The Pause That Grounds: A Return to Steady Support.
Grounding is one of those words that can easily become overused — yet when we experience it directly, it feels unmistakable. It’s the quiet sense of something steady beneath you. The reassurance that you don’t have to hold yourself up all the time.
Grounding as a Relationship
To be grounded isn’t about forcing stillness or trying to be calm.
It’s a two-way relationship — between your body and the ground that holds you.
The ground is an external source of support: solid, stable, reliable, ever- present. It’s the part of nature that says, “I’m here; you can rest on me.”
But grounding is also internal. It’s how your body meets that support — through your feet and your seat, through the weight of your pelvis, through the horizontal plane that carries you. It’s the sense of being connected from below, allowing your body to rest into what’s already here.
When these two meet — the ground beneath and the body’s capacity to yield — Something begins to shift. You might feel your breath lengthen, your awareness widen, your muscles soften. Your system begins to find its own steadiness. your nervous system begins to recognise support and safety. This moment of meeting is the beginning of regulation.
Grounding and Co-Regulation
This is the living process of co-regulation — how one system steadies another.
We often think of it as something that happens between people: a soothing voice, a calm presence, a steady hand. But the earth itself is one of our most constant co-regulators.
When you let your body lean into its support — even for a few breaths — your whole system begins to reorganise. The breath slows. The muscles soften. The mind quietens.
The ground doesn’t do this for you; it simply meets you. In that meeting, your body remembers how to rest.
Through this relationship, your system finds its way back to balance — not through effort, but through being in contact.
A Simple Practice: Grounded Support
Try this short practice — just a minute or two.
Pause. Wherever you are, allow your attention to drop down into your body.
Feel your contact with the ground. The soles of your feet on the floor. The weight of your seat or pelvis on the chair. The way gravity gently draws you downward.
Allow an exhale. Feel what changes when you stop holding yourself up.
Notice the meeting point. The moment where you feel the ground receiving your weight — and your body allowing it.
Stay here for a few breaths. Let the steadiness below you remind your system of its own capacity to settle.
Grounding is not about being heavy or still; it’s about being met.
When you remember that the ground is always here, you begin to move through the world with more ease, balance and a quiet confidence.
A Reflection to Take With You
As you move through your week, notice the moments when you feel untethered or unsteady.
Pause and return to the ground — not as an idea, but as a felt sense.
How do you meet the ground — physically, emotionally, energetically?
Where do you resist support?
And what might shift if you let yourself be held, even just a little more?
You don’t have to find ground.
You only have to remember it’s already there — always.
Explore this sense of feeling grounded further in a class: georgilaney.com/group-classes
