I have been thinking about some of the lessons of Pompeii lately. About what can disappear in an instant and what might persist long after we’re gone. About the legacies we leave as individuals, as communities, as cultures. Sometimes these questions feel abstract and sometimes very close to home.

When I’m feeling out of synch with the time, the weather, and my schedule, or if I’m repeatedly waking up depleted, scattered, foggy, or overwhelmed, I know it’s time to do some grounding. Connecting the root chakra to the Earth provides a deep sense of stability and support while aligning the body to seasonal rhythms. Now is an especially apt time before all the year-end festivities, pressures, and triggers start to accumulate.

Whether it’s weather or something else that’s triggering your stress response — the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn state — it’s important to know how to turn off the cascade of stress hormones and recover your calm. Even when we’re not actually under threat our bodies can react as though they are, and our health and well-being suffers.

If you've been feeling frazzled, anxious, unsettled, scattered, panicky, or disoriented, your nervous system might be short-circuiting. It's time to kick off your shoes and socks, sink into a soft spot of grass, and get grounded.

As an energy healer I can see how so many physical problems originate from imbalances and distortions in our first (root) chakra -- what ought to be a vital energetic connection to the earth and one another. I can see now how my "stance," my orientation towards the world as a child, was exacerbating my pain and impeding my healing.