Grounding and Ungrounding

What does grounding oneself, or being grounded, really mean? There are explanations, lists and grounding tools everywhere; yet nothing captures the meaning as well as your own feelings, identified and acknowledged.

When I feel grounded, I feel totally at peace and in one accord with everything that is going on. I feel completely myself, safe in my skin and in whatever surroundings I find myself in.

Grounding is another phrase for identifying personal stability, which is necessary after you have been thrown off balance. Everyone agrees the human being in modernized society is constantly thrown off balance because of excess technology (EMFs) in all spheres of our lives.

Add violence to the mix and we are all feeling assaulted and victimized by the awareness of the tragedies in human experience.

Ways of Grounding through Feelings

The Sedona Method has grouped together feelings of courage, acceptance and peace as states of freedom. The Nonviolent Communication group has identified Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction lists of feelings.

Both have many more names for “negative” or ungrounded states than “positive” states. This is an indication that feeling bad and names for how we feel bad define our lives far too much. Adjusting this, so that we arrive at a state of feeling good, is almost required. This is what grounding does — bring us into a state of feeling good.

Don’t get me wrong. Good or bad is not a value judgment. These are ways of calling your natural state of being into order as part of nature. There is death and decay (“bad”) and there is also abundant life and beauty (“good”).

In this context feeling good means feeling natural or grounded, ready to do whatever you wish to enhance yourself (life and beauty). If anything is blocking you or making you pause, then it’s possible you are ungrounded. Chances are you are not feeling good either, because your stagnation is a form of death.

What is Your Ground of Being?

There are many ways the ungrounded feeling shows itself. Difficulty focusing, dropping or forgetting things, follow-through being a challenge, hastiness and impatience, inability to get a good night’s sleep, barking at people, control-freak energy, and so on.

One word that describes what facilitators in the International Black Summit call ground of being is enthusiasm. I have always loved this word, because it means being full of God energy. (Read more about Reiki as God energy.)

En-theo in Greek refers to the god within, and interacting with people with enthusiasm summarizes the “satisfied emotions” and “freedom feelings” lists. Enthusiasm appears under “excited” on the Nonviolent Communication list, and under “courage” on the Sedona list.

We often don’t think of being self-enthusiastic. However, grounding oneself in the spirit of an enthused thought can support your ground of being (and how grounded you feel). It may take courage and may even be exciting.

Observe children playing alone or with others, being satisfied, free and happy. You too can feel satisfied, free and happy about life through ups, downs, and on level playing fields. Your grounding yourself can make it so.

Thinking of taking time to Free Your Feelings (FYF)? Rev. Niamo Nancy is a spiritual direction advocate, certified energy teacher, aromatherapist, and award-winning writer with offices in Montclair and Union, New Jersey, and online at Facebook.com/healmobile. Read more about aromatherapy used in FYF. Make an appointment to consult or visit with me.

–Rev. Niamo Nancy