The docking station
A simple metaphor for recharging your system, plus a 5-minute audio grounding practice
Have you ever had a small child reverse-park into your lap, then go completely quiet, snuggle back, push herself as far in as she can, then settle, and you can feel gravity pull her bones down towards the earth?
This is what I call “docking the system”.
Can you imagine that child as an electric tool that’s run out of charge and needs to be plugged back into its docking station? She just docked her system, and you are the current that’s recharging her!
Humans are basically batteries, rechargeable ones, spending our days discharging. Remember the Energizer Bunny, those TV ads from 1989? We can only run for so long before we need to recharge, dock the nervous system, and come back to centre, so we can stay clear, engaged, able to make decisions, and essentially be powerful versions of our human selves
When I’m dislodged, intuition goes quiet, decisions feel hard, mind loops, ruminating and worrying, patience thins, and I’m simply not that great to be around.
We all have different styles of docking stations, different ways we ground and recharge. You might know the word grounding already, that sense of connecting to the earth so you don’t float away, so you can feel where you start and where you end. Recharging can look like food, rest, connection, exercise, nature, just to name a few.
Docking is the next layer. It’s grounding, but it’s also power returning to the system. It’s refuelling. It’s plugging into the source, into steadiness. It’s about staying centred in the now, physically, energetically, mentally, and spiritually. It creates a deep sense of stability.
We’re living in very unstable times, everywhere I turn, the conversation is focused on war, the cost of living or the collapse of spiritual idols in the face of horrors that are inhumane and shatter our trust. Now more than ever, we need to take care of our energy; we need to reach for the tools and find ways back into the body, into what is real.
We need to find our personal docking stations.
Meditation is one of my primary docking stations, especially when it’s paired with a few things that help the nervous system feel cosy and safe: soft light, soft surfaces, ambient music, and tea.
I’ve shared at the top of the post a grounding practice I learned from Sally Kempton; it was within this practice that the image became clear: being plugged into a docking station.
Join me, it will only take 5 min, you can do it anywhere, just take a seat.
Loving,
Tahl