Lana - re Grounding and Centering

[Guest guest]

" The big issue is whether you are able to adequately ground and

center yourself while working. "

Mike, what exactly do you mean by this, and how do you go about it?

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According to " Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage " ,

centering is " The ability to focus the mind by screening out

sensation. " I personally don't care much for their definition.

I prefer to think of it in terms of achieving a sense of inner calm

or stillness where my attention and intention is completely focused

on what I am doing, where I am blocking out extraneous

distractions. When I first got into the massage program, I used to

refer to it as mentally " going within. "

Grounding is somewhat a figure of speech similar to the term

grounding with electricity. But with bodywork/energy work, it means

more of an anchoring, stabilizing, connecting with your immediate

working environment. To a certain degree, grounding and centering

are used interchangeably and mean the same thing.

How do you go about doing it? There are a number of ways. What

works best for one doesn't necessarily work as well for someone

else. I personally have never had a problem with it, even from the

very beginning. It was just something that seemed to come naturally

for me with no effort. There are times, however, when I will

deliberately reinforce it with certain mental and/or or breathing

routines while I am working.

One exercise that is used by many energy workers before working on

someone is to go into a " squat " position with feet flat on the floor

and your hind-end as low to the ground as your knees will

comfortably permit and to then do a series of deep breathing. One

of the breathing routines is called the microcosmic orbit. You

breathe in through your nose, visualizing the breath coming from

your feet, up through your spine. Do it slowly on a count of 3-5

seconds for the inhalation, hold for a count of 3-5, and then

breathe out through your mouth (also on a 3-5 count) while

visualizing your breath going out down the front. It is a good

routine that I personally don't use because my knees don't like the

position. You can modify it to fit your level of comfort. You can

just sit in a chair or stool with your feet firmly planted and do

the breathing routine.

If you are in to mediation, you can do that. You can use self-

hypnosis mnemonics, trigger words.

As for music, some practitioners like to work with it, others

don't. I personally do. But if you are going to have music, you

need to keep it low in volume so it is not distracting. You also

want something that is non-rhythmic (New Age type stuff is great).

The problem with rhythmic music is the mind will focus on the

repetitive pattern and that is distracting.

Scientifically, the basis or rationale for doing it is to drop your

brain waves into that beta/theta interface point. You need to do

this because it is at that brain wave interface that entrainment

occurs between your energy field and the person under your hands.

If you don't have entrainment, nothing happens. You are just going

through the motions.