In the early years of the pandemic, I felt compelled when writing to respond to the times, to reference the destabilization and overwhelm we were all living through. It felt like we were all looking for answers—and the idea of “grounding” became the response we reached for, a panacea in a rolling crisis.
Often referring to basic body regulation, the skill of grounding can indeed help us connect to ourselves and our environments to manage stress, tension and overwhelm.
But especially since the pandemic, the ubiquitous notion of grounding has become synonymous with an antidote to the overwhelm. Not a rich resource for creative exploration, but a simple remedy for times of trouble.
In this blog series, I want to show you a different take on what grounding can offer—complete with a gift sequence that will let you try it for yourself. (More on that soon.)
Beyond the limits of remedy
Even now, in post(ish)-pandemic times, I notice that when grounding is framed as simply a solution to a problem, its seed is burdened with the anxiety, tension, and overwhelm it’s trying to fight. This approach barely touches the surface of a practice that begs for depth (and pleasure).
Because grounding is much more than a simple coping strategy. As a creative practice, this skill is fundamental to our growth. It’s the seed of a resilient creative practice.
Finding “the ground” in both our bodies and environment, and feeling the relationship between the two, has always been a foundation of Sense Writing. Grounding helps us to regulate, enhancing our capacity to absorb sensation, access worlds of memory, imagination, and story.
Grounding is fundamental to our nature—and fundamental to building a pleasurable creative practice. And through specific neuro-sensory writing and movement Sense Writing sequences, grounding as creative exploration is a skill that we can develop and hone.
What I'd like to explore in this Summer Series on Grounding is an invitation into the vastness—into an answer to the question that drives so many of us:
How do we connect more deeply to our creative core, without reacting to the external ups and downs of everyday life?
All that lives below
Grounding is the work of nourishing our foundation, laying roots inside our own internal landscape that are often invisible to ourselves and others. Like the soil, nourished with minerals and nutrients we can’t see, our urge to create is fed by these subtle, invisible processes. And just as we trust that seeds in the soil will sprout eventually, we build trust in the processes and invisible connections that feed our creative exploration.
Instead of a reaction to stress, our grounding practice becomes a creative resource, a home for deep connection, pleasure and curiosity—not as a response to something, but as the foundation of our creative practice.
In this summer series on grounding, we’ll be exploring this depth. We’ll discover how grounding as a resource for our writing practice can be not just interesting and generative, but surprisingly subversive. Stay tuned for more soon.
