Prelude to The Ice Cream Cone Energy Egg

Deena Zalkind Spear

www.singingwoods.org 

Some people have made a habit of living in their heads with their energy focused mainly on thinking because that feels safer. This can be a reaction to trauma. It can also result from years of academic training, which often seems to value mental accomplishment rather than wholeness. In addition, a healthy digestive system and a proper diet with enough protein figure into how your energy is distributed in your body. If you feel spacey, you are not grounded in your physical form or your emotional heart. 

For physical and emotional health, it is important to have your energy engaged from head to toe, and you will need to be in your body in order to successfully activate The Ice Cream Cone Energy Egg. This exercise is designed to help you do that. If you aren�t sure what you are doing with your energy, or where it is, it won�t hurt you to do this exercise�unless you manage to impale your foot on a splinter in the floor.

I want to acknowledge the input of Carol McAmis, professor of voice and Feldenkrais Practitioner, for her suggestions which led to this exercise.

Begin by removing your shoes. Then, stand with both feet on the floor in a comfortable position. If you are unable to stand, this can still be effective in a sitting position with your feet flat on the floor. Remember to relax�this exercise is much easier than removing shrink wrap from a new CD. Please don�t hold your breath; it wastes carbon dioxide essential for the survival of the earth�s plants. Limit your episodes of oxygen deprivation to when you really need to be faint.

With your right foot, very, very slowly pick up the heel and rock forward onto the ball of your foot. While it�s not necessary to time this, it should be done so slowly that it takes a minimum of ten seconds to move onto the ball of your foot. As you rock your right foot forward, feel how the floor feels to your foot, and how your ankle, knee, and hip feel as you slowly move your foot. Then, just as slowly, rock your right foot back to the original position flat on the floor. Again, feel how the floor feels to your foot and how your ankle, knee, and hip feel to you during the process.

To continue, very, very slowly rock your right foot back on the heel, lifting the ball of your foot off the floor. As before, feel the floor with your foot and feel how everything feels to the rest of your leg. Then, very, very slowly rock your foot back to flat, feeling how the floor feels to various parts of your foot, and how the rest of your leg feels as you return your foot to the flat position.

Next, very, very slowly rock your right foot onto the outside edge, allowing the inside edge to lift off the floor. Focus on how your leg feels as you do this, and how the floor feels to your foot. Then rock back to flat, again feeling each small movement in your foot and throughout your leg.

Then, very, very slowly rock your right foot inward, allowing the outside edge to lift off the floor. Again, pay attention to the feeling in your foot and leg. Finally, rock your foot slowly back to flat on the floor.

Now, with your left foot, do exactly the same thing, only with your energy foot and leg, instead of the physical one. (Trust me, you have an energy foot and leg�it�s a prerequisite to having a physical one.) For those of you who have no clue what your energy foot or leg is, do it anyway, not from imagining in your head, but by feeling that you have an energy foot and leg. Follow the same protocol with your energy foot and leave your physical foot still: Rock your energy foot very, very slowly forward to the ball of your foot, and back to flat, then slowly rock your energy foot onto the heel of the foot and back to flat, then slowly rock your energy foot to the outside edge of the foot and back to flat, and finally rock your energy foot to the inside and back to flat. As you do this, feel how your energy foot, ankle, knee, and hip feel in whatever capacity you can.  No matter how subtle, assume you are feeling it. 

Now feel both legs and compare. Most people are surprised to find their left leg (the one that remained physically still, but energetically active) actually feels more alive than their right leg. (If you don�t feel this, and are absolutely convinced you did nothing and are a complete psychic brick, you can do the exercise on your left side physically.)

The actual order of the rocking is not critical, although if you can remember to do it in the above order, there may be added benefit to the nervous system. The point of the Prelude process is to get you in your body and in your feeling self. Once this exercise is complete, you are ready to do The Ice Cream Cone Energy Egg activation procedure, keeping this same feeling perspective and with the main focus on feeling your feet. If you are visual, put your eyes in your feet and look down from there during the egg activation. 

Once you have activated The Ice Cream Cone Energy Egg, it is useful to repeat the steps, as needed, for making The Egg in order to keep it fully filled. It also gives you a deep grounding with an energy connection to the center of the earth. If you are already in your body, you don�t need to repeat this Prelude to �top off� your Egg. However, if you become spacey or frightened, or you are over-thinking, you may wish to do the Prelude exercise to help you settle back into your body before following the directions for making The Ice Cream Cone Energy Egg.