Misty_Laughter

If You Are Grounded and You Know It….

Misty_LaughterIf you’re grounded and you know it, are you happy?  Wait, that’s not the song!  We know how it goes – sing along!  “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it then your face will really show it.  If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!”

Oh if only it were still that simple; being three years old, clapping your hands and squealing in delight!  Those childish squeals, though piercing and impulsive, are actually a level of grounded that we adults seldom revisit.  It’s that place of stopping to absorb the sense of being overcome with simple joy.  Have you ever watched a toddler eat a lollipop for the first time?  They are fully immersed in that moment of a new smell, taste, texture and color.  The world around stops spinning so fast. The tot becomes quiet and focused on this one small delicious treat.  Suddenly there is nowhere to be except right in that place exploring the new taste of blue raspberry without worry that a raspberry isn’t actually blue or sticky.  That’s the grounded I’m talking about.  Stopping. Looking. Wondering. Smelling. Tasting. Touching. Delighting! Somewhere along the course of toddler to teen to thirty-something, we lose that sense of simple joyous discovery and decide that having to stop means sacrificing happiness.

But how can being grounded make you happy, particularly if you are 16?  Seems we are always seeking happiness with the go-do-have mentality.  Let’s ‘go’ to another concert.  I’m planning to ‘do’ the Peachtree Road Race.  Can’t wait until I ‘have’ those new boots.  So really the next verse could translate to “If you’re happy and you know it, buy new boots!  If you’re happy and you know then your feet will really show it.  If you’re happy and you know it, buy new boots!”  No, no, no.  We know that’s not the way it works.  So what does being grounded mean, if not to lose all “happiness” associated with texting, Facebook, borrowing the car and shopping?

I have a yoga teacher who often suggests we imagine we’ve just been given this new body.  Too old to give it go? I think not!  Start with Solid Ground Flow. There you are: babies, dark seeds clockunaware of the light surrounding us.  Security. And then we begin to get a little crowded.  Let me just stretch out a bit.  Wait.  What’s that?  A leg?  Two of them! How do they hold us up?  How are they connected?  What makes them move?  Explore the movement of these new legs.  Where can they take me?  What’s this flat thing attached to the bottom of each one? Curiosity. And being curious – well that’s YOGA. Oh, wait!  Those flat things help me to stand!  Well check this out!  I am taller now, upright, a strong sturdy mountain. Suddenly there is so much more to look at!  Discovery! Now fold forward and look back down at where you started.  Geez.  How’d everything get upside down?  Perspective!  What if I lifted up just a little…like a half lift… lengthened my spine and stared straight into the face of what’s in front of me?  Courage! One leg back now, one leg forward; a straight leg lunge into possibility. I can do this! Empowerment! Both legs now- plank– I’m stronger than I thought!  Straight lines of energy, nothing standing in my way!  Stick my tongue out and roar!  Share my voice. Confidence! LAUGHTER! Now this is a good feeling. Let me take a moment to thank this new body of mine, and the ground below supporting all of this – gently though, one knee-chest and chin at a time.  Gratitude!  Open the heart now into snake, fill up with joy and take in what is there.  Radiate light from my center and share it with others!  Compassion!  Look back again for a moment in Down Dog.  Rest there.  Look how far I’ve come and how I was helped along the way.  Deep breath.  Surrender. Now, one step forward, straight leg lunge, firmly rooted back.  Perseverance. And lifting halfway up to stare once again into what lies ahead. Hope. Forward Fold, did I do it?  Am I ready for more?  Can I continue moving through the hours of days, months of years, the circle of this life?  YES!  I can!  Inhale and rise up, reach for sky and sing out from the top of this tall mountain.  ELEVATION!

That’s what being grounded is all about.  It’s not losing something or stopping completely. It’s not going or doing or getting. It’s about slowing down to notice how the world works and how we work within it.  When we set our clocks back just enough to explore the sheer delight of simplicity, we are grounded and happy!  So if you’re grounded and you know it, downward dog! If you’re grounded and you know it, flat like a pancake!  If you’re grounded and you know it, laughter milkshake!  And if you’re grounded and you know it, for goodness sake, NO WHINING! If you’re grounded and you know it then your life will really show it.  If you’re grounded and you know it, Namaste.

So there you have it.  Be Grounded.  Feel Happy.  Explore Yoga. Seek Laughter.  Notice your own Elevation….and every once in awhile – get those new boots.

More to Explore

  • A Sutra a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

    What are these sutras
    You speak so about?
    Are they stitches like sutures
    With some sort of clout?

    Good question, my friend~
    Why, yes, yes indeed,
    These sutras are potent
    In times of great need.

    In times of great need,
    And in times of great bliss,
    These highly condensed words
    Should not be dismissed.

    The most essential core thread,
    Of deep subtle meaning,
    That runs through the fabric~
    It supports out of gleanings.

    Gleanings of insights,
    And wisdom fused pearls~
    From the direct experience
    Of wise boys and girls.

    Sutras express so much
    In so very few words.
    With vast significance,
    It’s not for the birds.

    Sutras are formulas
    To be memorized and studied.
    To solve the perplexities~
    Of minds getting muddied.

    So chose your text wisely~
    Yoga, Shiva or Seuss,
    Buddhist, Tao, Platform,
    Tripitaka or Mother Goose.

    Then write them in BOLD~
    Where you’ll see them each day!
    Melt their magnificence
    In every which way.

  • Inspired by the Velveteen Rabbit…How Teachers Become Real.

    horse

    The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

    “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

    “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

    “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

    “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

    “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

    “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

    “I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

    But the Skin Horse only smiled

    –  From the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams  –

  • Snow White and the Seven Chakras

    dwarves
    (Inspired by Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra Chapter II, v. 42
    samtosad anuttamah sukhalabhah)

    From contentment,
    Highest happiness is obtained
    Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs
    Are invited to explain….

    Consider us each a chakra
    An energy gate of sorts
    That we open, clean and balance
    For optimal support.

    Work on passing through
    The seven chakras {or gates}
    In order to visit the underworld
    And ascend to blissful states.

    Let’s begin in MOUNTAIN with SLEEPY,
    Awaken abundant roots.
    Stand with both feet straight
    Ground heavy in your boots.

    Mountain SG1 big

    Each time you inhale,
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE HERE.
    Each time you exhale,
    Root your feet a little deeper.

    Reach up high with outstretched hands
    FORWARD FOLD and touch the ground.
    Prepare to balance GRUMPY
    Who needs some healthy bounds.

    Forward Fold Orange

    Whenever you breathe in,
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO FEEL.
    Each time you breathe out,
    Circle your hips like a water wheel.

    Step your right foot back
    Into a STRAIGHT LEG LUNGE
    Here we balance DOPEY
    Soak up power, like a sponge.

    straight leg lunge yellow

    Each time you take breath in,
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO ACT.
    Each time you release breath out,
    Stretch your belly with great tact.

    Step your left foot back
    Press hips up into DOWNWARD DOG
    Open up to HAPPY
    Melt your heart free from smog.

    Down-Dog green

    Receive your in breath and
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO LOVE.
    Give your breath out
    Feel Unworthiness? Get RID of!

    Shift forward into PLANK
    So BASHFUL can get clear.
    Soften your throat back
    And open up your ears.

    Plank Blue

    Each time you breathe in
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK WORDS.
    Each time you breathe out
    Say, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD.

    Lower knees, chest and chin
    GRATITUDE for SNEEZY’s insight and vision.
    Draw back of eyes toward back of head
    To focus on decisions.

    Gratitude Indigo

    Each breath in
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SEE.
    Each breath out
    Cross your eyes to a degree.

    Stretch your crown forward and up
    To balance DOC in SNAKE
    Straighten legs behind you,
    Connect to what’s awake.

    Snake Purple

    Each time you breathe in
    Think, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
    Each time you breathe out
    Stretch from head to toe.

    Lower back down
    Prepare to pose in reverse
    Remember your rights
    Remember to immerse.

    SNAKE back to GRATITUDE
    Breathe into your poses
    Up PLANK to DOWN DOG
    Your rights are like roses.

    STRAIGHT LEG LUNGE to FORWARD FOLD
    And back up to MOUNTAIN
    Keep moving and grooving
    Till your rights flow like fountains.

    When we know our rights,
    And pass through chakra gates~
    We develop a sense of contentment
    And more deeply relate.

    Happiness is indeed obtainable.
    When we follow the path of contentment
    Accept the ups and the downs
    of our very own presentment.

    May we be content with GRUMPY work
    Or no work at all~
    DOPEY or HAPPY states
    BASHFUL or baseball.

    May we be content when SLEEPY
    Or wide awake~
    SNEEZY or Doc
    It’s our right~For Goodness Sake!