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:

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. Life Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ says, “There’s no place like home.”

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

How do YOU Ground?

More to Explore

  • Sweeping Breath- Dr. Seuss Style (Siva Sutra 1.2 jnānam bandhaḥ)

    sweep-the-spineBondage and ignorance and limitation!
    Oh my!
    We contract like a sneeze~
    You want to know why?
    These are the roots of our issues,
    You see~
    Unworthiness, insecurity, feeling un-free.

    These deep darkened roots,
    known as Anava Mala,
    cloak our awareness
    like pollen all upon ‘ya.

    This pollen of unworthiness
    Helps us forget~
    How miraculous we are~
    We recoil ~we regret.

    We regret and we doubt.
    We feel separate and small.
    Our pimples and frizzes
    Keep us enthralled.

    How, do we, how do we
    How DO we re-remember?
    Our goodness, our freedom
    From here to September?

    Good question, my dear!
    So at your request~
    I’ll teach you the tools
    To elevate your quest!

    Your breath is the broom
    that sweeps away pollen,
    Shines light on the ignorance
    Which is hidden and smallen.

    Sit tall, close your eyes,
    Tune into your spine.
    Inhale your breath
    Down the left side line

    Sweep your breath out~
    On the same side,
    From bottom to top~
    Deep inside.

    Sweep your breath in,
    Down the right side this time.
    Get real close and real low~
    To release dust and grime.

    Sweep your breath out~
    From bottom to top.
    Keep sweeping your spine~
    No reason to stop!

    No reason to stop~
    Till you feel lighter and free!
    Relieved of unworthy
    Pollen and debris.

    The pollen of ignorance~
    And debris of limitation~
    Can be swept to the surface
    For expansive illumination.

    Each time we remember,
    We grow and expand~
    We become more real!
    And that is quite grand!.

  • Inspired by the Velveteen Rabbit…How Teachers Become Real.

    horse

    The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

    “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

    “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

    “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

    “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

    “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

    “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

    “I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

    But the Skin Horse only smiled

    –  From the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams  –

  • Inspiration

    GROUNDED. (ADJ.)

    IMG_07761. HAVING A SECURE FEELING OF BEING IN TOUCH WITH REALITY AND YOUR PERSONAL FEELINGS.

    2. A FIRM FOUNDATION TO BE INSPIRED AND INSPIRE OTHERS.

    Two weeks ago my Grounded class wrote letters of congratulations to Emily, who had just earned her White Bandana. She’s nine years old and lives in Atlanta. The kids in my class were amazed that at just nine she had achieved this. They were inspired. The letters they wrote were thoughtful, complementary and from the heart.