grounding in the body

Some tips for staying in the Now and transcending the egoic self:

"1. Try to stay beneath your thoughts, neither fighting them nor thinking them.
  2.  Hold yourself at a deeper level, perhaps in your chest, solar plexus, or breath, but stay in your body self somehow, and do not rise to the mind.  Everything you know long-term, you know in your body."

These are the first two steps in a Christian tantric "Welling Up" exercise as described by Richard Rohr in his book "The Naked Now: Learning to see as the Mystics see" (pp. 171-172).  Richard talks about grounding oneself in the body as a way to witness (as described by Adya and Michael Singer).

Staying grounded in the body helps me to notice what I am experiencing in the moment and breathing into my body helps me to open my heart, go deeper into the feelings, and release what I am experiencing.

Staying in my body keeps me from attaching to or feeding thoughts.  I have become increasingly aware of how the thoughts trap me.  They trap me into thinking that I am less than or better than.  They convince me that I need to change other people or arrange my life so that I can be happy.  Thoughts such as deciding whether I like or dislike something feed the ego.  Judging what we do and do not like, or, what we think is good or bad is how the ego defines itself.

Richard talks about emptying the self (of such thoughts as well as the related emotions) in order to be the blank slate that God writes Itself on.

Staying grounded in my body is a way to stay focused on what is really happening rather than attending to the ever-changing thoughts of the psyche.  Staying grounded in the body is like the ballast of a ship...it provides balance and stability as I glide through the waters of life.