amongst the brain fog was how beautiful and powerful even the smallest moments of grounding were. I also discovered a new relationship with incense, oils and mala beads and worked with these as allies in grounding.
Grounding gets you out of your mind and into your body. You connect with your truest being and innate sense of peace and calmness. It is in all of us and we must go within to find it. When I would sit for 5 minutes whilst breastfeeding and ground into my being, it would be enough to tap into my innate feelings of calmness.
When you ground, you connect yourself to the earth, you feel into your 5 senses and your physical body, and pull the focus away from the past and future moments. You find balance in your emotions and connect to your inner essence. Regularly grounding yourself pulls you out of the moments when emotions get heightened. The more you ground, the more you pull the feelings of connection to your inner peace back out into reality.
When we are in a state of overwhelm, have intense emotions, and sensations that are taking over, grounding is a gentle technique that calms you right down and centres you into your truest being. When we are grounded, our physical, emotional, mental and energetic bodies are balanced and connected, and we are in our strongest state of consciousness. We feel safe, calm, connected and at peace.
