Staying grounded with a personal mission statement
As a devout introvert, overthinker, and goal setter, I am always looking for ways to live a purposeful, intentional life.
Several years ago, I created a personal mission statement as a way to hone in on my life philosophy and serve as an ethical and behavioral touchstone. My mission statement is simple and encompasses my four core values:
Live, laugh, learn, and love.
- Health and fitness
- Joy
- Lifelong learning and growth
- Meaningful relationships
More recently, I have started selecting a Word of the Year to help set an intention for each year. My first WOTY was Flow, followed by Connected, and this year’s word, Grounded.
The next logical step…logical in my busy mind at least…is to combine the two tools, to look for steps I can take in each value area to become more grounded.
Health and fitness
When I think of being grounded physically, I think of centering and balance. An important part of my physical fitness routine is at-home yoga, and my favorite yoga instructor is Adriene Mishler. Imagine my delight when the theme for this year’s 30-day journey was Center! So I started 2023 with 30 consecutive days of centering yoga practices. With that challenge complete, I will continue with regular (though perhaps not daily) yoga sessions.
In addition, I started doing these five simple daily balance exercises that I found in a New York Times article (full descriptions here):
- Single-leg stance
- Body-weight squats
- Bird dog
- Lateral leg lifts
- Tandem stance
I feel more grounded already!
Joy
When I think about being grounded in terms of joy, it’s not so much the high-energy, kicking-your-heels up joy, but more the feeling-at-ease kind of joy. With that in mind, meditation is my primary joy-related grounding exercise. I’ve been practicing daily meditation for several years now, and I highly recommend it, even if you’ve tried before and think you just can’t meditate. You just may surprise yourself.
In addition to meditation, my next go-to grounding-in-joy practice is spending time in nature. Whether that is taking a hike, walking the beach, or simply sitting in my yard, nature is grounding with a capital G. The cold, snowy weather has not been conducive to spending long periods outdoors so far this year…at least not for a fair-weather person like myself…but luckily we recently spent two heavenly weeks on a Mazatlan beach.
Lifelong learning and growth
When it comes to learning, writing…whether blogging or journaling…is my primary grounding practice. I haven’t done a lot of either so far this year, so there’s my area for improvement in 2023.
Meaningful relationships
And finally…human connection. I haven’t selected a specific grounding practice in this area. I can say that I have spent considerable time connecting with family and friends already this year, and I look forward to continuing that trend in the months to come. The people in my life, more than anything else, help to keep me grounded in all respects.
The more grounded you are, the higher you fly.
~J.R. Rim
Your turn
- Do you have a personal mission statement or a defined value statement?
- What do you do to stay grounded?
- What else is on your mind? Anything at all.
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Hi Christie – I love how intentional you are with your #WOTY. Finding ways to put it into practice in your casual day to day life is even better and much easier to maintain in practice. As you know, my #WOTY is “Live Lightly” and I’m choosing to blog about it a lot more than I usually do with annual Word. I think I’m reinforcing to myself that it’s okay to just go with the flow and to be gentler in my approach to life…..no more basing my self-worth on my productivity!
Hello Leanne. I understand the need to reinforce the gentler, “lighter” mindset. Since I retired, I don’t miss my job at all, but I sometimes feel guilty for a self-perceived lack of productivity. I still struggle to answer the question, “What have you been doing since you retired?”
Not that I’m surprised, but it sounds like you are adjusting to retirement very well. Your post prompted me to look for the vision statement I wrote eight years ago when I first retired. I’m happy to report that, with one exception, I’ve fulfilled the spirit of my words pretty well.
And I’m not surprised at all either, Janis, that you living according to your value statement. I am always inspired by your intentionality.
Christie, what a lovely thought-provoking post, thank you:) It’s made me realise that my focus is on the things I want/aim to do, rather than how I live. No wonder I’m feeling a tad skewed, my balance is off (in more ways than one!) Something I have decided on is that I need to take more time for me – not to get stuff done, but thinking, reflecting, maybe a little planning when that helps me to feel more at peace.
That sounds like a wonderful plan, Debs. Finding the balance between thinking, doing, and just being is always a tricky one. At least for me.
Hi, Christie – You have been off to a great start in your retirement. Your posts reflect that you are living your personal mission statement well. Wishing you a continued great retirement ahead filled with good health, joy, life long learning and meaningful relationships!
Thank you kindly, Donna. Your support means a lot!
I do have a personal mission statement and it’s basically a Ram Dass quote: “We’re all just walking each other home.” That’s how I try to do everything, helpful, forward moving, little judgement. Ever onward seems good to me.
I love that quote as a mission statement, Ally. If we live with that intention in mind, we really can’t go wrong.
Hi Christie, I like how you are intentionally living your WOTY. I recall when I was exploring Reiki very briefly that they had a number of grounding exercises. I have not continued that exploration – I think it was just not right time/place; I expect I might return to it as it was fascinating. Around the same time as the Reiki exploration, I had my “energy field” assessed by an energy healer & she said I did need more grounding. So that might be another area to explore – energy healing. Just some added thoughts for your intentionality.
Thanks for the suggestions, Pat. I will look into both of those practices.