Good morning Pinkies!

Joy here, manning Owning Pink headquarters while Lissa is Owning her Body by pole dancing in Malibu (oh yes. don't worry, you'll be reading about it very soon!). For Mojo Monday, I wanted explore a topic that's been coming up a lot for me (and from what I've noticed, many pinkies) lately: balance.

Tipping, Stumbling, and Going to Extremes

I’ve always been resistant to the concept of balance. I’m not sure why. Perhaps my nature as a Sagittarius predisposes me toward extremes. Also, come to think of it, I’ve always had inner ear things going on and the balance beam was never my best event in gymnastics. I’ve fallen down more than one flight of stairs in my three decades on the planet. Hells, I’ve succumbed to gravity by doing nothing more than standing on a street corner. It’s like my whole being has always shied away from the idea of being balanced.

One major area I’ve recently uncovered is the concept of inhabiting my body. Being grounded. Taking up space. Having a say. Owning my beingness. I've never done these things. For a long time I was hugely unimpressed by the idea of “having both feet on the ground” – both literally and figuratively. I know this sounds strange. Like, how can you be human and not acknowledge your own humanity? However, I’ve spent much of my life doing (or not doing) just that. I’ve ceded, gotten out of the way, let people in (way in), followed along in betrayal to myself, been steamrolled and snowplowed and knocked over. I found the idea of being “grounded” silly – why spend time connecting to the earth when you could be dancing with the stars?

Getting Both Feet on the Ground

But energy healing work and reading and growth and lessons and life have brought me to the understanding that being grounded (rooted; balanced; present) is kind of the coolest thing you can do as a human. Sure, we are divine beings, but we are very much of this earth as well. That’s the greatest thing about us. Animals aren’t both. Angels and spirit beings aren’t both. Only we are. It’s our exclusive privilege to be of the senses – to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell; to walk and dance and hug and eat and breathe. At the same time, we are inhabited by spirit. We know that we are bigger than just our bodies – the truth of this is revealed every time we cry, or laugh, or love, or create. We are spirits having a human experience (isn’t that cool? My apologies once again for failing to recall who-all utters these jaw-dropping gems). Whether we experience this through religion or nature or spirituality or direct communication from the beyond, we each possess this knowing, and this gift.

Anyway, I’m learning that groundedness is balance. If you have roots shooting out of your feet and into the center of the planet, it becomes a lot less possible to stumble. Not only that – food tastes better, colors are brighter, conversations are more intriguing. Things are far less scary when we bring our whole selves to the table. There is no greater strength than being present in both spirit and body – to be in touch with all parts of ourselves, to know what feels good (and, possibly more importantly, to know what feels wrong), to understand our wants and desires, and to show up fully in each moment.

Mojo Monday Exercise: Finding Balance

Whether you're struggling with having both feet on the ground, or if you feel as though you could do with recognizing your own divinity from time to time, here is an exercise for all you out there in Pinkdom who are seeking a little more balance between body and spirit.

Balance Meditation

1. Find a quiet space and about 15 minutes. Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Close your eyes.

2. Take a few deep, settling breaths. When you are ready, imagine a grounding cord extending from your first chakra (a.k.a. the root chakra, genital region, undercarriage) down into the core of the planet. This cord can be made of anything that feels right to you -- a simple beam of energy; a rope; a waterfall; a funnel; a twizzler. Connect the cord firmly to both ends. Feel it actually pulling you down, fastening you to the planet and pulling your spirit down into your body. Sit for a few moments noting how this feels. Is it a new sensation? Or is this how you spend most of your time?

3. Then, through the bottoms of your feet, invite some earth energy up into your body. Feel it traveling through your feet, calves, knees, thighs, all the way into your root chakra and back down the grounding cord. Keep this cycle moving.

4. Now, reach as far out into the universe as your imagination will take you. From there, grab some energy from the beyond, and invite it into your body through your crown chakra (slightly aft of the top of your head). Whirl it around your crown, and then bring it down your spine and down the grounding cord.

5. To ensure that both energies are running through your body, create a mixture of the two where they meet in your root chakra, and run that mixture up the front of your body. Let it run down your arms, out your hands, and out the top of your head, filling your aura. Spend a few moments being conscious of how it is to simultaneously experience the energy of the earth and the universe.

6. Slowly return to your breath, and when you are ready, open your eyes. Throughout the day, be conscious of your groundedness, as well as the energy that is flowing in you from out in the universe. Take note of how you feel, both physically and emotionally. Do you notice differences in every day interactions, behaviors, and outlook?

7. Reflect on areas of your life where you could use a bit more balance. How might you bring what you learned from this exercise to those experiences?

8. Tell us! We in the Pink Posse would love to know how you have achieved balance in any area of your life ... what do you do, how do you act, what changes have you made to feel more even and whole in your every day existence? Leave a comment or start a blog or discussion on the Pink Posse page and let us know.

Pink both on earth and in heaven,

Joy