Before you can touch base you have to know where base is. Base is home. Base is where you belong. Base is where you feel comfortable, secure, loved, restored and trusted. Base is where you feel strong and in control. Base is anywhere you can kick your shoes off, metaphorically and physically, and rest your head safe in the knowledge you’ll be looked after.

We all lead increasingly busy, frenetic and frantic lives. We all get caught up in the hurly-burly of life to such an extent that we lose sight of where we thought we were going and what we thought we were going to do and what we were going to achieve. Base is going back to where you dreamed it all, planned it all out. Base is where you were before you got lost.

Base camp might well be rediscovering our roots – essential in an age when we all move around so much. Knowing who your family is, where you come from, what your real background is. It’s OK to have ambition and move on from our roots, but it’s also important to know who we are and where we came from. You can sometimes sense it in celebrities who have become incredibly famous or rich. Often they try to deny their past and pretend to be something else and in the process they come across as shallow and fake.

For you, base might be a place where you grew up, where you’re reminded of the feelings of growing up – the hopes and fears, the younger you. Or it might be a person who provides the base – a best friend from many years ago who can remind you of how you were before it all got so confusing.

Of course, we might not all know where we come from and we have to make allowances for that. You might be adopted, but you were raised somewhere. Whatever your circumstances, you will have something that makes you feel grounded if you look for it. It doesn’t have to be where you were born and raised. If you are really struggling, then it’s possible to create yourself a new base. Anywhere that makes you feel secure is fine.

We all need time with people or in places where we can be ourselves, where we don’t have to explain, justify, provide background or give a good impression. That’s the joy of touching base – being somewhere where you are accepted without question and everything around you reminds you of what’s really important. Touching base is something that, when we do it, we wonder why on earth we left it so long.