Thinking About Being Grounded

Grounded: It’s a common and simple word. Or is it? Children are grounded – a time to reconsider actions and attitudes. Airplanes are grounded – a time for needed repairs to enable safe flight. Pilots are grounded – a time for retraining, reflection, and attitude change. Ship run aground – time to get unstuck and float freely again. Electrical outlets are grounded – a time of completing the connection.

As a student of T’ai Chi Chih, I have often heard that while practicing we need to stay in our feet and stay grounded. Those words started me thinking about what this means and how I could do it in my practice. Well, I am in my feet – they are attached – and my feet are on the ground, therefore, it must mean something else. Obviously, it’s not meant literally. When one is told to “break a leg” before acting, no one is wishing a broken leg on someone. So it’s not meant literally. Or is it?

Why does it matter and what are the benefits? Is there a common thread with our many uses of the word “grounded”? Let’s start with the children and then see if we can find a thread that connects groundings and has meaning for us as we do TCC. It seems to me that the electrical ground points to a common relationship. If we are “out of our bodies” or “somewhere else,” it’s because we have lost our ground connection and the energy (Chi) cannot complete the circuit that enables energy flow and the resultant outcomes from making good decisions. It shows us the necessity and importance of having our own personal ground connection whatever we are doing – and especially to receive more benefit from our TCC practice. Athletes call it being “in the zone.” Eckhart Tolle (and others) call it being in the NOW. Justin calls it “the effort of no effort” – no thinking – just doing – the way Justin experienced TCC in a Japanese garden.