Grounding: Our Deepening Journey into Presence & Stillness

In March, I had the opportunity to facilitate Sandy’s Zoom gathering for teachers. The T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) topic we explored was our deepening journey with grounding and its support for helping us live from a center of presence and stillness. I started the session with a sharing from the November 2024 Vital Force article by teacher, Lorraine Lepine.

“Initially my focus was directed towards the soles of my feet and then towards my tan t’ien. Gradually, something remarkable unfolded — my body became enveloped in a profound stillness, allowing me to perceive and feel the flow of the Chi propelling me forward and backward in a gentle, rhythmic motion.

In these moments, it felt as though TCC was practicing itself — with the Chi taking the lead, and I, the practitioner, stepping aside into a quietude and stillness that permeated my entire being. Yet, paradoxically, I remained fully present and aware, observing the unfolding experience with conscious awareness encompassing body, mind, and spirit.”

I shared this because it very much mirrors my personal experience with grounding. In the beginning of my TCC journey, my focus was on the soles of my feet; however, it was not easy to stay there. My center of gravity was very much in my head and my attention continually got pulled upward. The intention of returning to the soles of my feet did begin to strengthen my capacity to stay with myself and the soles of my feet more and more.

At some point I began to be drawn to my tan t’ien and, in particular, became aware of feeling a root from my tan t’ien through my feet into the earth in every moment of my weight shift. This allowed me to feel and discover when I was out of alignment and creating tension in my body. Keeping my pelvic floor level was key to this. The more I stayed level, the deeper my root became. The joints continually shift and adjust but the pelvic floor stays level. As this stabilized, I began to explore the whole vertical core of my body from the soles of my feet to the tan t’ien and up through the torso. The more vertically centered and aligned I became in every moment of my weight shift, the more I was able to relax downward through my whole body. This connection to the vertical core of my body coupled with a deep downward relaxation opened up a powerful feeling of presence and stillness along with a stronger flow of Chi, allowing me to feel its subtle flow through my body in every moment of the weight shift.

My practice keeps getting more and more simple. I have found my only job is to stay vertically present, aligned, and relaxed moment by moment. The Chi does all the rest.

My practice has also become slower over the years. There is nothing more important for me in my practice then staying grounded and for me grounding has become being vertically present, aligned, and relaxed. This is how I plug into the Chi. When we go too fast (especially in the beginning) we lose our vertical grounding. But mostly now I go slower because it is so delicious. Margy Emerson in “A Potter’s Notes on T’ai Chi Ch’uan” says it so beautifully:

“Slow motion: not the way we’re used to moving or to seeing others move.

As the pace slows, the movements and even the space around and inside me seem to expand, to take on detail and fullness and life. With the passing of every month and every year, I perform the sequence more slowly. I have to in order to accommodate the growing content.”

A lower and deeper center seems to be gaining more and more gravity or weight in my consciousness. My thoughts do not have as much pull; and if they do catch me, I am able let them go more easily. We have heard the saying: “In the world but not of it.” For me this connection to an inner vertical depth through TCC is a powerful way we can be in the world but still be rooted in presence, stillness, and most of all, love.