February 9th, 2009 | by Riki Quinn

This week in Israel there is a celebration of the traditional festival of the trees: or the New Year of trees. Traveling in Israel you will see multiple trees covered in white fluff. No, it’s not snow, it’s the thousands of white blossoms of the almond tree, this is the first tree to begin to bloom.

In many cultures, human characteristics are attributed to trees, and lessons are learned from them. In Jewish culture there is a saying in scriptures: “for man is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20, 19). This is quoted as the reason for the commandment that when one conquers a city they must not kill the trees. Trees seem to have some kind of spiritual affect on many, from the most cynical among us, to the tree hugger.

When I was a kid I was told a story about a young sapling that was jealous of all the tall trees in the forest. He decided he wanted to become as tall as they. So, he grew and grew and was soon nearly as tall as the tallest tree in the forest. One day there was a terrible storm, the winds blew a gale, and the young sapling came tumbling down. He was only focused on growing upwards and neglected to grow his roots to match.  The moral of the story is: if you don’t have roots, you won’t survive.

Roots do not refer only to having an attachment to the past, to family and culture; it also refers to having a connection to the earth, staying down to earth. I tell my students in martial arts to “root” when attempting to keep their balance. Basically, I tell them to picture themselves as trees with roots coming out of there feet, connecting to the center of the earth. Picturing this image can help more than physical balance; it can help with emotional and mental balance as well.

When we get caught up in our work, or our future, we can sometimes lose our connection to the real world. How many of us have had the experience of making lofty plans only to come tumbling down with the first blow of reality? I’m not telling you not to dream. We must dream to live; otherwise there isn’t really anything to push us forward. But we must first strengthen our roots before we grow branches and leaves. We have to have some kind of stronghold from which to grow, whether it’s family members, cultural tradition, religious or philosophical beliefs. If we don’t have these, we continually get knocked down by life, by its demands and stressful living.

So, how do we get back down to earth? With this simple meditative exercise: The next time you feel stressed out about the present or the future. Take a few minutes, let’s say, before you go to sleep, when you wake up in the morning or on your lunch break. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and then exhale. Imagine that every breath you take fills your whole body with a cleansing light and every exhalation takes all your worries and bad thoughts out and down through your feet to the center of the earth where it gets dispersed.

The next breath you take, imagine that it is coming from the core of the earth, that it’s full of warmth and strength. Let it fill you up, from the center of the bridge of your feet, up your shins and thighs and stomach and spinal cord, up your head and out. Don’t worry if you can’t do this in one breath. You can take a breath, imagine the warmth or light coming up till your thighs or stomach, then take another breath. Take as many as you need. The last thing you need is to become stressed about your breathing.

This exercise will help you both relax, by getting rid of stressful thoughts, and will give you rejuvenating strength by taking it from the core. And remember, none of this can be done without roots. We should always try to not only grow upwards but deepen our roots as well.

Image source: Aaron Escobar™

Tags: balance, deep breath, mental balance, physical balance, roots, spiritual, stress

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