Grounded, not Swayed

Week 3
No matter what happens to me, I am intent on remaining personally grounded: no longer thrown off course by events or by my reactions to them.

Hmmm....remaining personally grounded. Great thought, though I think it may take some effort on my part. I definitely could've used this right before Christmas as I felt my world was falling apart (phone issues, car break-in, etc.). David Richo, author of Everyday Commitments (from which this is pulled from) offers these practical tips to help stay grounded:

• Remind myself that I have faced hurdles before with success and this one is no different.


• Rally my support system, a group of friends, a therapist, and any guides who stand by me and help keep me on track. Ask them to call me on my vagaries and awaken me if I drift off course.


• Seek help from a power beyond my ego, in whatever form or tradition that fits for me.

I really like the thought of working on not being thrown by my reactions to the event. That's really what gets me sometimes. I know that I can face challenges and that I've overcome things in the past, so whatever comes my way shouldn't be a big deal, but really, it's my reaction to what's happened that makes it bad. Richo also adds this about trusting ourselves to stay grounded, "We do this when we let ourselves go through an experience without being driven or stopped by our fears or by our desires for a specific outcome." It's not my fears that stop me and cause irrational reactions (I really don't fear much), but it's my desire for a specific outcome and when that doesn't happen--watch out. I definitely can become ungrounded.

Now, this doesn't happen on everyday happenings. I'm not that unstable. But on bigger things, when I really want something or are completely blindsided by something I wasn't expecting. That's when it happens...

I hope to remember this week's lesson the next time my reactions start to control my life. That's never a good place to be and would much rather be grounded, than swayed.