Earlier this week at sound bowls, I learned something about grounding.
It involved lemongrass, an eye pillow, and me throwing said eye pillow across the room. LOL!
We had just settled in for meditation when I noticed something was different.
The eye pillow over my eyes smelled… different. It felt different.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but as we began to meditate, my face started feeling hot. Then my eyes started burning.
So I did what I imagine many of us do when something doesn’t feel quite right:
I tried to make it work. I moved around. Adjusted the pillow. Tried to breathe through it- ignore it.
But the more I tried to settle in, the more uncomfortable I became and the more my face burned!
Finally, I took the eye pillow off and set it beside me.
I still smelled it, still felt a reaction. I moved it farther away. NOPE it still bothered me!
So finally, in a moment of complete surrender, I threw the thing on the floor.
Immediate relief! My face and eyes immediately softened and didn’t burn anymore - AHHH! Finally back to stillness and peace.
Afterward, I asked if there was something different put on the eye pillows and sure enough yes- she said a different oil had been used that night: lemongrass.
It was intended to be grounding, like feeling your feet in the grass.
And I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony.
The oil was supposed to ground me.
Instead, I had to throw the eye pillow on the ground.
But you know me, the more I thought about it, I reflected on the meaning of this and what in that little moment was worth paying attention to.
What if grounding isn’t always about staying where you are?
We talk about grounding as if it means becoming still.
Rooting ourselves. Settling down. Staying present.
But maybe grounding can also mean something else.
Maybe it means listening to yourself closely enough to recognize when something doesn’t feel right anymore - then doing something about it.
Not analyzing it for three months. Not convincing yourself you’re being too sensitive or too much. Not trying harder to tolerate it.
Just … taking it off…. and putting it down.
But how often do we adjust ourselves instead?
How often have I—or maybe you—felt uncomfortable in a situation and immediately assumed we were the thing that needed adjusting?
Maybe I need to work harder. Be more patient. Change my expectations. Try a different approach. Be grateful. Give it more time. Make myself fit.
We’ve been taught to adapt.
And adaptation is an incredibly valuable skill. But there comes a point when adaptation can become self-abandonment.
When the question changes from:
“How can I make this work?”
to:
“Why am I still trying to make this work?”
That’s a very different question.
There’s a difference between discomfort and misalignment.
Not every uncomfortable thing needs to be removed.
Growth can be uncomfortable. Change can be uncomfortable. Stretching beyond what we know can be uncomfortable.
But sometimes discomfort is information.
Sometimes your body knows something before your brain has caught up.
Sometimes the answer isn’t to become better at tolerating something.
Sometimes the answer is to create distance from it.
And sometimes...
you need to throw the damn eye pillow on the floor. 😂
Maybe this is what freedom feels like.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about freedom - the deeper kind of freedom that comes from realizing:
I get to decide what belongs in my life.
What gets my time, my energy, my heart and what gets access to me.
What still fits and more importantly, what doesn’t.
I see this as a big part of living a HigherRelevance™ Life.
Not constantly reinventing yourself. Not becoming someone new.
But becoming more willing to notice what is no longer aligned with who you are.
To remember yourself - trust yourself - trust those gut feelings.
To make the small shift. And then see what happens.
Because sometimes the most grounding thing you can do...
is let go of what’s making it impossible to feel grounded.
And maybe that’s the real lesson of my lemongrass eye pillow:
Being grounded not by holding on tighter, but grounding yourself for what you need to release to Remember who you are, Align with your purpose and Rise into your power to Live a HigherRelevance™ Life.
As we enter the full moon tonight, comment below what you are releasing to open up space for what is to come or what your intention is to enter this new space. My intention is to embrace FREEDOM!