Another client I was working with recently asked me for a ’10-second reset’.

‘Something strange happens at online meetings,’ he said. ‘I get incredibly restless in my chair. I feel trapped and I want to escape. My concentration wanders all over the place. It’s almost an out-of-body experience. It’s like I’m not quite there. I wish I could just click my fingers and be calm and present.’

Social Animal

I reassured him his response was natural. ‘You’re in what feels like a social situation,’ I said, ‘but where are the other humans? Your brain is searching for connection, but it’s just hitting a glass screen. It’s one of the reasons online meetings can be exhausting and frustrating.‘

I couldn’t offer my client a magic finger-click, but I did have a tip that was almost as simple:

• Take off your shoes.
• Place both your feet flat on the floor, hip width apart (so hips, knees and ankles are aligned).
• Press the soles of your feet lightly into the floor for a few seconds.
• Maintain contact between the whole of both feet and the floor.

Finding Your Roots

Being rooted in your feet (to borrow a term from Tai Chi) has several positive effects on the body and brain. It stabilises the posture, bringing shoulders, hips and ankles into alignment. It assists in good breathing and a centred voice (singers and actors are trained to stand strong and ‘take their voice from the Earth’). It creates a feeling of confidence and presence (the ‘thereness’ my client was looking for).

Fidgety Phil

A couple of weeks later, my client thanked me for the tip. ‘I realised I do all sorts of odd things with my feet when I’m sitting down,’ he said. ‘I have one foot on the floor and the other on the casters, or I tuck them under the chair and bend my toes back.’

‘You’re putting tension into the body, and that’s where that uncomfortable, fidgety feeling is coming from,’ I said.

Next time you feel the same, be a tree! Root yourself downward to the Earth (and using my first tip in this series, grow upwards to the sky.) Almost instantly, you will feel more relaxed and more present.