Flat?

March 9th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 1

A recent article in The New York Times (NYT), “Are You a ‘Floor Person’? Why Lying on the Ground Feels So Good,” by Christina Caron, extolled the virtues of lying flat on the ground.

Now, to be sure, there isn’t much research that touts the benefits of reposing prostrate on the ground, but psychologists quoted for the article said spending time on the floor is unlikely to hurt.

(That may be true for them. For me, it hurts! But that’s beside the point.)

Apparently such prostration can help us feel grounded.

Ellen Hendriksen, a clinical psychologist in Boston:

When you lie flat on your back, your posture is open and relaxed, which may have a calming effect. Your body and mood want to align. This is why it’s difficult to feel hopeful and optimistic if you’re slumped in your chair, head hanging down. Or why our shoulders shoot up or our jaws clench when we’re anxious.”

Likewise Alan Fogel, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Utah:

In our Western culture, we don’t have a lot of spaces for restoration. There’s no timeouts. There’s no recess. You may assume that a comfortable mattress would be more conducive to relaxation. But typically what happens, especially in familiar places like our bed, is our mind keeps working. We think about what happened during the day. We think about what we could have done or should have done. When lying on a harder surface like the floor, however, you may become more attuned to what your body is feeling and less focused on your thoughts.”

I have to agree!

To get comfortable, Fogel continued, it becomes necessary to sink into the floor and soften your muscles. The focus on letting go makes it easier to help the body and mind decompress—to “just be.”

According to the NYT article, people have been gravitating to the ground for centuries, doing yoga, engaging in Zen meditation, sitting on the floor for a tea ceremony. Even the idea of radiant floor heating system in Korean homes, which makes the ground even more enticing for sleeping, studying or eating, supports the notion.

To her credit, Caron admits that not everyone will find relief on the floor. Some may have physical challenges, for instance, that make it uncomfortable or painful to lower themselves to the ground.

For me it, at my age, it is getting back up from the floor that is the problem!

But I don’t have to worry:

By Yahweh one’s steps are established,
and in His path he delights.
Though he fall, he will not be thrown down,
for Yahweh supports his hand.
Psalm 27:23–24

Yahweh [is] the One sustaining all those who are fallen,
and the One raising up all those who have been bowed down. …
Yahweh [is] righteous in all His ways,
and [showing] lovingkindness in all His works.
Yahweh [is] near to all those who are crying to Him,
to all who cry to Him in truth.
Psalm 145:14, 17–18

Some in chariots and some in horses,
but we—in the name of Yahweh, our God, we depend.
They—they bow down and they fall,
but we—we rise and we stand firm.
Psalm 20:7–8

Yup, it will be the anti-God foes that fall and remain fallen.

May their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of the Yahweh pursuing them.
For without cause they hid the hole of their net for me ….
May the net which he hid capture him;
into that devastation—may he fall into it.
Psalm 35:6–8

SOURCE: The New York Times