Last night I stayed after class and worked with a student who is focusing on developing root. I started the mini lesson with visualization.

“Think of a 30ft pole,” I began. “If you bury 3 feet of the pole into the ground, it might stay standing, but it’ll be pretty easy to push over. Now think of burying 27ft of the pole and only having three feet stick out of the ground, think you’d be able to push the pole over now?”

“Now, continue to think of the 27ft that is in the ground and expand the pole’s diameter to say 10 times its original width. How solid do you think that would be?”

“The process here is to bury you root not only deep into the ground but to expand it as well. Think of the root system of a tree. Visualize a similar root system expanding out of your feet and into the ground. Watch as the roots bury themselves deeper and deeper while expanding to be come massively thick and solid, weaving deep into the bedrock.”

This is how we energetically create root.

We then tested the success of our root.

The game/drill we used last night was a fun one. Two players stand close together with hands on the other players torso, arm or elbow. One player drops his root and pushes the other. Only when the pushing player has dropped or expanded their root lower than the one being pushed will the push/uprooting be successful.

Now the successful player maintains his root at that level. The other player then must continue the game by lowering/expanding his root to the point where he can be successful in uprooting the other player. And so on.

This game/drill teaches us about the physical manifestations of rooting practice but it also very clearly shows us that there is a very prominent energetic/mindful aspect to rooting as well.

Cheers

Rod