A friend once asked me to write something about what it means to be “grounded”. Here’s what I got when I Googled the question “What does it mean to be grounded”?
Being grounded means being fully conscious and fully present in the NOW moment.....being very, very aware of what is happening to us in the present. When we are conscious and aware of our SELF and grounded in the NOW we are able to ground the love and light from our higher self. This means that no matter what is going on, we stay balanced, centered and aligned with our soul and higher self and we are able to control our reactive, knee jerk, defensive behavioral patterns of our ego and shadow consciousness. Being grounded is a very, very difficult task because we have an ego centered mind that likes to take us into the future of “What If’s” and into the past of should of, could of, would of....... regrets, blame and victim consciousness. When our consciousness is fully in the present moment we are very, very aware of everything happening within and around our being NOW, even the core sensations in the body.
This is a very good answer but let me add a few of my own thoughts to it. In addition to what is written above, I feel grounded when my mind, body, and spirit are in balance and in harmony with one another. My mind is my biggest challenge because I often suffer what the Buddhists call “monkey mind”. Monkey mind is when you have a thousand conversations going on in your head and the chatter is similar to the noise generated by a tree full of monkeys. My aging body is also a challenge because it has a lot of mileage on it and it is not always cooperative. Finally, my spirit is restless at this time of my life. One of the challenges of aging is that ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and childhood faith may not work for you like they once did. Of course, every age has its own challenges. When I can calm my mind, when my body is cooperative, and when my restlessness finds some comfort in the eternal NOW, I feel grounded. I think being grounded also means knowing who you are, what you value in terms of beliefs and morality, and feeling strong in your convictions. In some ways being grounded means having integrity and a moral compass. People of integrity are always grounded people. Ungrounded people go whatever way the wind blows and they have few convictions.