What Does It Really Mean to Feel Grounded?
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
A somatic reflection and an invitation to come back to yourself.
"What does it really mean to feel grounded?"
One evening, sitting around a fire on a camping trip, a dear friend turned to me and asked me that question.
She was asking in the context of plant medicine, of deeper healing ceremonies, of the extraordinary states we sometimes reach through intense inner work. I understood her question. But something in me wanted to answer it differently.
I wanted to bring groundedness home. Out of the ceremony, and into the ordinary.
Because the truth is, most of us are not moving through our days from a grounded place. We have been raised, educated, and trained inside a matrix that keeps our nervous systems in a low, steady state of stress. From the moment we open our eyes, we are bombarded. Notifications. News. Deadlines. Roles. Expectations. The relentless energy of anxiety, worry, and overwhelm.
And so, without knowing, we begin making our decisions from that place. Personal decisions. Relational decisions. Business decisions. Made not from calm, but from the pressure of a nervous system that has not been given permission to rest.
Groundedness Is Not a Mindset. It Is a Nervous System State.
From a somatic perspective, groundedness is not a thought you can think your way into. It is a state your body settles into when it feels safe.
You know it when you feel it.
Your shoulders drop. Your breath slows. There is nothing to solve, nothing to prove, nothing to run toward. It is the sensation of homecoming, of arriving fully into the body you already live in.
You have felt it. I know you have. Sitting by the ocean, watching the waves. Walking in nature for an hour without your phone. In meditation. In the middle of an honest conversation with a friend. In the quiet moment just before sleep. Swimming, held by water. Sitting by a fire for half an hour, doing nothing but watching the flames.
That is groundedness. That is your nervous system remembering it is safe.
Where We Lose Ourselves
And then there are the moments when groundedness slips away.
The email that arrives at the wrong moment. The sales call. The interview. The scroll through a feed engineered to hold your attention hostage. The post you are about to publish. The old grief that rises without warning. The rooms full of people whose energy you can feel more than your own.
These are the moments when the body braces, when the breath becomes shallow, and when we begin to make decisions from a place that is not truly us.
We cannot avoid uncertainty. What we can do is build the practices that gently carry us back to ourselves each time we are pulled away.
How I Come Back to Myself, Every Day
I have found, through trial and error, because I want practices to be practical and not only esoteric, that these are the ones that carry me:
Time in nature every day, without exception. At least one hour in the park, walking, sitting in the sun, tending to my vegetable garden, watering my plants. It does not matter what the weather is. I go out and put my body in contact with the elements.
A slow start to the morning, before the world can pull at me.
No scrolling before bed. A gratitude journal instead.
Nature without my phone. Sometimes without even carrying it with me.
Honest, meaningful conversations with people who know me.
And because I am an introvert with a sensitive nervous system that absorbs the energy of others, I set a clear intention before entering public spaces or large gatherings. I feel my feet on the floor. I remind myself who I am.
These are small practices. They do not look impressive on paper. But done consistently, they do more than any dramatic intervention I have ever tried.
Because the truth is this. Simple practices, done consistently, create more change than complicated practices done occasionally.
Join Us on Tuesday 11 August
If you feel that this season is asking you to come back to yourself, I would love you to join us.
My dear Shermine Boustany and I are co-hosting a complimentary online workshop on Tuesday 11 August. It is called Resilience, Reinvention and the Courage to Continue, and this month's theme is Finding Your Ground in Uncertain Times.
We will share real stories, practical coaching tools, gentle somatic practices, and quiet space for you to reflect on your own journey.
📅 Tuesday 11 August 2026 🕧 12:30 to 1:45pm UK time 💻 Live on Zoom 🎟️ Complimentary 🎧 Recording available on request
About Bahar
Bahar Boostani is a transformational coach, embodied healer and holistic business mentor for visionary women. After fifteen years in the technology industry, she walked away from the title to return to the work her soul had always known: guiding high-achieving women back to themselves. Her work weaves transformational coaching, somatic practice, energy healing, intuitive insight, and grounded business strategy into a single path home. Based in London. Working with women across the world.
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