Hi,
I'm Hannah from Grounded Life.
This is the offering of Guided Breathwork,
Created as an invitation to pause,
Reconnect,
And check in with yourself amidst the rhythms of everyday life.
So whether you're new to breathwork or whether you're returning to your practice,
You're very welcome here.
Just simply allow your breath to be in its natural,
Comfortable,
Habitual pace.
Now today's practice,
We're exploring standing your ground,
Where our feet meets the earth,
And we'll be reflecting on what it means to stand in our own experience.
So find a position that feels comfortable for your body today.
Seated or lying down or maybe you're walking or moving and if so,
Simply adapt the practice so you feel safe in doing so.
So I hope you enjoy and let's begin.
Welcome to this grounded breathwork practice.
Before we begin,
A gentle invitation.
As breath and embodiment.
Practices.
Can meet us in many different ways.
The landscape of the body is never exactly the same twice.
And as we wonder through this terrain.
Together today.
May we meet?
Ourselves in the moment.
As it is the first.
And the last time that this moment will be met.
And perhaps throughout this practice.
You will notice that some places of the terrain,
Of yourself,
May meet you and greet you openly.
Bubbling with sensation and aliveness.
While others remain quiet.
Places and spaces hidden beneath the surface like seeds resting in winter soil.
However your body communicates or chooses to communicate with you today.
Can you welcome that and make space for it?
There is no right way to experience this practice and therefore there is no wrong way either.
You are invited to follow and explore what feels nourishing for you.
And if something resonates stay with it.
If something doesn't,
You can allow it to pass like a cloud moving across the sky.
And when your attention wanders,
As it naturally does.
You can always return to the sound of my voice.
And the rhythm of your own breathing.
May this practice offer a space to listen.
To listen more deeply to yourself.
To explore.
Of foundations beneath you.
And to reconnect to a quiet but sustainable strength.
One that has always been here.
Take a slow breath in.
And a gentle breath out.
Allowing yourself to relax.
To arrive.
And gently staying with the rhythm of your own breath.
Throughout the entirety of this practice.
As we begin to bring the attention and awareness to the physicality of the body.
The ridge lines of your shoulders.
The scapula and collarbone.
The mountain range.
Of your spine.
Each peak.
Each vertebra.
Connected in formation.
The bowl of your pelvis.
The rivers and tributaries flowing through soft tissue.
A changing weather system.
Moving.
As your physiology.
Every landscape.
Is shaped.
Moment to moment.
Through relationships.
By the experience and experiences it has moved through and with.
By the environment.
That it is placed and grows within.
And the ancestry and history.
That impact.
And influences.
Its connection.
And growth.
Allow your breath to move across the contours of the body like wind across Moreland's hillside.
Touching every ridge and hollow.
Notice how the breath moves you.
Without effort,
Without instruction.
Simply allow yourself to be free.
Gently allowing your awareness to drift away.
Down the landscape of your being and body.
Towards your heart.
Feet.
The place where your body meets the ground.
And much of your life.
Like roots reaching into soil,
Your feet are in continual conversation with the earth beneath.
Receiving.
Adjusting,
Responding.
And giving.
In the reciprocal relationship between body,
Bone and earth.
And for most of human history.
Their feet.
Have met the stone.
The mud and the grass and the water.
Continually adapting to the changing ground.
Perhaps there is something deeply remembered.
In that meeting of elements.
And the soul.
Of your feet.
Take a moment to sense.
What this brings for you.
Noticing the shape.
And the landscape of your own feet.
The heels.
The arches.
The inner and outer arches.
The balls of the feet.
The soles of your feet,
The toes.
Ankles.
Notice the temperature.
Of the feet as a whole or perhaps Each part of the feet holds a different dynamic of heat,
Of pressure,
Of texture.
And perhaps a lot is moving with the feed and perhaps very little.
Can you welcome?
Whatever.
Is here.
Breathing gently.
With the feet that spend their life gathering information.
Making countless journeys and walking continual pathways to help you find balance.
Without ever asking for recognition.
Carrying you from place to place.
They are the foundations from which you stand.
The place from which you move towards and move away.
Step back or step in.
Or to stand your ground with ground,
The place from which you move towards what matters most.
And move away from that which needs space.
The place from which you choose your direction.
Or follow blindly.
And perhaps this is where the personal power comes in.
Not in the striving.
In the overriding,
The instruction.
The force but in the relationship in feeling supported enough to stand.
Supported Enough to choose.
Supported.
Enough to take the next step.
Fear often lives here in the feet.
The fear of being seen.
The fear of taking up space.
The fear of expressing what is true and the fear of stepping towards what we long for most.
These fears can show themselves in hesitation.
Avoidance and uncertainty,
Waiting for permission.
And yet the roots of the tree do not apologize for reaching into the earth.
They anchor.
They create stability so that life can continue to grow upward,
Outward,
Expand.
And even ecosystems and microclimates are created from their growth through ground.
Or perhaps your feet.
In full recognition can offer something similar.
Now as you breathe here,
Noticing the shape.
Of the feet and the conversation happening beneath the surface of the skin.
Allowing breath to lie at the centre of this inquiry.
Staying with breath as you explore.
The foundations of your feet.
The personality.
Conditioning of your feet.
And inviting you for Just a few moments.
To explore.
Allowing your feet to no longer need to hold you.
To instead allow yourself to hold your feet.
Invite the feet to simply be held in this moment,
To be held by you.
Be held by the ground.
Be held by gravity.
Be held by the chair or floor beneath you,
Receiving support rather than creating it.
And offering.
And gratitude to these remarkable structures.
That have done so much.
And take in us.
To where we are now.
The arches of the feet forming living bridges.
Between body and mind.
At the bottom.
Between our past and future.
And this very moment.
Allow breath to move and wash and flow through every corner of the feet.
Discovering hidden valleys between the toes.
And small hollows.
Finding quiet inlets along coastlines and trusting the current.
Perhaps there is something within you that recognizes.
That rhythm,
Something that remembers how to suffer,
To be.
Be supported.
Trust.
The ground beneath.
I'll see you in this one.
Can you take up a little more space as you soften into this relationship?
Of trusting these conditions in this moment.
If it feels okay to do so.
And equally important is taking notice of anything and everything.
That stands and sits and exists in between.
That trust.
Breathing with your own experience.
Be curious.
Taking your place and standing firmly within the wider ecosystem of life.
And perhaps gently asking yourself,
What helps?
You feel supported.
Where in life?
Do you already feel grounded?
Where do you hesitate?
To express yourself.
From a grounded place.
What gets in the way of that?
And Where do you hold yourself back?
From standing fully in your own experience.
What does personal power mean for you?
Allowing these questions to be carried by the current.
Of your breath.
Quiet composting.
Awareness,
Transforming in their own time.
Notice what feels alive,
What bubbles.
What moves.
Taking a few more breaths here with your feet.
With this remarkable geography,
Place.
Where body and earth continually greet each other.
And now beginning to widen your awareness out.
Not to locate the separate regions of the body,
But to Start.
To widen their awareness to the whole living ecosystem of your being.
Which includes your feet and your legs.
Your pelvis and your hips and your belly.
Your chest and your shoulders.
Your arms and your hands.
Your neck.
And your face.
Your eyes and ears,
Your scalp and hair.
Whole body breathing.
Escape.
Breathing body.
Cellular networks exchanging information.
Beneath the forest.
And pollinators moving between flowers.
Your body is not a collection of separate parts.
Nothing is static even now.
In its stillness,
In its contraction.
In its voided places.
Everything still moves in relationship and is moving in response to each other.
Connection.
Reciprocity.
Supporting growth to emerge.
Whether understood through the lens of physiology or ecology or culture.
Placing our feet upon the earth reminds us.
That we are not moving across the world.
We are participating within it.
Every step.
And exchange.
Every breath.
And exchange.
Every moment another opportunity to stand.
In connection.
Rather than separation.
Perhaps this is another way of understanding power.
Not power over.
But power rooted in the relationship.
The power that knows.
When to stand fir,
Where to stand fir,
And where to soften.
Power can receive support as much as offer it.
Empower that remembers.
That it belongs to a wider web of life.
And as we begin to come towards the end of this practice,
Inviting some gentle movement sprouting.
And the wiggling of fingers and toes.
Growing and gravitating.
Towards movement of a hand or a foot.
Emerging into more of a stretch and yawn.
Allowing the body to move in whatever way feels natural and good right now.
And when you're ready.
And gently blend.
The eyes open if they were not open already.
Allow your gaze to be soft as you look around your space.
Perhaps nothing around you has changed.
Maybe the room remains the same.
Maybe the sounds remain.
And the world continues,
And yet.
.
.
For a few moments you have met the world very differently.
Through the doorway and portal of sensation and presence.
And through the quiet yet infinite intelligence of your own body and being.
So as you continue your day,
Or perhaps you're going to rest here.
A little longer.
Know there is nothing to remember.
Nothing to hold on to and nothing you need to do with this experience.
Only knowing that This landscape remains available to you.
Your breath.
Your body.
Your relationship with the ground beneath your feet.
Your capacity to pause and to listen and reconnect.
And may each step become a small act in the knowing that you belong.
Not above nature.
Not outside of nature.
But within it.
Meeting the Earth as it has always met you.
Thank you for breathing with me today.
Thank you for breathing with your remarkable body.
And thank you to your feet.
In whichever way they present today.
For carrying your story.
Your choices.
Your possibility.
One step,
One breath at a time.
I hope to breathe and walk alongside you again soon.
