One of the most impactful things I learned from Ta (auntie) Phyllis while in Senegal is that chronology itself is grounding. Well, that and how to effectively cut a super pretty mango.
Discovering that there is grounding in chronology makes so much sense to me, especially in my story-telling. I’m the long-story-long, back-story to the side-bar, make a four-course meal out of a story from scratch and give you coffee or tea after dessert- kind of story teller. One reason—my long-windedness aside, is that I feel that EVERY detail is important in a story. I genuinely find significance in fastidiousness. Fastidious is the act of giving entirely too much attention to the tiniest of details. It is the literal wanting of everything to be accurate and unflawed. If that definition ain’t just drag me by my entire hip-length ponytail braids, I don’t know what did. I feel like my first memoir is literally about why I sought perfection in the tiniest ways during my earliest adult years. I be fastidious AF.
I speak often about grounding and the various ways I ground myself because--sis be in her head. Grounding for me, is literally forcing myself out of my brain (any neurotic folks in the house?) and into my physical body. It is the practice of focusing on something tactile, or absolute. For example: when spiraling emotionally on life coaching calls, my coach invites me to readjust my body, place my feet on the ground, feel the wall or chair on my back holding me up, take a couple deep breaths, and to name where I feel whatever “it” is in my body. Tactility brings me back to the present. While alone, journaling is especially helpful to get out of my million-miles-a-minute-mind.
It's important to know there are simple ways out of the complexities and depth of my brain; especially when my mind begins to feels like a labyrinth of thoughts I cannot escape from. At times, I feel like I am drowning in a raging sea of what is or was or could be. Grounding techniques are how I swim out of that shit.
I’ll share some traveling experiences by intertwining excerpts from my travel journal into this blog. I thought I was going to be the kind of blogger that could do weekly or monthly updates—but the work I do requires a lot of processing, detachment, and reflection. Life be happening and to tell a good story—sis gotta live it first.
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Continue to be kind to yourself