Today,
We're going to spend a few moments finding the present moment.
We're going to take some conscious breaths and spend some time grounding or earthing.
That is,
Connecting our physical body with the energy of the Earth.
Start by finding a comfortable position lying down on your back on the floor.
If you can't lie down on your back,
Find a seated position with your feet touching the ground.
Connect as much of your being to the Earth.
Close your eyes and focus on your inhale and exhale as they are happening in the present moment.
All you have to do is breathe.
Feel the weight of your body on the floor and let your present melt into the ground like candle wax moving away from a flame.
With each breath,
You fall deeper into the Earth.
The places where you can physically feel your body touching the floor,
That's the place you are grounding and connecting to the Earth.
I usually find moments to connect my bare body to the Earth when I'm feeling overwhelmed,
Disconnected or confused.
It's a place to go when you need to feel re-centered.
Gently place a hand on your belly and feel the rise and fall of your stomach with each breath movement.
I want you to imagine that with each breath,
Roots are growing out of your body and pulling you deeper and closer to the Earth.
All you have to do in this moment is breathe.
With each breath,
Those roots get a little bit longer,
Deeper.
Some of these roots are your ancestors that have come before you.
Some of these roots are current movements to alignment that you are making in your own life,
Like showing up today.
But all of these roots are part of who you are.
And all you have to do to make them deeper is to just breathe.
Feel the rise and fall of your belly.
While you're connected at your deepest moment,
We're going to switch our breathing pattern to something called box breaths.
It's a way that people in high stress situations control their emotions by focusing on their breath.
It's called a box breath because we're going to spend a perfect amount of time on each side of the box of your breath.
And that's going to be a count of four.
I'll guide you through the first one.
Inhale for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold it at the top for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Slowly release for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold it at the bottom for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
I want you to continue this on your own.
And with each box completion,
Your roots find even more length.
Those pauses at the top and bottom are spaces that your mind and your subconscious are going to grow.
Those are the juicy moments.
The pauses.
The stillness.
The control.
One more on your own.
When you've completed,
You can let your breath return back to its natural flow through your nose.
I know you can come back to this gift of breath whenever you feel stressed.
As we find an ending to our practice today,
I want you to take whatever nutrients you need from the earth.
Love,
Kindness,
Compassion,
Understanding.
You're going to imagine that your roots are slowly returning to your body.
Breathe.
Find a moment of gratefulness to the planet that supports our daily living,
That sustains us.
Your roots have now returned to your body.
And I hope you feel lighter and fuller.
We're going to do one final inhale and exhale together.
Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Let it all go.
Slowly start to find movement in your fingers and your toes.
You can roll out your wrists and your ankles.
Move your head from side to side.
I want you to reach your hands over your head and take one giant stretch like it's your first stretch of the day.
And let the stretch go.
You can open your eyes whenever you're ready.
Thank you so much for showing up today.
