Grounding: Our Favorite Term

When Justin visited New Mexico, I volunteered to drive him around. On one occasion, we went to the laundry to pick up his clothes. It was an ordinary, everyday experience. But on this day, as I sat in the car and watched him walk toward the car holding his small bundle of clothes, I saw Joy walking towards me. He wasn’t doing anything unusual, but he was unusual. Because he was grounded, he embodied the essence of T’ai Chi Chih, Joy Thru Movement.

Justin says in his writings and in Justin Stone Speaks, “The Chi affects us, but we affect the Chi.” Being ungrounded during TCC practice leads to being ungrounded in our life and vice versa; being ungrounded in our lives leads to being ungrounded in our practice. Yes, there is help.

It is amazing how fear comes into play in our lives in so many ways, as Dr. David Parrish says in his book. One student going through chemotherapy had not been practicing regularly so I went with him to his therapy and we did TCC/Seijaku/Fast Track while he had his treatment. By the time therapy was over, he was soft and conscious of the bottoms of his feet. He texted later that “concluding my TCC – body and mind filled with peace, freedom from fear, and now there is comfort. I give thanks for TCC, Justin, my teachers and the Chi.” You will know you are grounding when you have a feeling of gratitude.

A student asked, “My thoughts are not wandering away from TCC, but I have so many moving parts that I’m thinking about, trying to do correctly, that I often forget to focus on the soles of my feet. If I focus only on the soles of my feet will the rest of it fall into place?” Yes, staying in the bottoms of our feet makes us more conscious of what we are doing. We don’t think about the movement; we feel the Chi moving through us, through the movement.

Let’s work with some movements: Bass Drum and Carry the Ball and Pulling in the Energy.

Check your practice; look for these signs:

• Know where you are; feel the heel, arch and ball of the foot.

• Are you leading with the hip rather than with your tan t’ien?

• Is your foot twisting? (The only movement with foot twisting or swiveling is Working the Pulley.)

• Ground emotions; feel what you are doing. Don’t go to your head for answers; stay in the tan t’ien.

• Justin used to say to us, “Don’t you feel anything? The truth was that I didn’t, but I thought I did. I thinking rather than feeling.

For sure, we must stay in the soles of our feet. (Some people spell it souls of our feet.) We know the movements. We have done them many times. We must do what we know. If we find that we are not turning our waist during the hip swivel, or shifting our weight, then we simply do it. It is not enough to think that we are doing it. Feel it; we must feel the circles we are making. Be confident in that. Now we must stay in the bottoms of our feet. Not just when we are doing our practice, but as we go through our daily lives. Do we find that we’re not feeling the bottoms of our feet? Then in this moment let’s feel them.

We notice that the more we stay in the bottoms of our feet, reminders about how to do the movements correctly flow out of our wisdom center (the tan t’ien), and our bodies respond easily – more easily than when the reminder comes from our guilt ridden mental memories of how we are not enough. We are the product of the Chi. We are enough. We are learning to Love and Share the Chi.

What is our experience with staying in our feet?

• I think I am staying there, but am I? How do I know? As we say at the TCC Center in Albuquerque, “Feel your feet on the carpet.” What does it feel like to our body?

• Trying is replaced with flowing, not floating. Some people like floating; let it go. When we are floating we don’t feel like ourselves; it feels strange, otherworldly. We came to be in this world.

• Begin to feel the Chi as pervasive – everywhere present – including in ourselves.

• What does it feel like to be grounded and connected to the Chi?We feel connected, free, soft; we feel light but we continue to feel. The thought “how simple” often comes to us.

• We feel plugged in. We are no longer looking to do the movements correctly; we are feeling them and that’s what does them correctly.

• Avoid thinking words, and use feeling words instead. Use “it feels so simple” rather than “but I thought I was doing it right.”