There
are two basic
ways that the process of grounding personal energy can be understood:
one is physical, the other is mental. Since mental processes are
rooted in the body and bodily processes are experiential in nature, the
two aspects of grounding are really one. When we talk of being
grounded in reality, we mean that an individual is both
psychologically balanced and physically stable. This ideal is
expressed in the Latin phrase: mens
sana in corpore sano (a
healthy mind in a healthy body).
While the attainment of this ideal is made difficult by the stresses of
life, it is important not to lose sight of the desirability of such a
state. Fortunately, there are practical means to assist us
in moving our lives in a healthier, more grounded direction.
The concept of grounding was
introduced into the
theory of personal growth work, or functional therapy, by Alexander
Lowen, who was
a student of Wilhelm Reich. Lowen's use of the term "grounding"
refers to the condition of establishing a firm contact with reality and
maintaining a down-to-earth outlook on life. On a somatic level,
this means achieving a sense of having one's feet on the ground and of
being in one's lower body. The opposite of being "grounded" is
being
"hung up." This condition results when we lack a firm sensory
awareness of ourselves. We then live in our heads, and we
fabricate an idealized,
"elevated" self-image to compensate for the insecurity that comes from
not being rooted in our natural functioning. This leads to
a split in our personality and to talk of a "higher" and a "lower"
self.
The split between a higher and a
lower self results
in an exaggerated emphasis on either the spiritual or the material
world. In
such circumstances, the body loses its spiritual quality, and the
spirit becomes disembodied. In either case, the person who is not
grounded becomes
hung up on his or her self-image. We can see this condition
reflected in the prevailing cultural and social order. In advertising and entertainment,
as well as in
politics and religion, the emphasis is on attempting to go higher and
higher, to reach new peaks, to be the "best that we can be," to break
records, to achieve success, to attain power, to stay young, and to
live forever, if possible. If Lowen's analysis is correct,
however,
"what goes up must come down." The infatuation
with unlimited success and power and with attaining the heights
betokens
an underlying trend toward collapse, deflation, and depression.
Given the dynamics of the situation,
it should not
come as a surprise that many people feel a sense of despair beneath the
mask of contentment. Those who are in touch with their despair,
paradoxically, are more fortunate than those who identify with
the mask; for they recognize within themselves
a state of dissatisfaction. This state of dissatisfaction can act
as a motivating force for constructive personal change. Such
change can lead in the direction of more rewarding values and a renewed
gratification in life based on a deeper identification with genuine
human impulses. What are the stumbling blocks along this path?
The main obstacle is anxiety.
In working with
people in a professional setting, I have learned of some of the fears
that individuals face in dealing with change. For each person,
there is a unique and personal quality to the apprehension that is
felt; but always there is a fear of genuine self-awareness and
self-expression, and in all cases that fear is rooted in a basic
sense of insecurity. Such insecurity make take the form of a fear
of abandonment or a fear of loss of self-control.* A person may
be
afraid of ending up on skid row or of incurring society's wrath and
landing in jail. A person may fear a diminution of self-esteem or an
onslaught of humiliation, rejection, and self-hate. Whatever the
particular concern, the anxiety stems from a lack of basic
security. The challenge in dealing with an individual's anxieties
in the context of personal growth work becomes one of assisting the
person to develop the capacity to
take reasonable risks. How is this to be accomplished?
The answer to this question is that
the
individual must become better grounded in reality. This means
that realistic distinctions must be made between anxieties that are
genuinely relevant to current dangers and anxieties that are misplaced
or exaggerated. It pays to remember that, on occasion,
individuals have drowned in only a
few feet of water. In these instances, they felt so much panic
that they did not think to put their feet on the ground. Had they
been
able to confront and contain their anxiety, they would not have gone
under. Instead, they would have touched
bottom. They then would have been able to stand up and discover
that they were not in over their heads after all. They had merely
failed to perceive the reality of the situation.
The process of grounding oneself in
reality is a
physical, energetic process. In today's world, one of the chief
complaints that people have is a lack of energy. To increase
one's
energy, it is necessary to breathe deeply and to feel deeply.
Consequently, in functional personal growth work, much emphasis is
placed on developing the capacity for deeper breathing. And since
restrictions in breathing are related to patterns of chronic muscular
tension, or armoring, it is necessary to foster the reduction of these
tensions so that greater motility and freedom of movement can
result. But this is not enough; for if a person is to
tolerate the increase in energy that comes with better breathing, an
enhanced range of movement, and greater structural balance, he must
have his feet on the ground.
He must have a sense of being rooted in the earth. Energetically,
this means that the buildup of excitement must be grounded just as,
analogously, electricity must be grounded if it is to function
productively rather than be discharged randomly and dangerously.
In Reichian Energetics, there are
two
principal methods of
grounding personal energy. One involves the use of discussion to
establish a realistic perspective on life,
and the other entails a somatic approach to assist in opening up
channels of
energetic flow in the body. Alexander Lowen, in his published
works, has
described many specific techniques, and there are others that can be
improvised and utilized as needed in given circumstances. No
technique, however, is foolproof. On one occasion, I worked with
an individual who had taken the valid principle of not hyperextending
or "locking" the knees as a gospel truth. She stood and walked
with her knees excessively flexed and with a resulting
generalized collapse in her upper body. Noticing this, I asked
her to stretch her arms above her head and to extend her knees while
breathing deeply for a few minutes. She found this liberating,
yet she felt considerable anxiety. Part of her
anxiety resulted from a sense that she was "breaking the rules."
No rule, however, can provide us with security. There is a
balance that
must be struck between rooting oneself in the earth and reaching for
the heavens. Striking that balance is an essential task for human
beings, who walk and stand upright and who are, nonetheless, animals
by nature.
Lowen's
emphasis on
grounding personal
experience in
reality represents a significant contribution to the understanding of
human growth and development, and his ideas in this regard are
far-reaching in their implications, both practically and
theoretically. Yet we must not forget the paradox inherent in the
subject. This paradox is expressed in a saying: "Reality - what a
concept!" The point is that it is not always easy to determine
what is realistic. My own view is that in living we are not faced
with defining reality
but rather with testing reality,
and this is an ongoing task. When we are fully engaged in this
task, we are necessarily learning and growing, for reality is not
static, any more than life is static. To be fully engaged in this
venture, we need to be grounded, and this means that the roots
of our consciousness must be sunk deep into our bodily processes so
that our energetic experience is strengthened to the greatest possible
extent consistent with healthy personal balance. In this sense,
being grounded does not make us "earth-bound." Rather, in a
culture that is "up in the air" and that invites us to live in our
heads, it provides us with a firmer basis for being. When we have
our feet on the ground, we are not left hanging. We can then
reach for what we want in life without inordinate fear of letting
go. We need not be terrorized at the thought of falling, for we
have a place to stand. In other words, we are grounded.
*
At a deep level, there is a fear of
going insane or of dying. See Alexander Lowen. The
Will to Live and
the Wish to Die (New
York: The International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis, 1982).
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