Fear, Courage, and Grounding with the Earth Element (Ep. 6 the FINAL episode in the Soul-Care Series)

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So often our unconscious fears are what fuel our nightmares

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hiding under our surfaces.

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They're the parts of our psyche or our being that are trying to be revealed.

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And when our shadow chases us, if we run from it, we just give it more power.

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It just keeps pursuing.

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But if we are able to turn and find the resources and the circumstances

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and the boundaries to safely face it.

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Then we can learn what is underneath the fear.

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Welcome to a Lone Traveler's Guide to the Divine.

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My name is Amanda Lux and I'm the creator of The Elevation Hive School and Community

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for Energy Medicine and Dreamwork.

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This is the final episode in the Soul Care series.

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Where I've been sharing ways to tend to your body, mind, and soul elementally.

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Throughout this series, we've been touching on the positive and negative

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pull aspects of each of the five elements, which correlate to the five

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main physical chakras in the body.

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Beginning with the ether element, we explored the positive and

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negative pulls of grief and bliss.

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Then we went into the air element, which expresses through envy,

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anxiety, and unconditional love.

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The fire element expressing through anger, rage, and the ability to

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take empowered, embodied action.

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And then in the water element, we explored unhealthy attachments, and

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the ability to go with the flow so that we can discern healthy boundaries.

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Finally, we're here landing in the earth element whose positive

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and negative pulls include fear and courage in polarity therapy.

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In this episode, I will be exploring this continuum, the energetics of

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fear and how we can cultivate more courage to face it, and how to access

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more resource and balance through connecting with our earth element.

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I am gonna be talking about how this plays out in our dream time through nightmares.

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How the earth element often holds the key to releasing either acute or

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chronic physical issues, as well as trauma that gets stored in our body.

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And I'll be sharing a visualization for tuning into and balancing your

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root chakra, the earth element.

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But before we dive into all of that, I'm going to open this episode with a

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poem that I wrote some years ago called When the Hunted Becomes The Hunter.

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Fear is a funny thing.

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It is never what It seems to be sneaky and illusory in dreams that

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which we fear often pursues us.

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And every time we run there is that heavy feeling of no escape.

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Yet so often in dreams, just like in life, our fear is

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our own power stalking us.

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I have never faced a fear that I regretted turning towards.

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Not once have I wished I had cowered instead, because our fears are our

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greatest informants, just like our pain, which alerts us to pay attention and tend.

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So what if our greatest fear stopped being that our fear would devour us,

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and rather than feeding it or letting it feed on us, we fed on our fear instead.

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Oh, the power that could come from ceasing to flee from releasing control.

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So completely.

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When we no longer agree to be the hunted.

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We become the hunter of the thing that hunts us.

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And by harnessing the courage to dive into the dark waters that threaten, we remember

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that they are always our own depths ever revealing the mystery that is us.

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The earth element resides in our root chakra at the base of the

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perineal floor as the slowest densest frequency of all of our chakras.

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It is the place of the unconscious subconscious, our primal

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instincts and our gut responses.

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Because it takes the longest time for energy to arrive at the

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frequency of the earth element.

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It often holds the key to our oldest most chronic issues or the things that we came

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here with inherited from our ancestry.

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And it's often the place where our acute trauma goes either to be processed or to

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be stored if we don't have the capacity to discharge the energy of an event.

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In the moment so as a body-based energy worker, I've had over 20

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years of experience getting to work with different bodies and

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different people in this capacity.

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So I've noticed a correlation time and again between

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trauma and the earth element.

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Because energetic residue arises from traumatic events often gets lodged.

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Or stored in our root chakra, which may affect our physical body in our

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posture, our pain levels, or it could show up as various forms of acute

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or chronic dis-ease in the body.

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This is usually deeper than our conscious mind can access, so we don't have a way

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to process it on the conscious level.

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That's why, oftentimes trauma work.

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Really needs to address the body.

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In the soma, in our nervous system, in our connective tissue,

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in our viscera.

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It's stored deeply in our bones.

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We can't just think our way out of these things.

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It hides and lays dormant in our body mind matrix, and then it comes

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out in unexpected moments triggered by physical memory or it seeps out

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in our dreams causing nightmares.

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So how do we address this through the earth element?

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I wanna explore that in this episode because there are several ways

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to approach this topic of fear.

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Trauma is different than fear, but oftentimes it is triggered by fear.

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So whether that's fear of something that is actually happening to us or that we are

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anticipating could happen to us, starts with fear, and if we have a physical

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reaction to that, it could become a trauma response and the earth element.

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Is very much in relationship with that fight or flight response, that primal,

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instinctive way that we respond to fear.

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And that's why I relate it to trauma.

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So you could say that most of our disorders or dis-ease comes from

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energy that is stuck or blocked or not.

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Processing through our system and being integrated in a

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healthy way that is life giving.

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It starts to drain our vitality if energy gets stuck, slowed

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down, along the way and is not.

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Able to be processed.

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So processing energy is how we restore vitality, unwinding those stuck

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places where trauma has been stored on a physical, emotional, energetic

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level is how we restore vitality and learning how to cultivate courage is

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necessary for that kind of work, and that's the work of the earth element.

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The earth element can help us learn about facing our fears by

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calling on the resources we need in order to create a safe container

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The fire is really what steps in to protect our boundaries, and the water is

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really that negotiation of the boundaries.

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But the earth is the boundary itself.

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It's the holder of the actual boundary.

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It's the container.

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when we are able to listen to our root chakra and honor what our

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needs are for healthy boundaries

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Then we can process the energy of our lives more readily.

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In polarity therapy, the earth element takes up residents in our body through

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our neck, our knees, and our bowels.

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Those are the three areas , that the earth element shows up.

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In polarity sessions, in our bowels, , our intestines, it has

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to do with how we have digested and are in the process of eliminating

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those things that we've experienced in life, not just in food, but all of

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our experiences have to be , digested,

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. Processed and then the residue that is no

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So that is in the sign of Virgo and the bowels, and then the sign

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of Capricorn is in the knees.

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And to me that's a lot about how we pivot in life, so oftentimes when things

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show up in that part of the body, I get curious about how is this person able

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to walk through their life to meet the obstacles, to change course as needed?

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So the earth is very much that place of physical dense energy,

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old, longstanding, chronic.

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It's the place where we negotiate what we have not yet come to awareness of and what

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we are complete with and ready to let go.

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It's the place of completion.

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A lot of our fears that dwell in the earth element in the subconscious are what Carl

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Jung would describe of as our shadow.

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And Toko Pa Turner, a dream worker, an author writes about something called

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Shadow eating, which I absolutely love.

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She says, "eating your shadow in dreamwork is the slow practice of

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meeting those dark figures within and growing one's, bravery to face them.

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Learning to live with our failings, shortcomings, anger and grief.

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But shadow eating is also a source of great potency.

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As we break from traditional morality, we learn the true value

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and meaning things have for us.

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And in learning to love the entirety of ourselves, we come into contact with

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a far vaster compassion for others."

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The shadow is really everything that we have not yet faced within us.

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And I love dreams for this because every aspect of the dream

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can be interpreted as a version of ourselves, when we take full

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responsibility for the ways that we are, every character in our dream.

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Both in the waking dream of our lives, as well as when we are

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asleep, even in our worst nightmares.

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If we can see these nightmarish aspects, these things that we are most afraid of as

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aspects of ourselves, then we can begin to meet them, to face them, to become curious

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and to create a dialogue with them.

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And this needs to be done safely, or it can be counterproductive.

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It's important to find the tools that work for you and create the scenarios

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that allow you to feel safe enough to face these things so it's not so dangerous.

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And this is true for our dream life again, as it is for our waking life,

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but we have to, do that work safely.

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Sometimes we try to face things in our dream and and they just gobble

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us up and we wake up in terror.

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Right?

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But I think creating a safe space to work, the dream is really essential, and

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that's about setting healthy boundaries.

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It's about tending the container and the earth is so good at that.

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the Earth is the ultimate resource.

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If we put seeds in the ground and we water those seeds then we can grow

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everything that we need to be nourished.

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The Earth provides and.

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In return, it just asks for the detritus that we no longer need.

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It asks for our shit that we are ready to let go of, and the earth

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transmutes that into something that's vital and nourishing.

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So that is the, energetic quality of the Earth that we can tap into

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as a resource that rich fertile.

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Receptive, transmuting, powerful place that holds us, that gives

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us foundation to stand on.

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And if we can connect with the earth and ground ourselves, . We can

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find the resources we need to face.

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Anything.

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And Earthing can look a lot of different ways.

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It can look like creating a symbolic ritual with the Earth where you

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are just sitting on the ground or laying on the ground or walking

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barefoot in the dirt or the grass.

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You can sit beneath a tree and visualize its roots.

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You can do something that is kinesthetic with your hands, such

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as repotting, a plant, working in a garden, weeding or playing with clay.

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Sculpting is also a really, really earthing activity.

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You could engage in

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digging.

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Sometimes.

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For me, it's just digging, even if I don't have a, a purpose, if I can dig.

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And I get lost in that physical labor and the smell of the earth and the feel of

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it, and it moves energy on a fundamental base level, it moves the energy there.

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So maybe you need more earth in a yin way.

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You need to just lay on the ground.

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Maybe you need to lay on your belly and put your nose directly in the

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grass or in the soil, and remember your connection on a base level as

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a creature, more than a human, as an animal, in a primal way that is not

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separate from the earth, but connected

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My favorite way to connect with the earth is through visualizing

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roots coming out of my feet.

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And I invite you, wherever you are in this very moment, to engage your

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imagination and visualize this, that your feet don't end at the bottom

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of your body, but extend beyond your physical body through the form of roots.

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Just like any plant or any tree.

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Imagining and visualizing that you have roots that grow out the bottoms

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of your feet and into and through the ground wherever you are visualizing that

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burrowing action of your roots, diving deep below the soil and the bedrock.

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Journeying down through all the layers of water,

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through the electrically charged core of the planet to plug in.

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Like plugging into an outlet and that there is in the heart of the earth.

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An actual outlet you can plug your roots into, and that literally is grounding

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connecting with the electromagnetic energy of the earth itself, and allowing

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that to ground your energy to help you release then anything you don't need.

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Thinking about the eliminative functions of the earth element, and thinking

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about what in your life you are ready to let go of, what in your energy is

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too dense to really be of service to you anymore is ready to just drop.

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Down and out through the bottoms of your feet, through your roots,

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and down into the earth to be transmuted, letting it all go.

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This does not have to be a long, slow, hypnotic process.

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You can do this anytime of day, anywhere you are.

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Just turning on that idea that you can dump and release anything that isn't

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serving you or anything that isn't yours, to carry anything that's old and letting

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it go with gratitude, honoring that the earth really enjoys that symbiotic

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relationship, that it's reciprocal.

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And that the earth wants to transmute that.

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It needs it to create healthy soil,

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to create the fertile environment that holds us.

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That carries us through our lives.

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That grows us.

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So how do we cultivate courage with the help of our earth

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element or within our earth?

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How do we cultivate courage to face our fears?

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And I wanna just speak to this in the metaphor of a nightmare one

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of my favorite dreamwork teachers, Robert Moss, says that all nightmares

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are just unfinished dreams.

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And I really love this saying because what he's inviting is this idea that if

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we were to face whatever was scaring us in the dream, We would no longer be afraid

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and it would no longer be a nightmare.

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It would become just another dream that we were able to learn and grow from.

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Whenever I have a nightmare, I get excited.

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Usually even if I'm terrified in the moment, I know that there's

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potency there for me to gather.

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I know that I have the tools and the resources to meet

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that scary thing in my dream.

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And once I do, I know that I will be empowered because it's happened over

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and over and over again in my life.

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Sometimes I Don't have the consciousness to meet the scary thing in the dream.

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Sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't because it's coming

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from an unconscious place.

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The fears are.

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Not something that I've been able to work through on a conscious level.

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That's usually how it works.

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So if it's coming up in the dream and I am able to meet it, then I

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feel really exuberant about that.

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Like, wow, I just met something in the unconscious realm by becoming conscious

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and knowing that I could meet it.

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But that doesn't always happen.

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And so, Oftentimes when we have nightmares, we don't wanna think about

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them, talk about them, remember them.

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We wanna bury them immediately because they rose up from

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a buried place within us.

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But if we can remember either within our sleep or when we wake up,

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what Carl Young says about making the darkness conscious within

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us is how we become enlightened.

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That is the way to learn and grow within ourselves is by meeting those

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things that are in the darkness.

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So often our unconscious fears are what fuel our nightmares

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hiding under our surfaces.

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They're the parts of our psyche or our being that are trying to be revealed.

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And when our shadow chases us, if we run from it, we just give it more power.

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It just keeps pursuing.

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But if we are able to turn and find the resources and the circumstances

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and the boundaries to safely face it.

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Then we can learn what is underneath the fear.

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What is it we need to embrace or let go of or transmute?

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These are places in ourselves that we have often rejected or turned away from.

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Not wanted to relate to or been too afraid to relate to.

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And if we turn away enough, we will forget that those are parts of us

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at all, and we will see them as so other and so alien that we will feel

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victimized by them and we can create patterns in our waking life like this.

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But we can face those.

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Issues in our lives by creating safe space.

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So I'm gonna share how I would do this in a dream.

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One of my favorite tools for working with nightmares is to go back into the

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dream from a conscious state, which is called dream reentry, and I don't just

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waltz back into the terrifying dream.

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I will first ground myself.

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I will feel my root chakra.

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I will ground into the earth and then I will call on my guides and allies.

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I will call on my helpful ancestors to support me, whomever in the

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spirit realm or the above and beyond.

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Your awareness is working on your behalf.

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Call them, ask for support.

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And to me, this is the equivalent in waking life of asking a friend to help you

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face the scary thing, or seeking mediation or calling up a counselor or finding some

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resource, some ally that can support you.

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So it's an intelligent thing, right?

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To not just go waltzing in alone we want to create safe space.

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Consciously ask for support.

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I will do this process when I want to reenter a scary dream or work with a

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scary dream in any way, whether that's through art or through journaling,

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or through conscious dream reentry.

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As I will ground, I will ask for support.

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And then I will have a dialogue and I will create whatever boundaries,

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whatever conditions I need for that dialogue to feel safe.

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And that means that I might not talk directly to the

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scary, bad guy in the dream.

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I might actually put them on a movie screen.

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I can view the dream as though it is on a movie screen.

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And I have the remote in my hand and I can hit pause or rewind

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or fast forward anytime I want.

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So that's one way that I use to reenter a terrifying nightmare

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and you want to create a safe scenario where your guides can support you, where

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you have whatever kind of distance and boundaries work well for you to feel

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confident that you have some control.

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And from here, you just need to really be curious and be willing to listen.

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Be willing to watch.

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In your imagination, be willing to paint or draw what actually is coming through

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you without judgment and to explore then what is the meaning of this dream?

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Of this nightmare?

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What is the message?

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And I always want to assume that there is something here that I don't know yet.

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And so I get really curious.

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And the more you practice this with your dreams, the more empowered you

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feel and the more likely you are to remember within the dream that you

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have this power to actually turn and face the scary thing in the dream.

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And that's really exciting when that happens.

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And what's really cool is the more you can practice this in your dream

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world, the more you can do this in your waking life and vice versa.

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Learn how to create the boundaries, find the support you need to create enough room

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and safety for curiosity and non-judgment.

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To learn how to see the other as an aspect of yourself to learn how to then integrate

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that information to assimilate and process what this experience is here to teach you

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and to let go of and eliminate whatever remains that is no longer of service.

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To your growth and healing and to your evolutionary process.

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There's this idea that the earth element or our root chakra is really

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that place of foundation of the unconscious, that it's the place of

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our shadow where our fears reside.

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Sometimes our traumas can hide, and if we can cultivate the courage to face

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these fears, then really we can find that that leads us to a deeper knowing

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of ourselves, a deeper understanding and level of compassion that we

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can take out into the world when we regularly exercise the muscle of

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facing our fears in a safe and healthy way, , that we become fundamentally

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stronger and less individualistic in the sense that we can really know.

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The interconnection of all things.

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We can see ourselves mirrored back in everyone around us.

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We can take full responsibility for the scary dreams and the scary life

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circumstances that we participate in creating so that we can learn and grow.

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And the more that we practice overcoming those fears the more

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empowered we feel in our lives, the more strong we are in our root chakra.

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This morning in my yoga practice, I was practicing an Ashtanga move where

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you are basically in a squat and your knees go up on your elbows and you

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jump back into a Chaturanga or a pushup like position, and I was struggling a

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little bit in the moment with getting my knees up on my elbows and my legs.

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My feet were a little too wide, but I didn't know that because I felt

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safer with a wider squat stance.

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I was afraid of falling on my face.

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But what my teacher said, and this struck me in the moment, my teacher said that

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I needed to bring my feet in a little bit, make them narrower, and I needed

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to lean my face forward, even though that seemed totally counterintuitive,

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like I was just gonna fall on my nose.

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But I did what she said, and suddenly this nearly impossible move became easy.

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It was almost easy.

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It took strength, but it wasn't nearly as impossible feeling.

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And she said to me, oftentimes, we instinctively create a wider

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stance or we don't lean into the move because it's scary to do that.

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But if we can remember that, that that's not necessarily

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ergonomically correct, right?

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That.

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Physiologically speaking, it's better to narrow the feed and lean into that thing.

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Then we, we have more access to our core and to our power.

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We have more leverage to leap into action.

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And this felt like the perfect metaphor to me for the earth element

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because sometimes we think that taking a wider stance will help.

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Or keeping a distance from the thing that's scaring us will help.

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Sometimes we think that, but what that does is it disempowers us, actually.

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And so sometimes we have to , lean into the thing that's scary.

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We have to take that leap of faith, and that really is that place of courage.

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They say that courage isn't the absence of fear, right?

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It's just facing the fear anyway.

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And so I wanted to end with this idea that when we can lean in a little

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bit and, be willing sometimes to fall on our face a little bit, to

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find that edge, that's the practice.

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And I think this is how ultimately we become courageous is just through trial

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and error, falling on our ass a little bit, falling on our face sometimes.

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But learning how to take healthy risks.

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And that doesn't always look like what you think it'll look like.

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And so that's good to know.

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If we can figure out how to do this in our bodies , in our dreams, and in our lives.

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Then

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we can truly stand in our own power

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rooted and strong.

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We can allow the energy that's moving through our lives to find resolution

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and to find completion, and that is really what the earth is all about.

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Thank you so much for listening to this episode of a Lone Traveler's

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Guide to the Divine, please check out the show notes for links to my

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book, the Soul Care Work Workbook,

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you can learn more about me and my classes and resources and

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polarity therapy@elevationhive.com.

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And if this episode was helpful for you and you happen to have a friend

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that you think might resonate with, I would invite you to share it.

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And also, if you would like to leave a review on Apple Podcasts

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or anywhere you're listening, that would mean so much to me.

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I appreciate you listening.

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I appreciate your energy.

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It is such an honor to be in sacred community with you.