A good question to start with is how often do you dream of being somehwre else? Of doing something else or getting away from the things you have to do? How often do you get home from work, or increasingly while we are at work it seems with mobile technology being how it is, a look for something to get lost in, be it soaps, the news, a movie, some comedy; or turn to substances such as food or alcohol to shift your state of being?

In my mind this is due to a lack of comfort with the moment you are in, the challenges or stresses of where you are, whether that be to do with work, relationships or money, are just more than you want to deal with. So they are avoided in favour of a distraction. I remember Homer Simpson in an episode of The Simpsons, once syaing, "Mmmmmmm Beer, now there's a temporary solution." So rather than facing the things we are unhappy with, we avoid them.

Where does this come from? Well perhaps its nothing more than feeling we don't have the strength and resources to deal with whatever it is we want to avoid. We put things off until we have no choice, because it feels harder to sort than perhaps it is, or than we think we can manage. This is often a misleading feeling and we usually find that things are not as hard as they seem and we feel much better for having got them done and out the way.

It also means that any changes we make are much less likely to hold for us and we can spend our lives running from one improvement scheme to the next because we lack the stability to make anything stick.

Grounding frees up our energy to face and deal with things that challenge or stress us, and I'm not just talking about relationship or work problems, it could be homework, cleaning, organising and sorting the spare room, getting rid of junk we have accumulated, almost anything. When we avoid or deny these things they block the natural movement or flow of energy. Ths stangnancy can drain us just like the smell from old drains makes a place unpleasant to be.

By creating better grounding for ourselves there is better flow of energy. Its like being able to discharge the static so that it doesn't build up in us by increasing and maintaining our connection to the planet. Something that for some of us gets increasingly rare the more urban our existance is. 

So what can we expect to see from a lack of groundedness, what symptoms will we display when we are in that space?

If any of this rings a bell, then you very well may benefit from adding a grounding practice to your daily life:

• Lack of Energy
• Poor mental focus, lack of concentration
• Poor co-ordination of limbs
• Sense of confidence and security in the self
• poor sleep patterns
• poor digestion and metaboilism
• cravings for stimulants, narcotics or foods
• hyper-emotional responses to small problems
• Poor immune system
• Erratic, shallow or fast breathing breathing 
• Lack of calm,  rational speach
• Inconsistancy in approach
• Need for distraction, erratic behaviour, lots of highs and lows
• Unrealistic expection 
• Poor judgement

If any of these are a regular part of your life then you may seriously benefit from having a simple grounding practice in your life. Please feel free to comment on this post to share your experiences of ungrounded behavior.

The next part of this series will focus on ways that you can simply and easily increase your depth of grounding. If you can't wait to get stuck in you could try using one of the techniques found here or here.

Please comment on your experiences of being ungrounded, any useful information that has helped you to be more grounded and share this post with those you think are interested.