Hello,
This is Ish,
And in today's talk,
I'll be going over how to be grounded.
And specifically,
I'll be going over what being grounded means,
What you'll notice as a byproduct of being grounded,
And some of the benefits.
And lastly,
Some practical tips on how to develop a sense of groundedness.
And I'll be covering both internal shifts that you make,
And also some practical external techniques.
So what is being grounded?
When we describe someone as being grounded,
We can think of them as being stable,
Or being rooted,
And also being unmoved.
And a byproduct of being grounded is that you become still,
And you also become less pulled by the world around you.
So the mind becomes unmoved by external events,
And you kind of radiate just this calm energy.
Now,
When you are grounded,
You create a sense of safety in other people.
This is just simply a byproduct of being grounded.
And you can think of a time when there's a chaotic situation in your life,
And people are just freaking out in the room.
But there was this one person that maintained a sense of equanimity,
And seemed unbothered.
And instinctively,
Everyone in the room looked for them,
For guidance.
It's not something they said aloud.
So that's kind of the powerful effect that being grounded has,
Is that it really centers a room,
And you can become an anchor for the room that other people look for,
Because you radiate a steady and calm energy,
As opposed to a more frenetic and reactive energy.
And this unreactivity is very powerful.
So not only will,
By becoming more grounded,
You become more stable in your emotions,
But it can also help you find peace and calm in your everyday life.
So it also increases your positive impact,
Because it allows other people to relax in your presence.
And it also makes you more calm,
More peaceful,
And more still.
So these are all very wonderful qualities to have.
So let's look at some tips and techniques on how to become more grounded,
Starting with some internal shifts and practices.
So meditation is the number one thing I recommend.
Now with the journey of meditation,
You will be confronted with a lot of powerful emotions that you may be facing,
Or repressed memories that may come up in your practice.
And essentially,
What you're doing is learning to be mindful,
To have a very cool eye,
And examine and let go of any kind of resistances,
Of any blockages,
Of anxious thoughts and worries.
And over time,
You become more skillful in learning how to let go of these things that may take you off-center,
And you become more stable as time goes on.
And meditation also gives you the confidence to know that whatever happens in the world around you,
And whatever happens in your mind,
You'll be okay.
Because you gain that confidence in knowing that no matter what happens,
I can simply accept it and let it go.
Gradually,
You also develop a very powerful quality of equanimity.
Because you become more rooted within,
And as a result of becoming more rooted and centered from within,
You become less pulled by the world around you.
Everything in the world changes,
You become less pulled by things because you know that when things are going well,
They may also go not well in your favor.
So life is very unpredictable.
And if you try to base your happiness on how things are looking externally,
Well,
Your emotions will go up and down like a roller coaster.
So when you start to detach and let go of expecting things to be a certain way,
And you're more developed within,
Well,
Then you become more unreactive and less pulled by things.
So again,
Developing that stability.
Now that leads me to my next point.
And that's about reducing strong desires,
And being happy and grateful for what you already have.
So I've made other talks on gratitude.
And this is really powerful because you'll notice that when you have a lot of desires and unfulfilled desires,
And you're trying to seek things in the world,
You'll notice how your mind becomes very agitated.
It's always on this hamster wheel of wanting more and,
You know,
Being mad when you don't get it.
So your emotions again,
Go up and down.
But when you learn to be happy with the things all around you and whatever you already have,
Rather than seeking more,
And you become more peaceful within,
You start to rely less and less on things being a certain way outside of yourself.
And you feel happy from what you already have,
Which really doesn't take much effort to do,
Just a more consistent practice.
Now,
When you let go,
Feel stable within and you don't need anything.
So you don't need external conditions to be a certain way.
And you're just contented with what you have,
You become again,
Less pulled and more stable.
Now,
The next tip on being grounded is to feel lower in your body.
So even in the term being grounded,
It has a word ground in it,
So lower.
And you can think about bringing your attention,
Which may be focused on your head and your thoughts.
And when you start to root it down into lower parts of your body,
Like your feet,
For example,
Or on the abdomen,
And focusing on your breath at the abdomen,
As opposed to focusing on your breath at the nostril area,
You'll start to feel more calm and more rooted and firm.
And this is something that the Zen tradition in Buddhism understands because in their meditation practice in Zazen,
Instead of the attention being focused on the head or the nostril area,
The attention is placed in the abdomen,
And the breath is watched in the abdomen area.
And this promotes a feeling of calmness.
And you can practically notice this,
When you get very anxious,
Your attention tends to rise up to your chest and head.
Or when you're super nervous,
Your breathing tends to be caught up in the chest area,
As opposed to deep,
Relaxed breaths that you would take when you're in a state of calm.
So you can practice again,
Feeling your feet,
Whether you're sitting or walking or standing.
And you can also practice breathing in your abdomen and taking longer breaths in and out.
The next technique that you can practice is to move slower.
And you can think of groundedness as a steady energy,
As opposed to a fast and frenetic energy.
So again,
When you're nervous and anxious,
You'll tend to move around a lot.
But when you're still and calm,
You move slower and more relaxed.
So you can trick your body into feelings of calm and cause this feedback loop by changing your physiology.
So if you move just a little bit more slowly,
And you breathe more slowly,
Like we discussed earlier,
This will actually make yourself more calm.
Now,
The final tip on how to become more grounded is to practice taking pauses.
So this is again,
Is related to slowing down.
And this can be used in your speech,
But also in your daily life.
So in our modern world,
Where things are moving at light speed,
And you're constantly making decisions and moving around,
There is something to be said about taking some time and considering your responses.
And it's when we create this space in our lives,
That we have a bit more freedom and power within.
Because again,
We're not really dragged around.
But we have this capacity to be mindful and to discern our choices.
So a very famous Holocaust survivor by the name of Victor Franklin once said that,
In that space,
Lies our freedom and power to choose a response.
And in our response,
Lies our growth,
And our happiness.
And I think this is really a powerful thing,
Because we take conscious control of our actions and how we respond,
Rather than being run by autopilot decisions and responses.
And when we pause,
We have this capacity to consider to reflect and choose what we actually want to do.
And we can think about pausing again,
We can think about considering responses,
Of waiting,
Of reflecting on what is the right choice,
And creating this gap.
And this can also actually be a meditation practice,
When we begin to notice the stream of our thoughts,
And notice the gap and space between our thoughts.
And we focus on this gap in space,
This actually can create a sense of quiet and calm within us.
A very powerful meditation technique,
By the way.
Now,
I'll leave you with this last piece of advice from Sage Lao Tzu,
Who is a very highly regarded Taoist sage.
And he was really well known for his work,
The Tao Te Ching.
And in verse 15 of the Tao Te Ching,
Lao Tzu says that,
Who can wait and use stillness to let what is troubled,
Settle and grow clear.
And it is oftentimes,
By being still and just waiting,
And not trying to control everything and move around,
And simply just allowing things to take its course,
That we can then be,
We can then understand what actions to take.
And this can help us become more grounded.
So again,
I hope you like this talk on being more grounded.
And just a recap of what we learned so far.
We can learn to become more still and more grounded in our lives.
And this helps the mind become more still,
More calm,
And less pulled around by our,
Not only our minds,
But the external world all around us.
And ways we can develop the sense of groundedness is to practice meditation.
And we can also reduce our very strong desires by being happy and grateful for what we already have,
Rather than seeking,
Which creates an agitation in the mind,
And certain feeling of restlessness.
We can also feel lower into our bodies by breathing lower into our bodies,
And feeling our feet press up against the ground underneath us.
We can also move more slowly and practice lower movements.
We can practice taking pauses,
Not only in our speech,
But also in our lives as well.
And not trying to constantly try to control everything,
But sometimes just allow things to happen and create the space so we can then choose a response.
So hope you found this helpful.
Thank you.
