When I was growing up, I was grounded a LOT. I used to joke that I lost the habit of watching TV because I was grounded all the time as a teenager, and never picked it up again.

Back then, being grounded meant being disciplined, having privileges taken away because you’d done something wrong.

Now, as an adult, being grounded means to have a base, to have a firm place to stand, to have roots. That place might be in our past, in our family of origin, or our chosen family. Maybe it’s our hometown, or our family home. It might be in our beliefs and values. 

Wherever we are grounded, it helps us to know who we are and where we come from. It helps us to have an idea of where we want to go in the future. 

One thing about traveling from country to country every few years (I talk about that a bit here and here), it really does make me realize that wherever you go, there you are. I know it’s a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, but it’s also a very cliched truth. We always take ourselves wherever we go. We always take our memories, our thoughts, our beliefs, no matter what our surroundings are. And if we are firmly grounded, we also take that wherever we go.

I wrote these affirmations to help us remember to be grounded.