Rooting down at Ravens Rock Park

It’s November here in North Carolina and the autumn or, Vata Season, has arrived.  The air is crisper, the wind is howling, leaves are turning colors, drying-up, and blowing away.  You may find that your skin is dry, your lips are chapped, your bones are popping and creaking more, and that your ice-cream cravings have subsided.  All of this is happening because it is your body’s way of balancing you as nature shifts from the heat and intense sun of the summer to the cool darkness of the fall.  We can aid and support our bodies during this transition by observing and aligning with nature, and consciously choosing to root down during this time.

I have learned while practicing Yoga and Hoop-Dance how essential it is to root my energy down before, rising up or spinning around.  When I take the time to firmly root down and set my foundation I experience freedom in my yoga asana and hoop-flow. On the contrary, when I fail to do this I find my asana to be unbalanced and shaky, and in hooping I am unable to sustain spinning without getting nauseous.  “Rooting” energy is not an abstract idea, it is something simple that you can cultivate in many ways.

Here’s one way to root down with your physical body. Pause for a moment and begin standing with your feet inner hip-bone distance apart and parallel with toes facing forward. Next, feel the four corners of your feet rooting firmly into the ground. Press the inner edges and outer edges of your feet down then lift and spread your toes.  Now invite the feeling of “Inner Body Bright” to wash over you, let your heart smile at the cosmos while your feet hug the earth.  Feel your bare feet connecting with the earth, feel your energy rooting down into the earth.  Perhaps you begin visualizing tiny red roots growing from the soles of your feet, rooting you more firmly into the earth. Breathe and draw the support and strength of the earth up into your feet. Breathe deeply, inhaling and exhaling fully. Feel it. Feel yourself rooted and rising here and now.

You can also physically root your body, by eating root vegetables and tubers.  The local farmers have abundant harvests of these cool weather crops, and I’ve been enjoying both the taste and the energy of simply roasted sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, parsnips, daikon radishes, and kohlrabi bulbs.  Visit your local farmers and treat yourself to some fresh delicious roots and tubers.

On a mental and spiritual level you can also choose to root your energy by setting a “sankalpa” or an intention. Sankalpa literally means “to bind your mind to.” By creating a sankalpa to work with you are choosing to root your mind and energy. A sankalpa serves as an anchor and as we work with it, roots grow that reach deeply to this anchor.  Every time we remember our sankalpa we help it to root more deeply  in our lives, overtime this will manifest as it needs to.  Taking time everyday during the fall to remember your sankalpa will help to keep you rooted.

I am constantly amazed by how skilled of a teacher nature is. By simply taking a moment to pause and witness the natural world during the fall season you will feel more rooted in the Earth’s energy. The red, orange, and yellow leaves falling align with your  first, second, and third chakras, activate your roots.  The squirrels scurrying around storing the abundantly falling acorns in preparation for the winter are a reminder to can, dry, and preserve summer harvests—it’s  going to get even colder.  To maximize your energy during the fall align your schedule to nature’s clock, create a consistent routine  (root-tine), rising earlier in the morning with the sun and turning inwardly earlier in the evening.   Grow like the plants, roots first so that you can rise up with even more freedom and grace.

Love, Roots, & Wings,

Meghan

Tags: asana, autumn, chakra, foundation, hoop-dance, rise, root, sankalpa, tubers, vata