Taking a Firm Stance

Carl realized that it was time to finally develop his Ground skills, that is, being more comfortable with concrete challenges and taking a firm stand. 

A good place to begin the change process and learn about habit’s defenses is by exploring the Balance Aspect of Ground.  Associated with the qualities of solidity and being unmovable is a unique combination of the vectors of balance. 

Lean slightly to the Front and then relax Downward.  Lean slightly to the Front and then relax Downward.  When these two forces dynamically combine we call this state the Ground Balance.

When I first presented Carl with this mini balance practice, he reported feeling heavy, stuck and uncomfortable.  I then asked him to notice what happened as he leaned forward and remembered the pull of gravity. 

He described a sense of falling along with an almost unbearable heaviness combined with a sense of hopelessness and a desire to not be there.

Who would want to be in this state, even if it held the gifts you seek, if as soon as you entered the state you felt too heavy, uncomfortable and wanted to leave?

To fundamentally change his experience of the world of Ground, I told him of a primitive reflex that was especially important as we first learned to stand and walk. 

We are hard-wired so that when our foot touches the floor it triggers an antigravity response that spreads from our feet and ankles to our knees and then to our hips.

Talking him through the steps to evoke this buried reflex, he discovered, for the first time in his personal memory, that the floor (the ground) actually supported him in being upright and alert. 

In a blinding flash, he also realized that he had worked so hard to pick himself up that he had bottled up his creative energies as well as his power to make a difference.