With so much upheaval and unknown, I’ve found that what’s serving me most these days is literally being in the dirt, grounding. And this need for feeling rooted extends to everyone, including our children. Here are some things we have been doing to help get grounded.

• Go barefoot. When weather and safety allow, let your feet feel the ground. Stand, walk or lay down in the grass, dirt, stone or sand.

• Play in the dirt with your children. We have a large flower pot filled with dirt and we collect rocks to add into the mix. My son is particularly truck obsessed so we do a lot of scooping and dumping with trucks but the sky is really the limit here. We’ve also made letters out of rocks and had toy cars trace the letters like a road. You can make it a tea party. Anything. They love it. And if your little one is at a stage where they don’t want to get dirty, see playing with rocks and stones below.

• Gardening. There are so many activities here. I’ve ditched my gardening gloves to allow for the dirt to really sink in. Yes, I have to scrub my hands after, but hey, we’re doing that anyway!

  • Weeding. Prep your vegetable garden or just take care of the weeds around your property.

  • Replanting. I have some orange lilies that I’ve always loved but never loved the placement of from the previous owners so I dug up the bulbs, dug up a new row for them in the backyard and replanted them. We also found a tiny grape hyacinth growing randomly in our yard. It would definitely be mowed over so we dug up the bulb and planted it in a pot. You never know what you’re going to find. And honestly, a child would love this activity even with a dandelion. If you grow some weeds in a pot, so what?

  • Propagate (regrow) indoor plants! This one is new to me and I am loving it. Did you know you can start a whole new plant from your current ones? It’s worth a google. So far, we’ve regrown a lot of spider plant babies. And I’m about to pick up some propagated jade and pathos plants from a friend. Speaking of…

• Start or join a flower exchange. All this said, I haven’t gone to a store in a month and I’m not going to risk social distancing to go buy flowers. I get it. So, one thing that I have absolutely loved in my community is a free flower exchange. One neighbor set it up a few years ago, and she sets out a table on her sidewalk with a sign “free plants”. She puts some of her own plants out and posts on nextdoor.com and people simply take what they would like and drop off if they can. I don’t have a lot of flowers or flower gardening experience but I do grow a lot of herbs so this week we dropped off sage, and came home with a couple pines and a tall phlox. I also saw a post on a Facebook marketplace group I’m a part of and came home with two huge Forsythia plants. The transportation was a bit difficult but I am so excited to have these planted in our yard. I read that they repel bees so I’ve planted one near our sandbox.

• Carpentry / Build a Raised Bed. Any type of wood working will ground you so in the theme of gardening, building a raised bed is a two-for-one. Did you know that working with wood is grounding?

• DIYs Wood working. I have gotten really into DIYs over the last couple of years so I will post these for you over the next few weeks. I’ve done a mud kitchen, truck garage, nightstand, and I’ve already posted about this DIY learning tower. Let me know what you’d like to see first.

• Carpentry for kids - I am thinking of building some DIY birdhouses out of popsicle sticks. I’m not sure this really counts as wood working but it will be a fun DIY and will get us outside with the final project at least.

• Hiking. Get into the woods. Be safe about social distancing with this one. Many places are closed so I have found that the ones still open can be packed. Go at off peak hours. If you get there, and the parking lot is full or the area just looks packed, take a deep breath and go home and try another time. I know that’s hard with kids and expectations. I get it. But the most important thing is stopping the spread of this virus. Bring a mask for you and your children older than two years in case you do pass within 6 feet of someone. Follow the CDC guidelines, of course.

• Play with rocks and stones. We mostly do this outside but recently I found a jar of decorative stones in my craft bins. My son has been loving these for indoor play. Again, we scoop and dump them with trucks, make roads, and draw out letters and have tea parties, but this can be tailored to your child. Simply observe what your child is interested in and tailor the activity to that interest. Set up a dinosaur scene or use them in a play kitchen. Just like pom poms, stones are super versatile. This said, make sure your child is not at an age where they are still putting things in their mouth, of course. And always supervise.

• Breathing. If you’re schedule is super crazy and you don’t have time for these activities, let your feet touch the floor, close your eyes or set a soft gaze, and take three deep belly breaths. It’s something anyone has time for and does wonders.

• Breathing for kids - Make it visual. Take a tissue, pom pom, or other light objects, lay them flat on your palm or your children’s palm, and see if they can use deep belly breaths to blow the objects. Be the example for them and take nice calming breaths and let them see the peaceful effect.

• Yoga - Some poses that help your root chakra include laying on your back with your knees to your chest, laying on your back, stretching your legs with a strap, and chair pose. (Source: Anodea Judith, The Chakra Balancing Workbook - I highly recommend this book.)

An additional note on Chakras - Through my yoga practice and training, I have learned a great deal about the chakra system. When you feel scattered energy, anxiety, fear, disconnection, the need to ground, or any threat towards survival, a tremendous help to bring you back into balance is working within the first chakra, the root chakra. Located at the base of the spine, it is known as the survival chakra. While we can’t control the corona virus, we can control our response with our actions (staying home, washing our hands, wearing masks) and with our internal response, how we chose to be during this time. A lot of what I wrote above can bring you towards balance here. In addition, you can visualize or wear the color red or chant the sound LAM.

What activities have you done to ground yourself and your children? I’d love to here about them! Comment below or send me a message.

Go ahead, get dirty!

Lots of love. Be well, everyone. I love you.

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