May: Gravity's Lullaby

 
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This month’s spell takes us back to childhood, and the intense curiosity about how our bodies feel and what they can do. Before we learn what we can’t do, anything seems possible. You may remember, as we do, being very small and believing you could fly. One of us distinctly remembers jumping off the living room couch and catching air, hovering, floating for a while. I somehow knew that I could only do this because I hadn’t fully signed on to the project of being human yet. And just a year later, I couldn’t do it anymore. Gravity had claimed me.  

We often think of gravity this way: as a force we long to escape but cannot. This month we invite you into another relationship we have with gravity—a nurturing relationship. A bond of mutual love. A physical experience of being held by a vast force that will never drop us.

As little kids, our path toward embodiment is exhilarating and frustrating, and it includes needing to learn how to be soothed and settle down. Our brilliant bodies have complex nervous systems which regulate our energy, providing voltage for activity and self-protection, then helping us release tension, and digest what we’ve learned while we rest, recharge, and repair. But even though our nervous systems are designed for this, when we’re brand new to these bodies we need to be shown how to respond to our limitations and how to regulate the ups and downs of it all. 

Working With this Spell

Co-regulation is the magic that happens when we hold each other, when we sing or dance or laugh together. The lullaby is an ancient practice of co-regulation—a song we sing while swaying back and forth, imbuing the space around a child’s body with the rhythm and sounds of calm and soothing. The word “lullaby” has ancient origins that stem from words that mean to soothe, to move to and fro, and from the “lululu” sound. The lullaby activates our language centers in order to remind them they can relax and let go.  

Here in this fifteenth month of the global pandemic, we could all use some soothing. Some of us have had other humans to co-regulate with all along, others are beginning to connect after long isolation, and still others are experiencing the deepest terrors yet as the virus surges in several countries around the world. In pandemic times, singing with and touching other humans can be high risk. All of us who have experienced lockdown know what this lack does to our nervous systems. Working with this month’s spell, we remember that we can co-regulate with the Earth itself. 

Gravity’s lullaby reminds us that Earth’s pull on us is unwavering, but also gentle. It is a force so forgiving that we can defy it every time we inhale or take a step. In fact, we push against it for support. This month, we focus on the intimate connection we have to the very core of our planet, with each step we take. 

Meditation on this spell:

For this meditation, I encourage you to find as much contact as you can with the earth, or the ground. Whatever is the most comfortable way for you to let your whole body rest and be held. If you can, go outside. Take off your shoes. Lay your body down. After a moment or two of settling into position, you can take a deep breath in and let out a big sigh. And then do that again -- deepen your breath into your chest and belly, and releasing your exhale with a sound and sigh. For this next one, send your big exhale into whatever part of your body feels like it’s still not settling down and, when you sigh out your exhale, imagine your whole body getting heavier, widening and spreading your weight onto the ground. These long sighs help to get your parasympathetic nervous system online, encouraging your whole body to rest and receive. As you continue to breathe, see if you can gradual remove the effort from your breath, so you are getting all the oxygen you need, without having to push the air out or pull the air in. Let yourself take plenty of time to let go of this effort -- you may find that paying attention to the breath increases your tendency to control it in some way, or, quite the contrary, as your mind wanders, some tension may come into your breathing again. Take plenty of time to notice your patterns and practice letting them go, again and again. And as you get more used to lying down without any effort in your body, see if you include in your awareness the feeling of being held by the earth. Acknowledge gravity as the force that lets you experience your body resting close to the earth. Finally, see if you can feel this planetary force as deeply personal, even loving. Can you acknowledge this feeling of connection to the earth as a way of knowing you are wanted here… You may end this practice whenever it feels right to you, perhaps staying curious about what it is that helps you notice you are being held.

This month:


With love,
Jo & Corina

Jocelyn (Jo) Mosser & Corina Dross