Grounding for the wired, the weird, and the neurodivergent.
You don't have to sit still to claim your center.
Some bodies can’t be bullied, disciplined or forced into stillness.
In the last newsletter, I spoke about the need for regularly grounding by using the practice of sitting in stillness for 2 minutes.
What I will carve out now is the space for humans who may not be able to access the kind of silence I was describing, because of very specific reasons.
If you have a neurodivergent or trauma-impacted nervous system, forcing your body into immediate, cold stillness can be experienced as destabilizing, threatening or even violent. Some human brains need stimulation to find their baseline, neutral place. Telling a hyper-wired, high-capacity executive or an ADHD witch to "just meditate" is insulting and a failure to include the science necessary to make somatic wellness truly accessible to all bodies.
Sometimes, your body needs to get louder before it can get quiet. Or a little bit of background noise can make it easier for you to focus inwardly.
Witch Wisdom: Magic has to be tailored to the practitioner to be effective.
The right stimulation is the kind that helps you become more present in your own body. You’ll be able to calmly observe your internal and emotional landscape with a certain distance/detachment.
You will know it's not working if you become distracted, compulsive or anxiously upregulated.
Sometimes it’s useful to discharge the mechanical potential trapped in your muscles before your tissue can soften and settle. For many of us, true grounding looks like biomechanical effort: vacuuming/cleaning, squeezing a towel, pushing your palms into a wall, breaking down muscle tissue in the gym, a kickboxing session, or shaking our ribs and hips in a dark room to the music that demands it.
Using physical stimulation as a bridge to reach authentic nervous system balance is strategic somatic regulation.
Respect your idiosyncratic biology. Stop punishing the animal inside of you for needing cathartic movement before coming to earth. Be the witch/magical creature whose power is informed by the primal forces that do indeed still drive modern humanity. Accounting for these primal drives will help you integrate your power with more ease.
Witch Wisdom: Be yourself.
August is our official Integration Month inside The Body Magic School. We are stripping away the elaborate theater of magic and focusing entirely on building a resourced, dangerous foundation for the Fall.
I’m excited for what the Fall semester holds for us. Till then...
I’ll be waiting for you in the dark,
Mel, The Body Witch
