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Grounded….an Adjective, a Noun, a Verb…Redefining for Real

Illustration of a child standing in mountain pose with hands at the heart

Can getting grounded bring me back to balanced working order, the way nature intended me to be?

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) defines GROUNDED as
mentally and emotionally stable: admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious

grounded [?gra?nd?d]
adj
sensible and down-to-earth; having one’s feet on the ground

I do aim to know where I belong in myself, the earth and in relation to others. I do want to be more mentally and emotionally (as well as physically and spirituality) stable.

I do not aim to be admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious.

Ground \Ground\ (ground), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Grounded; p. pr. & vb. n. Grounding.]

1. To lay, set, or run, on the ground.
2. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.
Being rooted and grounded in love. –Eph. iii. 17.
3. To instruct in elements or first principles.
4. (Elec.) To connect with the ground so as to make the earth a part of an electrical circuit.

I do aim to lay, set or run on the ground. Bare footed on red clay ground in Georgia grounds me.

I do not aim to be fixed firmly into any strand of reason.

I do aim to be rooted and grounded in love and to connect with the ground as part of my electrical circuit.

Here’s one of my actions to ground:

Drawing of a child with spiky red hair, a yellow shirt and red pants in Just Breathe pose, sitting cross-legged with hands resting on the knees and eyes closed.

I tune in.

I align whatever parts of my body are on the Ground. I connect my legs, my nervous system to the earth.

I inspect for any necessary repairs.

I close my eyes, connect with my breath and remember….

We Ground planes in order to protect the flying public, to allow for inspections to occur, to have time to make any necessary repairs and to maintain the planes in safe, working order. We can do the same with our bodies.

Like any receiver I need to plug it in before I can receive the various frequencies. Grounding is the process of plugging ourselves into the earth and the world.

Ground is home. It’s familiar, safe, and secure. It has a power of its own. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ says, “There’s no place like home.”

Drawing of a child with spiky red hair, a yellow shirt and red shorts in Get Up Pose, squatting on the toes with knees wide and fingertips on the floor.

So I click my heels in  Get Up Pose ( from Kundalini’s Frog Pose) and keep them together and lifted while I practice 26, 54, or 108 of these until I feel ready to follow my own yellow brick road.

How do YOU Ground?

More to Explore

  • Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Built a Published Cancer Study on the Grounded Kids Curriculum

    A peer-reviewed study in Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics tested whether yoga is feasible for children and adolescents undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) — one of the most intensive treatments in pediatric cancer care. The research team came from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, and Emory University. The…

  • A Grounded Guide for Kids: Inspired by the Wisdom of The Little Prince

    Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: “What does his voice sound like?” “What games does he like best?” “Does he collect butterflies?” They ask: “How old is he?” “How many brothers does he have?” “How much does he weigh?” “How much does his father make?” Only then do they think they know him. If you tell grown-ups, “I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves on the roof…” They won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them “I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.” Then they exclaim, “What a pretty house!”…That’s the way they are. You must not hold it against them. Children should be very understanding of grown-ups.
    — The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
    So Children, how do you master the art of Grown-up relationships one conversation at a time?

  • The Okey Dokey Yogi

    inspired by Dr. Seuss’s Sutra: the Zax and Patanjali’s Sutra: yatha abhimata dhyanadva (Chapter 1, v. 39)
    One day, making Okeys
    In the mountain of Dokey,
    Posed a West-Going Yogi
    And an East-Going Yogi.
    {See, an Okey is approval,
    An endorsement as such.
    Each yogi seeked okeys
    So very much.}
    And it happened that both of them posed in a place
    Where they bumped. There they stood.
    Foot to foot. Face to face.
    “Look here, now!” the West-Going Yogi said. “I say!
    You are blocking my mind. You are right in my way.
    I’m a West-Going Yogi and I always think west.
    Get out of my way, now, and let me do best!”
    “Who’s in whose way?” snapped the East-Going Yogi.
    “I always think east, making east-going okeys.
    So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to move.
    And let me go east in my east-going groove.
    Then the West-Going Yogi puffed his chest up with pride.
    “I never,” he said, “take a step to one side,
    And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways
    If I have to keep posing here thirty-nine days!”
    “And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the West-Going Yogi,
    “That I can pose here in the mountain of Dokey
    for thirty-nine years! For I live by a mantra
    that I learned way back in West-Going Tantra.
    “Still the mind! That’s my mantra. Still the mind is the best!
    I’ll pose here, quite still! I can and I will
    If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still.
    Hey… said East-Going Yogi
    I learned that as well.
    Let’s check yoga sutras
    Won’t that be swell?
    Chapter1, verse 39
    to be quite exact.
    Focus on things that
    you won’t find distract.
    There are numbers of ways
    For the mind to become still.
    Focus on what you please
    To Fulfill!
    It is the process of focus
    Which makes us a yogi
    Not the specific practice
    You see, Okey-Dokey?
    Patanjali says to practice
    Right from the heart
    Allow this to deepen,
    For that is the art.
    Fix the mind!
    Any object you choose,
    As a focusing prop to
    Fully fix and bemuse.
    Get absorbed in your focus,
    Without distraction.
    You can attain stillness
    And sweet satisfaction.

  • Grounded Defined

    Through our programs, we endeavor to “ground” kids, teens, and adults via yoga, laughter, and elevation. But what exactly does it mean to be grounded? By formal definition courtesy of the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary….
    grounded [ˈgraʊndɪd]
    adj
    sensible and down-to-earth; having one’s feet on the ground: mentally and emotionally stable : admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious <remains grounded despite all the praise and attention>