10 Ways to Ground & Uplift Yourself During Shelter in Place, by Michelle Chua

By Michelle Chua

Art from Instagram @charliemackesy

In globally stressful times, devoting your energy to regularly grounding and uplifting yourself is instrumental to cultivating inner and outer peace and well being. Here are ten ideas you might explore or already practice:

1. Acknowledge how you feel with honesty and compassion through meditation, journaling or stream-of-consciousness writing, movement or painting.  Use the modality that allows you most ease to express yourself and perhaps experiment with one you haven’t tried.  
2. Be in your body through a body scan meditation, conscious breathing or physical movement, such as walking, yoga asana, dancing, running and exercise. Feel your body’s response to, and request for, rest, movement and specific nourishment.  Our bodies never lie, though our minds can interpret the body’s signals in a myriad of ways.  Our bodies give us direct experience with our environment, thoughts and emotions. Trust and cultivate that wisdom, using our bodies as a source of clarity and connection.  Read about the practice of free-flow soul movement here.
3. Make the space and effort to do things you enjoy daily. Play with your dog, be silly with your children, watch a brief comedy on Netflix, read your favorite book for 20 minutes, serve yourself a delicious healthy meal or let yourself sleep an hour earlier to get a full night’s rest.  Seek joy in the smallest things you can and immerse in the appreciation of joy. 
4. De-clutter and create a feeling of sanctuary in your home environment.  The act of cleaning house can channel anxiety, promote focus and feel empowering. If you share space with others, find at least a small area where you can take refuge to sit and savor a cup of tea or meditate.  Relaxing music, calming aroma and words of inspiration hanging on the mirror on a post-it can make a difference, now that you might spend more time at home.  Take a look at your current home, and notice how the objects, colors, sounds and temperature affect how you feel.  Is there a feeling of space where your mind and body can rest in safety and ease?
5. Start and close your day with a grounding and uplifting intention.  The moment you awake, instead of giving your attention to the news or social media, establish your alignment to your inner Self and source of natural well being through whatever modality allows you to connect inward—meditate, practice yoga, walk around your block, journal or move to music. Choose something sustainable and authentic to you that you can be consistent with and look forward to because it makes you feel good.  Just before bed, perhaps list all the things that uplifted you in your day.  If you don’t already, try this for seven days straight, and notice how you feel. 
6. If you’re feeling lonely, reserve a block of time each day to call a loved one, or join our yoga community on Zoom for a chat before or after our online classes.  Take the initiative to reach out and know that others might feel lonely, too, and may find comfort in your connecting with them.  Or, perhaps your added time at home is a great opportunity to finally raise a newly adopted pet that needs a family and can enjoy walks around the block with you and cuddle time to share affection with. The latter was advice from my partner and Founder of Justin’s Dog Services, Justin Hill (JustinsDogServices.com).
7. Eat for health and delight in it.  In Ayurveda, or ancient Indian natural medicine, it is important to know how to balance your mind, body and spirit through what you digest. Notice how the foods you eat, their portions and time of day consumed affect your energy levels.  If you’re already very anxious with your heart constantly racing, you might not add the hot sauce or extra spice to your meal.  Perhaps, lean towards soup that feels nurturing and calming. And of course, remember to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and stay well hydrated.  You might also snack on healthy foods with a crunch, like nuts, to help release stress.  
8. Channel stress through creativity.  “Cooking is a creative way for me to combine comfort and wellness,” shares one of my favorite Instagram Vegan Homemade Chefs, Diane Yen.  Her daily posts of healthy and colorful plant-based meals, often with recipes included, inspire art in the kitchen because you can see the love she details her cuisine with.  (Enjoy her daily inspiration of joyful nutrition by following @luv2bveg.) What’s your modality of creative expression—gardening, crafts, acting in your own YouTube channel?  It might be fun to just play with combining things you love into something that feels cathartic, productive, entertaining or engaging for you, and maybe it will also inspire others.  
9. Be of service.  “ What has helped me (through this pandemic fear) is getting outta myself and finding ways to motivate and help others through this,” shares Caribbean Radio Host and Founder of Island Groove dance fitness, Chinyere. Listen, dance and sweat to her motivating movements, talks and music through her Instagram, @cislandgroove. In another act of kindness, neighbors on my street have laid out their extra harvested fruits from their trees with a heart-warming sign that reads, “Please take some for free. “ 
10. Find ways to practice mindfulness in your daily routines, like walking to the mailbox or brushing your teeth.  Thich Nhaht Hahn is a renowned teacher and author of a myriad of mindfulness practices, like walking meditation.  Breathing consciously as you walk from one end of the block to the other, you might link each part of the breath with a grounding uplifting mental statement: (Inhale) I feel the ground beneath. (Exhale) The sun feels warm on my skin. (Inhale) A new breath is a new moment.(Exhale) In breathing, I feel free.  Friend and fellow yoga teacher, Paola Cardona (Instagram @Luna_Mamma), reminds us of the 3 P’s, “Accept and make peace that nothing is Perfect or Permanent and the best gift we can offer is our Presence. “  

 
By cultivating our own peace of mind and vibrant wellness through committing to personal practices, no matter the circumstance, we project empowerment and vitality into the world around us.  In sharing a similar hardship, we experience our interconnectedness on this planet. This heightened awareness of our oneness, coupled with our understanding of our true nature as infinite spiritual beings, both teachings from yoga philosophy, might offer some solace as we stay at home to care for ourselves and each other, including the most vulnerable.  In the words of a spiritual teacher, Shunyamurti, I meditated with in an ashram in Costa Rica:
 
At a certain moment, one crosses past the fear and doesn’t let it hold one back, and then one realizes the true nature of the Self that one always was, that the river originally was the ocean that simply took a journey of ascent and then descent and then back to the Source.
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