Three Ways To Get Grounded In This Hectic World
It's SO easy to become ungrounded these days.
With internet signals buzzing everywhere, status points for being the busiest and one million choices and options for everything from how you like your coffee to what you'll do this weekend.
It's easy to get lost in the noise and the racing of our minds and all the thoughts and should's and possibilities. It's easy to become unseated in ourselves, racing through life, racing through love. Feeling flighty and headachy and anxious and angsty. At least that's how I feel when I'm ungrounded, untethered.
But feeling grounded feels SOOOO good. SO relieving. SO deeply rootsy and human.
When I'm grounded, I'm seated in myself and empowered. I'm sure about myself and listening inward. I'm calm and kind and confident.
I've had people lately ask me how I get grounded so I wanted to share some specific examples that you might take into your own life.
I invite you to pick one from the list below or see what practices these ideas trigger within you so you too can get and stay grounded this week.
1. My biggest focus lately has been paying attention to the sensations in my body. My relationship with my body has been surprisingly hard considering it's the home I've been given, the case I'm lodged in, the airbnb of my soul. My body has shown up for me in crazy strong ways throughout the years but I've also felt abandoned by it at times. Lately, I want to honor it all the way so I'll pause, feel where there is the most tension in my body and just hover my attention there for as long as I can, maybe 3 minutes or so. I'll then move on to another part of my body that's calling my attention and just simply hover my awareness there. I'm not doing this to get somewhere or something but it's deeeeeeply relaxing and connecting and grounding to hone in and be with where I'm really at.
What sensations might LOVE your attention this week? How might paying attention to yourself in this way help you feel grounded?
2. Allowing the earth to hold me. I recently felt a lot of energy swirling around in myself. I was needing to release but wasn't sure how within the confines of momming and wifeing and coaching and gardening and everything else. So, I took myself to the beach, found a spot that was calling my name, lay face down on mother earth and let her hold me. It didn't really matter that it was the beach, this practice can be done anywhere. I just surrendered and let the great mother of all hold all of me. I was needing to be held and I found a way.
The earth is where we come from, the greatest mother of all. Let her pulsing, ever changing, all knowing, all giving warmth hold you someday. Just feel her beneath you.
3. Structure. For me, structure brings freedom. When I can feel myself within the structure of a day or a week with a plan in place I feel a million times more grounded. When I see endless time and space and ideas and energy in front of me, I feel SUPER ungrounded. I like to create a container to flow in. A container of regularity. Within this space includes time with my little one (a lot of it!), time with myself, regular meals, work, being in nature, exercise, etc.
Where can you create a container for yourself so you're not just floating free through your days and weeks? When we feel held, we feel more connected to the ground beneath us.
Take off your shoes when you're outside, pick wildflowers, eat food from your back yard or a back yard nearby. Dig in the soil and study it. Plant something. Do anything to literally be in touch with the ground.
Notice the feelings that happen inside of you when you feel ungrounded. Are you angry and hungry? Are you flighty and inconsistent? When you shine attention on what's not working, you'll know when you need to make a shift. Play with ways of bringing yourself back into connection with the ground.
It is where we come from, it is where we're going.