I am a Tree

When we talk about “grounding” we are pulling our energy into our own space and anchoring ourselves to the earth.  Sometimes when we are overly forgetful or feeling “spacey” it is because our energy is spread out all around us, making us feel off-center and wobbly in our ability to interact with the world around us.  When we do grounding activities, we are taking charge of all of our energy in our awareness so that we feel and interact from a more solid space.

The following script can be shared anytime you would like to pull your energy back to you and to center in the moment.  It can be useful before school or before important events or discussions.  Let your child know that it is possible to use this activity at any moment he or she is feeling off-center or needing to feel more “solidly planted” and/or focused.

Steps:

1. Find a comfortable position, sitting or standing.
2. Close your eyes and turn your attention to your feet.
3. Imagine that you have roots growing very very deeply into the center of the earth.
4. Connect your roots to the deep center of the earth.
5. Feel how deep your roots grow.
6. As you are imagining your deep, deep roots, take a few slow, deep breaths.  Breathe slowly in through your nose and out through your mouth.  As you breath in, notice that your tummy expand out, filling with air.  As you breath out, feel your tummy get flatter, pushing all the air out.  Repeat this a few times.
7. Now that your roots are deeply planted, pay attention to your body that is the trunk of the tree.  Does it feel strong and solid?  What happens if you imagine some wind right now?  A big strong wind?  When the wind comes, does your body feel strong?  If you feel like the wind can still push your body around, then add a bigger root system to your feet.  Imagine that you have many roots holding you firming to the ground.  Feel how great it feels to be strongly connected to the earth, how strong your body feels.
8. You can open your eyes when you are ready.

Discussion:

After completing this activity, ask your child to relate his/her experience and to check in with how his/her body is feeling.  You can even do playful check-ins before and after the activity to note changes in the body energy.  You and your child can do check-ins for each other.  Before reading the script, take turns standing in front of each other and gently push on the other’s shoulder to determine how easy it is to knock off balance.  Complete the activity and repeat the balance check to see if there is a difference in balance once your energy is grounded.