Grounding In Meditation - Episode 9

Episode 9 of the Nature of Meditation podcast explores Grounding in Meditation.

Nature of Meditation monthly podcast is an exploration of the nature of silent meditation practice. Produced by Ayla Michelle at The Therapy Garden, a BAMBA accredited, registered and supervised mindfulness teacher.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Michelle and welcome to Episode 9 on Grounding in Silent Meditation Practice.

Let's start with our usual three minute silent meditation to begin to more fully arrive in our present moment experience.

And you're invited to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed.

And take your seat and become more aware of the physical ground of your being.

Becoming more aware of the sensations of breathing in your body.

And compassionately allowing your attention to naturally calm and settle itself.

Beginning to calmly abide in its own way and time without you needing to force or pressurize yourself in any way.

So let's sit together for three minutes now and become more attuned to and centered in our body.

Back in the present moment,

Feeling more embodied and grounded.

So as I've taught throughout this podcast,

Meditation teachings point us away from ego identification and not being limited to the separate individual body.

But this theory is only half of the story and theories are just thoughts after all.

So along with this theory of no self,

Often comes a disconnect from the body and from one's lived experience in the present moment.

So let me be clear and explicit about contradictory meditation theories.

The paradox in meditation theory and practice that one's true nature is not this physical body.

And yet alongside this theory sits the meditation theory that there is no separation.

Nothing is separate from anything else,

Including the mind from the body.

So according to theory,

There is no self,

But that no self includes everything.

And first and foremost,

It includes the body.

So to meditate is to be present in the body with awareness.

We experience a felt sense of presence first,

A felt sense of presence in the body before we can be free of the belief that I am an individual separate body.

But we don't want to get stuck in the belief,

The individualistic materialistic belief that I am just this separate body as that will prevent the flow of life force.

And if I'm just a separate physical body,

Then I'm separate from other bodies and separate from other elements and energies that create and sustain life.

So we don't want to get stuck in the notion of a separate physical body,

But that doesn't mean that the body doesn't exist.

And paradoxically,

We need the body to be able to transcend the physical body.

In the basic understanding of meditation practice across the different schools of Buddhism,

There are two main things that are necessary for meditation to occur.

Samantha and Vipassana,

Terms from the Sanskrit language.

Samatha is the ground of being.

It's phenomenological,

It's actual and it's real.

And Vipassana is the light of being.

It is the field of awareness itself,

The light of awakening itself.

Samatha enables us to become grounded,

Calm and steady.

Second,

Vipassana enables us to become light and clearly aware of true nature.

So in meditation practice,

Samatha is a calm abiding,

Essential to meditation.

And it involves grounding one's awareness in the sensations of the body,

Resting our attention on phenomena,

Sensorial phenomena,

So as to become more centred and grounded.

Samatha is often translated as concentration,

But for me concentration is too tense an interpretation and it doesn't give sufficient regard for the relaxation necessary for calm abiding to occur.

And it seems to me the term concentration is setting up undue force and perhaps striving and grasping as well.

So calm abiding and grounding are foundational to embodied meditation practice,

To help stabilise the attention in one's mind so that you can develop a focused,

Bright and clear awareness called Vipassana.

So the practice of calming and grounding the body is a prerequisite,

A stepping stone to insight meditation,

Necessary for awakening to the true nature of reality.

What I'm talking about here is the deep interconnection of body and mind that we experience by paying careful attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind.

In embodied meditation practice being grounded means focusing your attention on the present moment,

Connecting with your physical body or with your surroundings through your sense perception.

And by connecting with your physical body I mean a stable connecting with focused steady attention,

Not having your attention moving around onto sensing and perceiving several different things.

I mean using your sense perception,

Your sight,

Hearing,

Smell,

Taste and touch,

Your sensory awareness,

To pay careful focused attention to the sight,

Sounds,

Smells,

Tastes,

Textures and bodily sensations within you or around you.

Bringing a focused steady awareness to internal bodily sensations and to external sense perceptions without judgment and with self-compassion.

During an embodied meditation practice awareness of sensations is the primary experience and these sensorial experiences range from mild and subtle to more intense.

And sensations are the body's natural response to relaxation and to being grounded and focused.

And let's as briefly as possible because there's so many different sensations one can experience in meditation.

So let's look at just some sensations that are commonly experienced.

Sensations such as the movements of breathing in the nostrils,

Throat,

Chest and abdomen.

Sensations of the facial muscles,

Muscles in the shoulders,

Neck,

Arms,

Back,

Buttocks,

Legs,

Feet.

Sensations of the joints,

The jaw,

Shoulders,

Elbows,

Wrists,

The spine,

The pelvis,

Knees and ankles.

Tingling sensations anywhere in the body.

Involuntary movements such as twitching,

Muscular contractions or sudden movements like sneezing,

Coughing.

Sensations of pressure in or on the body.

For example,

When I'm meditating I'm aware of my hands resting on my thigh.

Aware of the weight of my hands,

The temperature,

The condition of my skin on my hands in each moment.

The veins and blood circulating through my hands.

The weight and the temperature of my hands releasing and transferring into my thigh.

So I use awareness of my hands,

Specifically the weight of my hands,

As an anchor for my meditation practice.

To stay awake,

Alert and focused.

To focus my attention on an object of meditation.

So that if my mind wanders off I can return my attention to the weight of my hands on my lap.

Another common sensation experienced in meditation is the weight of the body transferring onto the seat or cushion you're sitting on.

Sensations of the contact of your buttocks with the chair or the cushion.

Or the contact of your thighs with the chair or the cushion.

Your lower legs or your feet with the ground.

Sensations of weight created by gravity pushing the body down onto the ground.

Sensations of the body feeling heavy or the body feeling light or detached from itself.

Sensations of body temperature,

Warmth or heat in the body or cold or numbness.

Sometimes localised and sometimes throughout the body,

More generalised.

And sensations of temperature changes from feeling warmer to colder or colder to warmer.

Noticing warmth trapped under a blanket or a shawl or a jumper.

Sensations of the skin,

Tight dry skin or loose moist skin.

And we're including here a positive and negative,

Pleasurable and unpleasurable sensations including sensations of pain.

That can be accepted with self-compassion and awareness.

So these are some of the many sensations that can be experienced during an embodied meditation practice.

And such sensations are a normal part of meditation experience.

And becoming more attuned to your bodily sensations can be a sign of deepening meditation practice.

But it's important not to get attached to any particular pleasant sensation.

And at the same time important not to avoid unpleasant sensations.

So I've been fortunate enough to have heard many honest meditation practitioners confess to being attached to pleasant sensations and experiences of deep relaxation during their meditation practice.

And of course being attached to pleasant sensations and experiences is not what meditation is all about.

Attachment to pleasant sensations can be another form of ego identification as in the notion that I'm relaxed,

The notion that I am dwelling in calm abiding.

If such self-consciousness is attached to such experiences then that cannot be meditation proper.

Meditation practiced well doesn't involve self-consciousness or choosing the right path.

Any experience or sensation over another,

It doesn't involve discriminating between sensations and experiences.

So I'd like to turn now to my psychological knowledge.

And I like the somatic experiencing phrase that I think I learned many years prior in in-depth psychology.

The phrase re-remembering,

Remembering the body,

Remembering as in the cells of the body rejoining one another.

So we're not stitching up in surgery here,

But some relinking,

Reintegration is taking place in the body.

Reconnecting one's physical body and embracing embodiment with awareness.

So remembering here,

Re-remembering,

Involves becoming aware of bodily sensations and emotions and lived experiences.

And integrating them into a more holistic and conscious sense of oneself.

It involves reconnecting with disassociated parts of oneself and disassociated lived experiences that were cut off,

Frozen out,

Compartmentalized,

Denied.

And not allowed to integrate into one's conscious awareness.

So remembering here is a calling back,

A welcoming,

Allowing and accepting of one's shadow's parts that were up until now,

Unable to be brought back into the life of the body.

So remembering is also recognizing the body as a source of wisdom and true nature.

Much closer to nature than the delusory mind.

And the body as more honest than the delusory mind.

In meditation practice,

Remembering is when we receive insight and we can realize what we are meant to be shown from within oneself.

And this is insight through embodiment,

Vipassana through samatha.

We're not seeking or doing anything.

But something comes through that we need to know in the natural flow of letting things happen that are meant to be.

An element that I'm deeply grateful to be able to share with you is the element of the earth.

In embodied meditation,

Grounding is closely connected to earthing because grounding connects you to the earth's magnetic,

Electrical,

Negative charge.

Earthing and grounding are rooted in ancient healing traditions used to connect with the earth's magnetic energy,

To release stagnant energy from the mind and body.

Earthing involves direct physical contact with the earth's surface that carries a negative electrical charge.

Earthing practices such as walking barefoot on the grass or the soil,

Connecting your body to the earth's negative electrical charge in this way,

Neutralizes excess positive charge in the body.

And neutralizes free radicals in the body,

Which reduces inflammation and reduces excess positive charge in the body.

And in turn promotes relaxation and stress reduction.

So grounding encompasses various meditation and movement exercises.

Exercises that stimulate connection with the earth's energy.

Practices like embodied meditation and movement exercises such as yoga,

Tai chi and dance.

Where we can become grounded,

Embodied and bio-electrically and bio-magnetically connect with the earth's negative charge.

So grounding and earthing are integrated and necessary in meditation practice because by connecting to the earth through grounding the body,

We can more easily become present and experience a sense of calm abiding.

And grounding with the earth's negative charge also enhances relaxation and focus and promotes a sense of integration and stability.

So in summary,

Some of the benefits of grounding and earthing in meditation practice include creating a conducive environment for meditation.

As it connects with the root chakra,

Which is linked to stability and security.

And grounding and earthing foster a connection to nature and the magnetic electrical charge of the earth that neutralizes the body's excess positive charge that's associated with stress and anxiety.

And grounding and earthing can bring enhanced relaxation that helps regulate and neutralize the body's electrical rhythms.

And such neutralizing promotes a sense of balance and calm abiding.

And in meditation,

Grounding helps anchor your awareness to the present moment and to your physical body by focusing on sensations and connection to the earth.

It's a way to center yourself and calm racing thoughts and helps reduce stress and anxiety by bringing attention to the here and now,

Present moment,

Sensorial experience.

No longer lost in the past or future.

And the most common examples of practicing being grounded in meditation.

Is the practice of mindfulness of breathing.

A grounding technique used in meditation where you focus on the sensations of your breathing in your body,

Paying attention to the sensations of your in breath and your out breath.

Aware of each inhalation.

The beginning,

Middle and pause.

Beginning,

Middle,

End.

Of each exhalation.

Perhaps even counting your breaths from one to ten.

And then starting over from one again.

Another grounding techniques in meditation include sensory focus.

Focusing on internal bodily sensations.

Focusing your conscious awareness on specific internal bodily sensations.

Or it could be focusing on external sense perceptions.

Sense perceptions of specific phenomena in the environment around you.

Using your sense perception acutely.

And the body scan is another popular guided meditation,

Often used,

That involves bringing conscious attention to the different parts of the body.

Noticing sensations without judgment and cultivating a sense of presence in the body.

And movement meditations such as yoga,

Tai chi,

Qigong and dance can also help people connect with their body through movement.

And helps them cultivate body awareness.

Mindful walking is another method of connecting to the body and to the earth's magnetic energy.

Paying attention to sensations of your feet on the ground.

With each step.

And paying attention to the transfer of the weight of your body from one side of the body to the other side.

Engaging the life and energy of different body parts.

In the process of walking,

Mindfully.

Aware of the movements,

The contractions and expansions of your muscles and joints.

In the process of walking.

The healing process of walking mindfully on the earth.

Connecting to its negative charge.

So to summarise,

Some of the key aspects of grounding in embodied meditation are bringing attention to the present moment and connecting with the body.

Utilising the senses.

Utilising sense perception acutely.

Cultivating relaxation,

Calm abiding and stability.

Relaxation,

Calm abiding and stability not only of the physical body but of the attention and of the mind.

And connecting to the earth's magnetic negative charge.

To neutralise any excess positive charge in the nervous system.

So by foregrounding,

Grounding techniques in meditation practice,

We can experience a greater sense of calm and stability in ourself and in our daily life.

But I thought it was necessary to add a disclaimer alert.

Because it's not all about being calm and waiting for enlightenment.

Each of us does have the capacity to remain grounded in the deep and in the depths of despair.

No matter what is happening in our body and in our life,

However much we are in pain or buffeted,

Rocked or challenged.

And however much our safety and comfort are threatened,

We all have a capacity to remain calm,

Grounded,

Stable and unshakable.

In the eye of the storm.

We all have the capacity to be happy in adverse experience.

Coming to the close of this episode,

I'd like to invite an awareness of your embodied experience in the present moment.

Exactly as it is right now,

Whether or not it's calm.

Accepting one's present moment experience just as it is.

Because acceptance has more of a negative charge than a positive charge.

Acceptance is not fear or anxiety.

Fear and anxiety both being excessive positive charge.

And acceptance of your experience as it is,

Itself will bring a calm abiding.

So let's meditate together for five minutes now.

Being aware of the sensations of breathing in our body.

And I would like to suggest you choose one method,

Either focusing on internal sensations in your body.

Or focusing on your sense perception of external phenomena.

But not flipping between the two.

Picking one method and trying your best to focus your attention on staying with that method,

Using that method and enjoying that method.

Exploring that method and ultimately releasing that method.

Okay,

Let's meditate for five minutes together now.

Coming to a close of this episode.

That I hope you experienced as grounding in some way.

Thank you for listening and I recall the next episode is going to be about silence in meditation practice.

So I look forward very much to creating that for you.

And meet you here again next month.

Bye for now.