Take a Moment to Ground
There's a real too-muchness to life right now. I’m finding it’s been easy to slip into living only in my head or in the headlines and social media. I am incredibly guilty, especially in recent weeks, of using far more of my precious time and energy scrolling, thoughts spinning, body tight, and on high alert. I have not felt grounded.
Grounding is the thing that pulls us back. It’s the practice of remembering that the earth holds us, that gravity is an ally, and that we don’t have to carry it all alone.
In somatic movement, grounding starts with sensation: the weight of your feet on the floor, the emotion or image present in a moment, the length of your exhale, the tension that continues to hold. When you're present in your system, muscles no longer need to grip, and the mind begins to soften. For me, this has been the fastest way back to presence - out of the loop of “do-do-do” and into a sense of simply being.
As I was preparing to write this blog, I felt inauthentic. I expressed to my business partner that I’m having a hard time finding grounding in my own body these days. And she said something that struck me: she said that grounding makes her feel resourced by something greater than herself, like she belongs.
Since that conversation, I started getting a much deeper understanding of my frequent sense of not-enoughness. We’re taught that our value come from our independence, from achievement, from how hard we can push. Yet, so many of us on that track feel disconnected and overwhelmed.
Now add the increased temperature of political violence, militaristic policing, and blatant corruption.
The hard truth is that our culture and systems pull us away from grounding. They inform us we must compete instead of cooperate, choose work for money instead of passion, alter the earth instead of work with it. This conditioning and system separates us from body, community, and nature, and leave us in a cycle of lack, vigilance, and anxiety.
When we let ourselves lean into connection, whether it’s a friend who reminds us to breathe, a group moving together in a class, or being with nature, we rediscover that we are resourced not just by our own bodies, but by each other and the Earth.
Right now, pause and feel where you are sitting. Let your exhale lengthen slightly. Imagine your body receiving support from both the ground and the unseen web of community around you. Stay here for three breaths. What shifts?
Grounding alone won't erase the present challenges, but it gives us a steady place to meet them in the body, in community, and in a way of being that remembers we are more than what we produce. Grounding reminds us that we are already enough, and that we are not alone.