Two Core Practices to Begin Living from Your Inner Current
An insert from Shantree’s forthcoming book: Elemental Wisdom: Living on Life-Force
Shantree Kacera, RH, DN, Ph.D.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Much like the thin wings of a dragonfly catching sudden flashes of colour when the sun hits them just right, these two core practices are simply ways to help you settle into a steadier place inside yourself. Elemental Wisdom is nothing fancy. It is listening. Listening to the life-force as it rises and fades, showing you where you truly are. Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Ether. These have never felt like ideas to me. They have always been part of the body’s own language. For decades, I have listened through skin, breath and nerves. The body speaks long before the mind understands.
I sit here in the darkness early in the morning before the first bird chirps. There are ancient trees less than 10 meters away from me. The river keeps moving beside me, and the moist air hangs on my skin. This place won’t let me drift too far from myself. It pulls me back into what’s real. My feet sink into the earth, and my breath drops lower. The jungle strips everything down. It shows me what’s alive in me and what has gone numb. Warmth stirs in the gut. A steadiness rises that I can trust.
And this is what this whole essay circles around: how we find our way back to the body, to our own inner current, to the quiet power that gets buried under habit and hurry. How the land we live on shapes our rhythms. How presence becomes a practice instead of a performance. How we remember something simple and honest that’s been there all along.
Living here keeps teaching me the same thing again and again. My strength comes back when I follow the rhythm of this place. When I pay attention to the heat of the day, the cool mornings, and the rumble of the river after rain. The world around me keeps shaping how I move, feel breathe. The ground, the shifting light, the season, the birds cracking open the dawn. When I stay with it, something inside moves again. Clear. Unforced. True.
First Practice
Returning to the Body
This is the practice I come back to every morning. It meets me before thought has time to scatter me. It is simple and looks like almost nothing, yet it brings me back to myself every time. I place a hand on my belly or lower ribs and let the breath move there. I do not force it. I simply feel it. Each exhale drops me a little deeper into the Earth that holds me. This soft return settles my nervous system and clears the noise before the day begins.
From this grounded place, the body starts to open on its own. Water wakes, and the shoulders loosen. The spine finds a small wave. The breath widens without effort. Clarity rises naturally. Air begins to move. Earth steadies me. Space opens inside and around me. Everything reorganizes through listening.
I have recommended this practice to so many people. A few minutes each day. Over time, they soften, brighten and return to themselves. This is the quiet doorway to elemental living. A beginning. A reset. A remembering.
Second Practice
Earth Rooting Through Movement
This second practice is different. It is more active and brings the elements through the legs, feet and spine. Where the first practice is stillness, this one is engagement. You stand or sit with your feet on the ground, and you let gravity speak. Feel the weight drop into your heels, and the arches soften. Let the legs receive the Earth instead of holding themselves tight.
Place your hand on your belly or ribs only to stay connected, and then allow the body to shift. Small bends in the knees. A gentle rocking forward and back. The hips are loosening. The spine is tall but relaxed. These wave-like-swaying movements wake up a deeper kind of grounding. They bring the whole body into the present. The breath widens as you move. Energy begins to circulate. The feet grow heavier and more alive at the same time.
Stay with these small movements for a few minutes. Let the body choose the rhythm. Inhale widely. Exhale drop. Let the movements be real. Imperfect. Honest. Notice what changes. Heavier feet. Softer jaw. A clearer mind. This practice brings the elements through action instead of stillness. It builds steadiness and embodied presence that you can carry into the rest of the day.
Your Invitation
As this season comes to a close and a new year approaches, I feel the cycle calling for renewal and alignment. This is why Lorenna and I created the 8-Week Immersion into Elemental Living, Eco-Somatic Intelligence, and Regenerative Vitality beginning in early January. It is a living, embodied laboratory for exploring the principles of elemental alignment together. In this space, you will practice listening to your body, moving with the intelligence of the elements, and cultivating the subtle, regenerative energy that is always available when you attend to it.
The immersion is designed as a pathway from this single practice of grounding and breath alignment into a broader, integrated way of living. You will learn to weave Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Space into daily life, to cultivate eco-somatic intelligence, and to enter the new cycle with clarity, coherence, and renewed vitality. It is an invitation to step into a rhythm of life that regenerates rather than depletes, to return to the intelligence that has always been within you, and to begin the year aligned with life-force as a living reality.
I invite you to join us. To return to yourself. To experience the subtle yet profound effects of elemental living in the company of others who are walking the same path. The journey is about remembering, reclaiming, and living from the vitality that has always been yours. From a single morning breath to a full immersion in life-force, the path is open. All that is required is willingness, attention, and the courage to notice.
Start here. Breathe. Ground. Listen. And allow the elements to guide the way. The rest of the journey will unfold naturally, and the invitation to explore it with Lorenna and me stands ready for anyone who wishes to step into alignment with their own life-force in the new year.
