Grounding Techniques Workshop

In this session, we focus on techniques for grounding in the body and the present moment. These techniques work for most people as a way to down-regulate and calm the body and mind.

As you develop a meditation practice it is important to have reliable ways of regulating yourself to a calm, even state as a stable baseline from which to explore more challenging and emotionally activating techniques. Remember that meditation should make you feel good. Always listen to your body.

In this session, we experiment with several breathing and humming techniques to scan and tune the body and its relation to the environment.

Transcript

Whatever else you do in meditation,

It's good to have a set of reliable grounding techniques.

Things that,

You know,

Regulate you down,

Calm you,

Give you a safe baseline to like explore.

Other things you do,

Any kind of visualization and stuff tends to be more kind of upregulating as we like invite in more visual imagination that can bring up memories and associations.

And so sometimes when we just want calm,

It's better to not use visualization techniques and just be very much in the body.

And so we'll focus on ways to do that today.

And of course,

The way you breathe affects that too.

And so in general,

You want to keep your breath kind of even or a little bit longer and more open on the exhale than the inhale.

You know,

That regulates us down,

Grounding,

Slower,

Calmer,

That kind of thing.

So that'll be the theme today.

Maybe people will fall asleep if they get too grounded and calm,

But that's okay too.

That's a risk that sometimes is worth taking.

Yeah.

So we'll just focus on finding this nice foundation,

Baseline,

And we can invite alertness into it too.

We don't have to be sleepy.

So if you find yourself falling asleep,

You can take some deep,

A little slightly deeper in breaths,

But overall we're going to keep our breath kind of even.

And so the first technique I thought we'd explore is a very,

And some of these have a sound aspect.

So actually let's,

So I think towards the end,

Maybe we'll do a sound exercise together if people want to participate,

But I'm going to just go ahead and mute everyone now just because some of the sounds,

It's nice to just explore it on your own and not like,

It's good to sync up sounds sometimes,

But it's also good to just explore your own and just cause sometimes the sound of the breath can be a good way of checking in with ourself.

So just,

Yeah,

First we'll just do the sound in our own space and get in touch with our own sound.

So the first breathing exercise we'll do is one you can call snake breath and we'll just make a hissing or a shh or on the exhale and just breathe in normally and then just shh or ss and allow that to slow the breath down naturally and without forcing it one way or the other,

You can sort of like,

You get some nice audio feedback.

You can hear the quality of the breath and it'll just gradually put the brakes on it,

Slow it down a little bit,

Just from the resistance of that sound.

And if,

You know,

Maybe a snake sounds kind of fearsome and not a calming thing,

But if you feel a little fear,

If you get a little twinge of danger from the snake,

That's okay too.

Just accept that,

Welcome that fear in.

And if you want,

You can use the,

That energy of the snake as a,

As a fearsome creature to protect the space.

So use the energy of that little bit of fear or danger if you feel it and just imagine that there's a snake warrior guarding and protecting the space so that you can be grounded and calm and just express that into the breath if you want.

So give it a nice little and maybe if there's energy,

If you have anxiety,

If you're feeling antsy,

Just you can really put some energy into it and then just allow breath after breath for it to sort of calm until it's more like a nice and just do a few breaths.

And just notice if that kind of like gradually organically slows the breath down.

Tends to have that effect.

And see if you can get just a little softer which with each breath until it's just like a nice and as it gets softer,

Maybe close your eyes and bring your attention to the soundscape in the room and hear the little soft hiss.

And as it gets softer and softer,

Hear the other sounds in the room and just hear yourself making this little hissing soft exhale and hearing into the rest of the space around you.

And just see how soft you can get with that sound.

And it's okay if there's a racket,

If there's noise from the street.

It doesn't have to sound one way or another for it to be a good it doesn't have to sound one way or another for it to be a good space to do some grounding.

So just hear the space that you're in,

Hear the sounds around you.

And hopefully you've got a nice,

You feel a little bit more calm,

Maybe the breath has slowed down a little bit.

And so the next thing we'll do is we'll play with counting a little bit.

And so we can count with our body by snapping our fingers,

Or maybe just by kind of,

If you have your hands in your lap,

You can tap like this.

And again,

I'm not going to make a sound for you to follow because it's nice to kind of like make the rhythm yourself.

So find a nice tapping or snapping,

Or maybe like tap with both hands on your chest.

So just do that,

And wherever the breath is for you,

See if you can do four in and four out.

This is just four taps in,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Out,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And wherever you are,

However fast or slow your breath is right now,

Just find the pace of an even four in and four out.

And you might notice that as you do that,

The pace slows down a little and you can either add to the count and count five or six in and five or six out,

Whatever number you're at,

Or you can lengthen the interval between the taps,

Either one,

Whichever feels more natural.

And we're not trying to change the rhythm,

We're not trying to change our breath to fit the rhythm,

We're trying to,

You know,

Fit the rhythm to what feels natural in the breath.

Just keep doing that until you find a nice comfortable pace.

It feels balanced.

And then we'll come back a little bit,

Make it a little bit shorter than where that was.

So if you were out to eight or something,

Maybe come back to four or five,

If you're out at six,

Yeah,

Just bring it in a little bit or speed up the pace a little bit,

Just 10-15% to give us a little more air.

Because the next thing we'll try to do is to make it a square breath.

So instead of just in,

Four,

Out,

Four,

We'll go in,

Four,

Hold,

Four,

Out,

Four,

Hold,

Four.

And so yeah,

So you might need to make the count a little shorter or dial it back with the numbers.

And then again,

Just make the count fit the breath,

Don't force the breath to fit a count that you pick.

So feel that out until you have a nice natural feeling like in two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four.

So just play with that until you find a space that feels good with that.

And again,

Naturally,

It'll be easier to find it a little bit shorter,

And then maybe sort of gradually let it lengthen as you feel into it and get more comfortable.

And then if you like,

If you have a strong sense for the time,

And you think that you don't need to keep tapping or counting in your head,

You can let it go.

And that's a really,

That's a really nice place to pay back,

Pay our attention back to the soundscape to the sounds in the room.

Because there can be just that really delicious silence.

So quiet,

Full and also empty when the air is still.

So if you like that,

If you quiet the count,

And just taste that nice silence or hear the sounds that are in the room.

See how many little sounds,

New things that you can hear,

Or new dimensions,

New aspects to that sound.

If it's a steady sound,

See if you can find little trembles of volume or pitch.

That silence between the breaths.

And then when you're ready,

You can release the count and the holds and just go back to a natural breath.

Try to control it,

Just let it be as it is.

And just feel the whole body,

Feel the whole chest,

The body in space.

Feel how you orient with regard to gravity,

Feel gravity pulling you down and your muscles pulling you up.

And notice where there's tension in those muscles.

And see if you can breathe a little bit of upwards energy and lightness and relaxation.

So drain the energy away from tightness that's unnecessary,

That's not really even holding you up,

It's just from habit.

See if you can loosen in a few places that don't need to be so tight.

And then also allow that to make it even easier to be upright and energized.

See if you can find that.

If not,

If you're lying down and you want to just totally relax into the cushion,

Into the bed,

That's good too.

And so the next grounding exercise that we'll try is humming.

And again,

This is a nice one to do together.

So maybe at the end,

People who want to do it as a group,

We can turn our mics on and hum together.

But first,

I suggest doing it just on your own to find the pitch and volume,

To find your own hum and let that tune to your body.

So similar to the snake breath,

You just breathe in normally or maybe a little bit more deeply to get a little more air.

And then on the exhale,

Just hum.

Or however it is,

And just feel where the hum vibrates.

So just do it at whatever pitch it comes out first and feel where that vibrates in your body.

And then you can play around with moving that feeling of vibration from the hum into different parts of your body.

So you can feel it in the chest.

And you can put your hand to the part of your body that you're trying to send the hum to.

Or you can just keep your hands relaxed at the side.

And so just play with that a little bit,

With sending the hum to different spots.

See if you can put your hand to the part of your body that you're trying to send the hum to.

And so just play with that a little bit,

With sending the hum to different spots.

See if you can put it up into your head.

So maybe you want to put your hand,

Your fingers to your forehead,

Your third eye,

And see if you can hum up into that space.

And just listen.

Listen to the sound of your own body vibrating in a certain way.

And feel those sensations at that point in the body.

And I should say,

If you think that you might be pregnant,

Humming is supposed to be good.

Everything I read about it said it's good to do it even if you're pregnant.

But I wouldn't say don't hum super loud,

Full force,

Right into where the baby might be.

Hum into your chest,

Hum into your head.

But I would just err on the side of caution there.

Because it generates energy,

You don't want to do anything that might change the temperature of your body around where a baby might be hanging out.

So just keep that in mind.

But I read about it and it didn't suggest that anything was dangerous,

But I would just err on the side of caution.

They've got a little sensitive ears.

And just try sending the hum into different parts of the body.

Try humming all the way down into the low abdomen.

Find the pitch,

The vibration that will just open up,

Just find a little bit more relaxation down towards the pelvis,

The very bottom of where you can send the breath.

Let's see if you can find a little relaxation there.

And another thing to do is you can try to find warmth or send warmth into the part of your body where you're sending the vibration.

So just start by noticing sensations of warmth.

And by humming,

By vibrating,

By buzzing,

It'll naturally get a little warmer.

And see if you can just send even more warmth to there.

Allow more blood flow,

A lot more relaxation,

And see if you can actually warm that part of the body up.

It can be very healing and very grounding.

And you might try doing it side to side.

So try humming just into one side of your head or your face and then switch.

So hum for three breaths into the right and then three into the left.

See if you can just feel it in one side or the other.

And see how fine-grained you can get.

Can you send it just into your cheek or just into your right eyebrow?

Or maybe it's more vague and it just fills a whole area.

Everybody's different.

And try the sides of the chest.

So hum into the right lung.

As you exhale,

See if you can just feel a nice resonance in your ribcage on that side.

Feel a buzz in your shoulder traveling down your arm.

See if you can send it down into the elbow.

Start to buzz down into there.

See if you can send those vibrations all the way down the arm,

Into your hand,

And then switch sides of the chest.

Try to send the energy there.

See if you can find a little more warmth and openness.

Just on each exhale,

Just find the pitch,

Find the frequency that sends the vibrations into that body part.

The left elbow,

The left forearm,

All the way down into the hand.

And then you might try actually picking a knee.

So if you pick your right knee,

Put both hands on the knee and then you can just feel the vibration.

Picking a knee.

So if you pick your right knee,

Put both hands on the knee and see if you can send the energy all the way down,

Coursing through your arms,

Since you just tried sending it through the arms.

So see if you can make the knee vibrate and warm up by sending this humming vibration through your body,

Through your arms.

Try the other knee.

See if the two knees feel any different,

If they respond differently to this,

Or if it's easier to feel it in one knee than the other.

Then you can just let go of the location.

And what we'll do is,

We'll focus on directions and space.

So first,

We'll start with the forward direction,

And maybe imagine that there's like a wall.

So if you just point your hands out in front of you,

You know,

And you imagine like two corners up into the right and left and down to the right and left.

Imagine you're just going to send all the energy into like a square that you're creating there and just hum into that direction.

And see if you can feel warmth and awareness on the face of your body that faces that,

That kind of square projection out in front of you.

And we'll move around that.

Basically,

We'll describe a cube in front of us,

To the left of us,

To the right of us,

To the back.

And if you're tired of humming,

You can stop humming and just try to feel warmth there,

Or maybe just sensations on the side of your body.

Or you can hum into it.

You can imagine that it's vibrating and your body is feeling those vibrations,

Or you can project vibrations into that space.

And we'll just explore the different sides of the body through this projection of the walls of a cube.

So we'll start forward.

So if you like to hum,

You can continue humming.

Just see if you can hum forward.

And then we'll just go forward.

Just see if you can hum forward.

And feel warmth in the forward facing part of your body.

Or you could drop the warmth and drop the vibration and just focus on sensations there.

Just breathe into that.

And then we can let go of the forward facing intention and focus,

And try to send this energy or receive this energy,

However you're thinking of it,

From the back wall.

So just behind us.

So maybe breathe into the muscles in the back of the ribs,

Expand out in that direction.

And if you're humming,

See if you can hum into your back,

The back of your head and your back.

And see if you can find warmth there,

If you're doing the warmth part of it.

Or else just focus on the sensations in the back of your head and your back and the back of your legs.

So just play with it.

And you can release that after your next breath.

And then we'll switch back to the front.

And we'll just juxtapose the front and the back a couple of times.

So feel back into the front,

Hum that way,

Feel that way.

And then we'll release the front and switch back to the back,

Back wall.

Good.

When you're ready,

You can release the back and we'll try the left and the right.

So first,

Focus on the left.

So hum into the left side of your face,

Your left lung,

Your left hand.

Maybe you even want to raise your hand and sort of put it in that direction.

As if you could send the vibrations and the warmth out that way.

Or just keep it down there and relax and just focus on the feelings on that side of the body.

Just feel into the left half.

Part of you that faces left.

Okay,

And when you're ready,

Relax the left side and we'll give the right a moment.

A few breaths.

So focus on the right,

Send your energy,

Your vibration,

Your warmth,

Your mindfulness.

Orient towards the right.

I'm going to release that and then we'll do the top and bottom.

But first,

Let's just take a deep breath in and then release it.

And then just hold it out for just a moment of stillness.

Just a nice.

.

.

Just hear the silence.

And then resume natural breathing.

Just see if you can enjoy a moment of silence before we go back.

And then you can resume and project your focus upwards.

So hum up into the top of the hands,

The top of the head and the shoulders.

Or feel warmth there or just sensation there.

Notice that there's something a little unique about up compared to those other directions because of gravity.

Gravity naturally orients us up and down.

Just project upwards,

Be sensitive upwards.

And when you're ready,

You can release up and begin to focus on downwards.

Hum down into the floor,

Down into the earth.

Feel the warmth of the earth.

Feel rooted,

Feel grounded.

Feel held by the gravity of the earth.

Resonate with it.

And when you're ready,

We'll release the earth and we'll revisit upwards.

And pay special attention to this switch because it's especially juicy because we're playing with gravity.

So just release downwards and then release upwards.

Just notice that moment of switch.

And then when you're ready,

We'll switch back to down.

Focus down again,

Feel downwards.

And then when you're ready,

You can release that and then release upwards.

And then we'll do the same thing with the other hand.

And then when you're ready,

You can release that and then just release all intentions.

And just relax.

Just rest into the flow of the current moment.

And follow the breath.

If you need an anchor,

Thoughts start to arise.

Or you could even release the breath and just try to find a stillness.

See if you can allow the stillness to expand outwards from you so you feel still in this moment.

But hear the space around you.

And even if there's sounds,

You can hear them from a place of stillness.

You can start to look around the room a little bit.

Softly open your eyes.

Look around from a sense of stillness.

A little calmer,

A little quieter.

Just notice if looking around starts to bring up thoughts or feelings of anxiety.

Just see if you can notice that Just see if you can notice that new churning,

The new thought processes.

Just notice them with gentleness.

Just welcome them in as well.

See if you can notice the normal chaos of normal life from a little bit more of a place of stillness.

You can let your awareness drift to your computer and to the internet connection and the Zoom chat that's allowing us to share this little moment in this practice.

Just be grateful for that technological miracle.

And just let your awareness drift out to the other people that are in the group.

And recognize the same activity,

The same process in them of looking for a little more grounding,

A little more stillness.

And just see that that is something that we all have in common.

We all get caught up.

And we all need to come back to the present moment and find grounding and stillness.

And then just broaden that from the people in the group to the people you know,

Who maybe don't have a practice like this.

And just see if you can send them a little bit of grounding and stillness and calm.

You can just share that with other people.

Just see if you can share that with everyone in the world.

Just a little bit.

Just hypothetically,

What if you could?

What if you were so grounded and still that as a group we could just share that with everyone?