You must be grounded in breath and thought at all times.
That means being in control of your breath and your thoughts at all times.
The first thing to do each morning is gain control over breath and thought. While sleeping, we are relinquishing control to the automatic; when we wake, we take this responsibility back.
Control of your thoughts means you have sharpened your mind to be a tool for you, one that thinks about thoughts it needs, one that summons useful ideas as opposed to the violent hailstorm of uncontrolled thoughts.
Control of your breath means you are breathing manually, and deeply, with spaces in between each breath where you are not breathing, like how a dolphin or a whale respirates.
This is possible for all individuals who pursue mastery. Discipline is universal across the infinite paths to mastery individuals volunteer to pursue.
A tenet of the Andreia Philosophy under the spirit domain is whenever you observe you are ungrounded, you must ground that instant.
Signs of being ungrounded
Racing thoughts
- Too many thoughts per unit of time
- Too many useless and unintended thoughts
- Too many unchained thoughts
Excess movements
- Cannot keep still(fidgeting)
- Cannot hold a still hand
- Restlessness of the body which demonstrates a lack of focus across body, Mind, and Spirit(BMS)
Automatic Breathing
- Shallow breathing
- Unconscious breathing
- Rapid breathing
If any of these macro signs of being ungrounded apply to you, you need to ground yourself immediately. The path to do it is via going against the trend of each of these macro/micro indicators.
You may find other methods to ground yourself; the methods you use should be what is most effective for you, which may not be on this list.
Ungrounded Fixes
Racing thoughts
Replace thoughts with emptiness, or a focus point like a mantra. Or, pivot to the body domain as training the body focuses the mind and invigorates the spirit.
Excess movements
A fidget is your body getting out excess energy. When you fidget your body is begging you to move. Move the body to get out excess energy.
You can stop excessive, involuntary movements before they appear by diligently pursuing mastery in the body domain. Some type of work in the body domain should occur during the morning primer.
Even in an advanced society, mastery of the body must be pursued with equal velocity of pursuits in mind and spirit; the body must be trained daily.
Automatic breathing
Shallow breathing → Deep breathing
Rapid breathing→ Slow breathing
Unconscious Breathing → Manual Breathing
Fix uncontrolled breathing by controlling it.
The Philosophy of Being GROUNDED
Being grounded requires controlling the self AKA SELF-CONTROL, or giving attention to the domain that is begging for it. So when you are fidgety, your body domain is begging you for movement; so move it.
As society advances, problems of labor and effort are resolved with technology which makes us less dependent on bodily effort–so we must pursue our own fulfillment in the body domain.
Farming was done by hand, then by animal, then by basic engines, and now by advanced technology.
We must never forget where we come from.
What methods do you use to ground your mind and breath?
Try these out: