Hello and welcome back to Practicing Human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I'm your host, Corey Muscara, and in today's episode we will talk about finding your ground.

More to come on that in a moment. First, let's settle in together with the sound of the bells.

One of the things that initially drew me to meditation and continues to draw me to meditation

was that it was a way to find a certain kind of security, safety, and groundedness that was consistent

and consistent through the changing variables of my life.

People shifting, circumstances shifting, highs and lows, good things and bad things.

It was, at least for me, my first entryway, my meditation was a doorway for me into

exploring the space within me that was untouched by external conditions.

Prior to meditation, I don't think I knew that space really existed. I spent a lot of time

shifting the external variables. I still spent a lot of time shifting my external variables,

but back then it was more with this constricted sense that I need to shift this in order to be fulfilled.

These days it's more understood that changing the variables in my life might make the journey

more pleasant and less painful and optimize certain things, but it's not going to be my refuge.

It was a compelling idea that there was a space within me that I can drop into

that could serve as a groundedness, a place of calm, safety, and interknowing that I could come back to

even in the most difficult times in my life. It was even more powerful to see that that was true.

That place does exist within us. I remember even thinking when I first long retreat in Asia,

where we're meditating many hours per day, and we don't have much. We're eating two small meals.

The majority of the day is occupied with 14 plus hours of meditation,

uncomfortable bed we're sleeping on, pretty bare bones. I just remember dropping into a place

within myself that one of the things that arose from that space was the recognition that

...