What Grounded Means to Me

Recently, someone asked me what "Grounded" means to me.

I answered honestly: I know what it means to me, but I've never really put it into words.

And then I couldn't stop thinking about how to do that.

Ironically, the story starts well before I ever named my business.

After I was laid off from my corporate job in 2022, I felt completely untethered. I knew I didn't want to go back to the career I'd had, but I had no idea what was next. I was anxious, overwhelmed, and desperately trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life.

I decided some life coaching might help, so did a Google search and scheduled a free 30-minute Zoom call.

Within minutes, she said something that brought me to tears.

"It sounds like you're trying to figure out what you want to do so that you can feel grounded. What you need to do is get grounded so you can figure out what you want to do."

It resonated big time.

I realized I had been looking for certainty "out there" when what I really needed was to more deeply connect with myself.

Over the following months, I did the work.

I identified the stories I'd been telling myself—the ones that needed questioning. I started recognizing fear and limiting beliefs for what they were instead of letting them drive my decisions. I began paying attention to what made me feel alive instead of what looked good on paper.

I didn't become grounded overnight, no one does.  It's an ongoing practice.

What grounds me is anchoring myself to what I value more than anything else—wellness.  Not just physical wellness, but emotional, psychological, financial and spiritual wellness, too.

I think becoming grounded happens through a process that looks something like this:

Curiosity → Awareness → Awakening → Anchoring

Curiosity asks questions instead of assuming it already knows the answers.

With curiosity comes a need to be willing.  Willing to notice your habits, your thought patterns, and the beliefs you've carried for years without ever questioning them.  We all have conditioning and programming we're not consciously aware of.

Ideally, that awareness leads to awakening—the moment you find your truth.  And once you find that, it becomes what you anchor to—it shines a light on every area of your life, exposing what needs examining, what needs to be brought into alignment with your truth.

Some time later, when it came time to name my business, the word Grounded just felt right.

I didn't consciously choose it because of that conversation with my life coach. But looking back, I don't think it's a coincidence either.

This business was born because I became more grounded.

The granola reflects my love of real food and physical wellness. But the name represents something much bigger.

To me, being grounded means continually returning to my number one value of wellness—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It means staying curious, paying attention, questioning old beliefs, spending time in nature, and making choices that align with my values instead of my fears.

It's not a destination I've arrived at.

It's a practice.

And it's one I hope to keep returning to for the rest of my life.

P.S. My life coach was Jill Englund. I'm still grateful for that conversation all these years later.