What do you do when you absolutely must get something out of your head or off your chest? Where do you go when you are frustrated and need to release nervous energy?

For some, it's out for a run.

For others, it's to the kitchen to make something delicious.

For me, it's writing.

When I'm writing, everything makes sense. My mind is literally unfolding on the page, or often through a keyboard and into Squarespace for my blog. It's an energy that grounds me.

The mystic Meister Eckart said, "A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there."

Cary and I had dinner the other night with some folks who happened to be former professional dancers. They described dancing with broad smiles on their faces as if talking about "their happy place".

My neighbor's place of grounding is out on a boat, fishing. Everything makes sense when he's casting and looking out over the water.

The problem is, many of us, as life goes on, ignore the places that ground us. We instead fill our schedules with the things we "have to do" and lose the joy of the things that ground us.

Problem #2 is that we often think that if we cannot do that thing we love "full time", we shouldn't do it at all. Imagine if the Pope used this as an excuse before being elected, "Well, I'll take the job but only I if I get to preach all day every day." Just because we aren't doing the thing we love full time, doesn't mean it's not worth doing some of the time.

Go to the place that grounds you. It's probably either physical or artistic (and sometimes both). The key is to go there and savor every moment of it.