My cat, Lakshmi, has developed a strange behavior. She’s claimed a spot in front of the house, kind of in the sun. There’s mulch, but raw earth is touchable directly underneath it. She lays there and sleeps very deeply — very, very deeply. We can walk right up to her and she doesn’t wake up. I can scoop her up in my arms and she is so deeply in another state of consciousness that she doesn’t object.
It’s fall in Northern California and soon, if we are lucky, the rains will come – big buckets of rain, months of soggy ground. Today I head out to the beach intending to walk and then, as usual, found myself just laying on the earth for a long while, a long, long while, in a deep and dreamy altered state. When I woke and began walking, on this slightly chilly day when beach days are almost over, there were few people at the beach. Just a few, but many among them were just laying on the beach – like female elephant seals waiting to give birth. No books, no radio. Bodies drawing on the energy of the earth to tap into a mysterious and nourishing deep rest.
The value of the connection to the earth is reflected in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, a classic source text of yoga. Patanjali speaks to us about the nature of mind. He speaks to us about the breath. He speaks to us, briefly, about the yoga postures or asanas. The asanas, he states, should be stable and joyful. (shtira and suhka). Asana translates as seat, and we find in texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP), that the key asanas are seats. The postures are ways to sit on the earth. Connecting to the earth, resonating with the earth is key to a good yoga posture. That connection is the foundation on which every posture is built. In the understanding of contemporary environmental scientists – planet earth has an abundance of electrons and direct connection to the earth and this well of electrons nourish and heals us. In our lives, disconnected from the natural world, we are frequently depleted.[i] (The article is here – Earthing.) The HYP offers that this resonance is key to the healing of the disease in the body with yoga. The ancient yogis who developed this practice were clearly on a path of great discovery and understanding, just as we are. We don’t have to take anyone’s word for this. Yoga is our personal experiment and we can access the same experiences they had when we follow the maps they left behind.
When planning our practice, this idea can be useful. Of course we practice wherever we can, but practicing on natural surfaces (like wood or sand or earth) taps into the flow of these electrons. This in turn supports the flow of energy in our own bodies . Clear flowing prana changes the resonance of the body. Similarly, wearing and practicing with other natural materials will also facilitate this energetic flow. These are simple things to experiment with in our practices and the potential gain is significant.
[i] Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth’s surface electrons. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:291541. doi: 10.1155/2012/291541. Epub 2012 Jan 12. PMID: 22291721; PMCID: PMC3265077.
Natalie Ullmann 