Today I Choose to be Grounded – How to be Grounded

Learning how to be grounded becomes increasingly important as we navigate life’s constant upheavals. But grounded doesn’t mean what the meditation apps tell you. For me, it means having a strong connected base to my environment, myself, my beliefs, and my essence – even when that base is actively crumbling.

My grounding happens in two seemingly opposite places: barefoot in my yard and at my desk where I’ve spent the past 30 years. One roots me in the child who ran free… The other in the woman who built something from nothing — even if that something isn’t what we planned.

The Mantra That Became Knowing

For 20 years, I’ve recited the same mantra multiple times daily. It lives on my computer screen: “I am whole, perfect, harmonious, svelte, abundant, peaceful, secure, happy, joyful, powerful, healthy, loving, loved, creative, expressive, intuitive, inspired, wise, conscious and enlightened.”

For years, they were just words. Nice words, hopeful words, but words. The past five years, they’ve shifted to knowing – not in one glorious aha moment but in many, many moments of recognition. Curtis’s health crisis made me question those words hard. His recovery renewed my faith. That’s how grounding really works – it’s tested, lost, and found again. Of course, grounding isn’t just found in crisis or healing — sometimes it’s revealed in the most ordinary, inconvenient moments of our day.

When Grounding Means Finding Humanity in Security Deposits

Today, my CEO said something careless and frankly small-minded. He criticized me on something small while I’ve been juggling so much. I spiraled quickly – think stomp muttering. That discordant behavior with my self-perception made me feel completely disconnected.

An hour later, I was on the phone with an employee whose rent we pay, trying to figure out why they wanted a security deposit three years in. My first thought, shamefully, was “Why am I helping a grown woman navigate her security deposit when I’m already dealing with so much?”

But as she shared her struggles raising two boys – one with autism, one with ADHD – I recognized a younger me, desperately wanting to help my children and not knowing how. (My Jesse has ADHD, Tyler has always leaned toward the spectrum.) I felt awful that I’d been thinking of my inconvenience instead of her humanity.

When we resolved the issue, I felt fulfilled for the first time all day. That connection – that recognition of shared struggle – grounded me more than any breathing exercise could. Moments like that remind me what’s possible — but they don’t last forever. The erosion always creeps in.

The Daily Erosion of Groundedness

I start each morning grounded. The day evolves, chipping and eroding that groundedness until I recognize I’ve lost it and have to create strategies to regain it. Some days, I just have to get to the end of the day to start anew.

Most days feel that way, actually. We have few wins at work. We’re losing money, losing patients. We’ve been working for a decade to make this a success. We were supposed to go public – my only plan for retirement, shares for being on the founding team. The way things are going, this seems unlikely at best.

That’s terrifying. And yet… every morning, I log back in. Why?

How do I keep showing up? LOL. Necessity!

Barefoot Freedom and Childhood Grounding

As a small child, I discovered grounding in our Greenlawn backyard. Outside meant freedom – warm grass between my toes, sun on my face, room to run without worrying about something bad happening. That liberation of barefoot childhood became my first understanding of what grounded meant.

Now, at 60, I still seek that barefoot connection. There’s something about feet on earth that returns me to that safer, freer version of myself.

The Scripture That Grounds (Sacrilegiously)

There’s a scripture that’s always spoken to me: “Be Still and Know that I am God.” Here’s my sacrilegious interpretation: I’ve always taken it to mean “Be Still and Know that I (me) am God.” If God made us in his essence, then I too am part of the miracle.

This connects me to my essence. When I remember this, I’m grounded. When I forget, I’m that stomp-muttering woman who doesn’t recognize herself. I hold onto that knowing — even when everything around me tells me not to. Especially when I’m waiting for…

Waiting for the Nigerian Prince

Right now, I’m hoping for our “Nigerian prince” to come through – a funding vehicle that’s been forming for three years. Yes, I know how that sounds. But when your retirement plan is crumbling and you’re managing 18 companies that are bleeding money, you hold onto whatever hope exists.

Some might say that’s not very grounded. I say grounding doesn’t mean giving up hope. It means standing firm even when the ground shifts beneath you.

Family: The Ultimate Grounding Force

On bad days like today, when I actually show the cracks, my family responds. Curtis becomes extra supportive and loving. Tyler gets attentive, gives advice, checks in frequently. This human connection grounds me more than any practice.

The universe knows, loves, and supports me. My family proves it daily.

🛠️ Your Practical Grounding Toolkit

For Immediate Grounding:

• Find your “barefoot” place – what connects you to a freer self?
• Create a mantra that lives where you’ll see it (even if it takes 20 years to believe)
• Look for yourself in others’ struggles – humanity grounds us

For Daily Practice:

• Start each day grounded (however that looks for you)
• Recognize the erosion as it happens
• Have a reset strategy (even if it’s “get to bedtime”)

For Long-Term Grounding:

• Accept that grounding will be tested (health crises, business failures)
• Let grit be grounding
• Keep hope, even the Nigerian prince kind

For Crisis Moments:

• Slow down first
• Separate reality from reaction
• Remember: someone else’s bad day isn’t about you

The Truth About Being Grounded at 60

Being grounded doesn’t mean being peaceful all the time. It means knowing where your feet are even when everything’s shifting. It means helping with security deposits when your IPO dreams are dying. It means finding God in yourself while waiting for Nigerian princes.

My grounding lives in the desk where I’ve worked for 30 years, in the yard where childhood grass still meets my toes, and in the quiet moment when I recognize younger me in a struggling employee.

Some days, grounding is just necessity and grit. Some days, it’s family love and ancient mantras finally becoming truth. Most days, it’s both.

The ground beneath us may be shifting – money draining, patients leaving, retirement dreams fading. But we stand anyway. Barefoot when we can. At our desks when we must. Connected to our essence even when we’re stomp muttering.

That’s real grounding. That’s how we survive another decade of waiting for princes while finding God in ourselves and humanity in security deposit calls.

Join our community of women staying grounded while the earth shifts beneath us. Share your most unexpected grounding moment or your own “Nigerian prince” you’re still waiting for below.

P.S. To everyone managing companies that are bleeding money while planning for retirement that may never come – you’re not alone. Sometimes grounding is just showing up. Necessity counts.