Being Grounded

Gregg’s Reflection

The most common use of the expression ‘being grounded’ speaks of staying connected to the source so that grace and love can flow through us and touch others. This quote from Richard Rohr explains it well:

Desmond Tutu told me that he and I were mere light bulbs. We seem to be shining brightly for all to see, but we both know that if this light bulb was unscrewed from its source even for a moment, the brightness will immediately stop. 

When I searched for ‘being grounded’, this is Google’s AI Overview:

Being grounded means having a strong connection to reality, being mentally and emotionally stable, and being in control of your thoughts, emotions, and values. It can also mean being sensible, realistic, and unpretentious. Some benefits of being grounded include: Reduced stress, Improved sleep, Decreased pain, Increased serenity,

Some ways to practice grounding include: Mindful breathing, Body scans, Daily meditation, Practicing gratitude, Spending time in nature, Pausing and breathing 

Some signs that you are grounded include: Feeling comfortable in your body, Feeling physically safe, Not being easily swayed by external influences, Finding peace in the present moment, Feeling emotionally stable 

That basically describes equanimity. I recently learned another aspect of being grounded, walking barefoot on the earth. Google describes it this way:

Being grounded to the earth is a practice called earthing or grounding, which involves connecting your body to the Earth's natural electric charge. This can be done by: 

Standing barefoot on the ground, Touching grounded metal surfaces, Walking barefoot on grass, sand, or soil, Standing in humid soil or sand with bare feet, Gardening, Pressing your bare hands into grass, soil, or water, Sitting with your bare feet positioned flat on the ground, Lying flat on grass, sand, or soil with your back, legs, or arms bare 

So, this introduces another spiritual practice to ‘ground’ us. In my own life, keeping regular routines of contemplation, forest bathing, silence and solitude keep me connected to the Ground of Being, as the saints and mystics describe God.

Staying grounded shows up in my coaching calls, when Spirit brings me a quote, a scripture verse, words that speak to whatever situation my coaching client is facing. And whenever Spirit shows up like this, it reinforces my desire and need to stay grounded in my practices.

So, come along as we ground ourselves in the words of the saints and mystics.

Journaling Prompts

What practices, places or spaces allow you to be grounded? What is missing in your life when those practices go fallow? How might staying grounded in God manifest in your life? Do you feel peace in your soul in times of grounding?

Scripture

Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Exodus 3:5

David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground.

2 Samuel 12:16

Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.

Psalm 85:11

Ancient Writing

Mother of all joy, ground of all being, glowing, most green, verdent sprout….Ask for us life.  Ask for us radiant joy.  Ask for us the sweet, delicious ecstasy that is forever yours.

Hildegard of Bingen Speaks of Mary. Matthew Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times, p. 120

God’s ground and my ground is the same ground.

Meister Eckhart, Bernard McGuinn, Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, p. 38

Modern Writing

God is the ground of being, the source of all existence, the ultimate reality and meaning in all things.

Paul Tillich

Eckhart speaks about the “ground”, a place where our soul goes to become one with God. Like many other theologians he also refers to this place as the “desert.” Here, in the ground, our souls unite with God – with Love. Eckhart’s ground is beyond our intellect, beyond our thoughts, and even beyond our virtues. We enter into the ground through silence. In the ground we are completely empty and ready to receive. In this emptiness God pours his great goodness into us. 

In Eckhart’s ground we receive God’s outpouring of love. His love consumes us so much that we cannot see where we end and God begins. God’s invitation into the ground is always open, yet, we must do our part and surrender to the pathway leading to it. The gateway into Eckhart’s ground is through continued deep contemplative prayer and silence. Our soul continually calls us to keep returning to the well of this sacred ground.

Carolyn Berghuis, Eckhart’s Gr0und, God’s Deep Love

Faith gives us the eyes to see not what God is but who God is. He is to be found at the root, the ground, of our very existence. To discover Christ as the ground of our being is to discover God Enmeshed in our lives.

Ilia Delio, Christ in Evolution, p. 132

Meister Eckhart in his sermons attempts to help us deepen our experiential understanding of the depths of God’s presence in our lives. A foundational way that he helps us with this deepening is with his metaphor of the ground. The ground of God is the deepest depths of God. And in the generosity of God, the deepest depths of God are given to us as the deepest depths of ourselves, in our nothingness without God. Our ground and God’s ground is one ground. And hidden down in the depths of ourselves is a union that’s already present, waiting to be realized, lived, and shared.

James Finley, “Meister Eckhart: Session 3” in Turning to the Mystics, season 7

Groundedness in God infinitely sustains us whatever happens. We are used to skimming over the surface of the depths of our lives. We are living in a deficit of depth. To explore the ancient wisdom, and trust the guidance into a depth that opens out into the bottomless presence of God gives us a rare opportunity to immerse in these depths, be transformed, and then be a healing presence sharing it with others. 

James Finley, Living School Teaching

We have the capacity to awaken to our destiny. Very subtle presence awakening itself within. We ground the mystical in our faith and practice, in our own awakened heart. Do we have eyes to see the divinity shining brightly before our very eyes. The moments are fleeting, and we return to the mundane.

But we have a holy discontent, having tasted it, we will long for its return, like a flame flickering in the wind. How can I hold fast to this flickering flame, and not let it blow out? By habituated sensitivity to these subtle intrusions. You long to abide. The soul knows how to go where it needs to go to find what it seeks.

Whatever happened to the mystics, we hope it might happen to us. We maintain fidelity to a way of life that honors this desire. Unless I set aside time for a rendezvous, it will not happen. The essential will never impose itself upon us. If we allow the inessential to keep our attention, the essential will be missed. 

James Finley, Living School Teaching

What is the mystical? God decides not to wait until you are dead to grant you a taste of who you are in God. The inner life of God is what God eternally contemplates. God eternally contemplates us. It is the me that was never born and will never die. This is the true self. The most noble quality of human nature, is the capacity to notice this, the ground of our being. God gives us a foretaste of heaven. Sometimes when we are quite young, we are given a taste of the infinite, and we yearn for it for the rest of our lives. I know what I know and I know that I know it. 

James Finley Living School Teaching

Merton was a teaching mystic, called to help people along this path of awakening. He would ask each of us to be as grounded as we can, living out the vocation and calling we discern. In an action driven world, how do we sink a taproot into presence that will flow out into contemplatively grounded action.

James Finley Living School Teaching

For the one who has never jumped out of a plane with a parachute, their anxiety goes up from the time the plane takes off, and builds until the jump. The old timer feels no anxiety until just before he hits the ground. For he knows no one is hurt jumping out of a plane. It is the ground that is dangerous.

What if life is an endless jump into the abyss like depths of the ground of being. What if you have to hit the ground over and over to reach that state? That is the cross. The teacher is the person who lives in this groundless jump, is habituated into it. 

James Finley, Living School Teaching

My responsibility is to sink the taproot of my heart into God’s sustaining presence as the foundation of my peace because the more I can sink my heart into God’s sustaining presence, the more I can be present to another.

If I’m grounded in the presence of God, I can see the preciousness of the person to whom I speak. The taproot is grounding ourselves in God’s love. We can face the violence of the world when we are grounded. 

James Finley, Living School Teaching

Desmond Tutu told me that he and I were mere light bulbs. We seem to be shining brightly for all to see, but we both know that if this light bulb was unscrewed from its source even for a moment, the brightness will immediately stop. 

Richard Rohr, On the Threshold of Transformation, p. 352

The more united we are to God in prayer, the more naturally that source flows out from its inner spring, becoming a stream of action in relationship to others. To abide in this spring and let the living waters of Christ flow freely through us, we must be committed to regular contemplative prayer. 

Phileena Heuertz, Mindful Silence, p. 43

What I mean by being grounded is being fully in the present moment. Physically, emotionally, and energetically, firmly in the now. It means that your thoughts are not straying or consuming all of your energy. You are not looking into the past with sadness or the future with anxiety. Living means being fully present.

What Being Grounded Looks Like. You have a sense of tranquility that is rooted in your soulful self when you’re grounded. Your connection to the spiritual world and your physical body should always be in harmony. You can’t stay grounded when your being is out of balance.

Grounding involves a closer connection to your inner self and having control over your mental and emotional well-being.

How grounded you are is influenced by how you let the environment support or mold you. After all, you can’t change everything around you; you only have authority over yourself. Even after mastering the technique of grounding, there will still be stressful moments. But you will have a strategy for channeling your energy to respond in a targeted, deliberate, and therapeutic manner.

To recognize and feel the advantages of grounding, one must engage in spiritual practice and develop more self-awareness. By practicing grounding, you prepare to receive messages from your soul.

Setting your mental state to “grounding” enables you to shift from a prior experience, release collected energy, and prepare for the message. If you are on a path to understanding your soulful self, you need to rely on your inner communications, which come through grounding.

Why is it difficult for you to get grounded? Grounding goes against how you were raised. They taught you to persist in your efforts rather than give up. Weren’t you trained to maximize every minute and avoid setting aside time for indulging in self-care? They taught you to plan and be content when the work is complete rather than to be in the now and savor the moment. And they trained you to deal with the symptoms but ignore the cause.

Terri Kozlowski, Being Grounded Is A Powerful And Positive Way to Live A Graceful Life