Okay,
Welcome to a somatic grounding meditation and we're basically gonna spend roughly the next 20 minutes just slowing down and just checking in with how our body is doing.
And I really like to use this meditation if I'm feeling overwhelmed or stressed out or anxious.
I find it really helpful at the end of a workday or after engaging in something that is really activating and I just need a bit more support winding down.
But that being said,
Feel free to use this meditation whenever.
So we're gonna start off by setting our posture and you're welcome to lie down on the floor.
You're welcome to sit up supported by a cushion or a block or sitting in a chair.
Just make sure that your spine is straight,
That your chest is open,
Shoulders are relaxed,
And I invite you to fold your hands onto one another with your thumbs touching.
Or you can just put your palms down on your thighs.
Really just find what is most comfortable for you.
Begin to loosen the jaw,
Allow the face to soften,
Just begin to slow everything way down,
Way way down.
And start to draw your awareness towards your breath and just notice the quality of your breath.
Is your breath deep?
Is it shallow?
Are you breathing from the belly or your chest?
Just begin to notice how is my breath moving right now in my body.
Sometimes throughout the day when we get stressed or overwhelmed or anxious our breath can actually start to shift.
We can actually start to breathe more shallowly.
We can begin to breathe through our chest and what we want to focus on shifting right now is just slowing down the inhale and exhale and drawing that breath deeply down into the lower belly.
Good.
So lengthening the inhale,
Drawing the breath down into the belly,
And then releasing on the exhale.
Just a nice effortless exhale.
Good.
And just continue at your own pace.
Something that I like to do that's helpful is I just like to put a hand sort of an inch below my belly button and I just like to track the rise and fall of my belly.
And this helps me slow everything way way down.
And then just notice how are you feeling right now as you begin to consciously slow the breath down and deepen the breath into the lower belly.
Notice if there's anything shifting or changing for you in this moment.
So now I want to invite you to bring your awareness to the bottom of your feet and we're just gonna do a visualization practice and feeling both feet on the ground.
I want you to imagine the bottoms of your feet opening up and roots beginning to grow out of your feet.
And these roots are going to travel down past the floorboards,
Down past the foundation of your house,
Into the dirt,
Into the rocks,
Traveling down throughout the many layers of the earth.
Feel these roots start to travel down and then I want you to feel these roots connect to the center of the earth.
Just really hooking and snagging on something really solid.
So this is a nice secure ground connection that we have with the earth now.
And from this place we're gonna drop into our somatic scan.
So let's bring the awareness back into the feet and just notice how your feet feel right now.
And just notice do you sense any heat in your feet,
Any tension,
Maybe some pins and needles,
Maybe some tingling.
We're just trying to be a compassionate witness to the different sensations that may be occurring in our body and to also connect with and feel these sensations.
So see if you can feel your toes,
The tops of your feet,
Your ankles.
Just being with the sensations that are present in that part of your body.
And then bring your awareness up into the ankles,
Into the ankle joints.
Moving the feeling awareness up into the calves and into the front of the lower legs,
Your shins.
Just getting curious how is this part of my body feeling right now.
And then drawing the awareness up into the knees,
All the different ligaments and tendons of the knees,
The kneecap.
Allowing this joint to soften and relax and release and allowing the whole body to continue to remain soft,
Relaxed.
Okay now moving up into the thighs,
The tops of the thighs,
The side of the thighs,
Your IT band,
The bottom of the thighs,
Your hamstrings.
Just connecting with the sensations in this part of your body.
Really feeling into this part of your body.
And then begin to draw your awareness to your seat,
To your bum and really feel into the connection that your bum has with a chair that you may be sitting on right now or maybe you're sitting on a cushion or a block or maybe you're on the ground.
But just really see if you can feel that connection that that part of your body has with whatever is supporting you right now.
And then see if you can allow yourself to deepen even more into that support.
Moving into the hips,
Into the pelvic bowl.
How do your hips feel?
Again not trying to change anything,
Just noticing,
Just getting curious.
And then drawing the awareness into the lower back,
Noticing how the lower back is feeling.
Moving up into the mid-back,
Just tracing the awareness vertebrae,
Vibrate vertebrae from the mid-back into the upper back.
And so just see if you can connect with the entirety of your back right now.
And see if you can allow that part of your body to soften even more.
We're gonna come back down to the belly,
Noticing how the belly is moving with the breath,
The expansion of the belly with the inhale and the contraction of the belly with the exhale.
Moving up into these solar plexus,
Notice how your chest feels,
Connecting with the pectoral muscles.
Then I want you to connect with your shoulders,
Allowing the shoulders to soften and release and relax.
Just really allowing any excess tension that you may be holding in your body to move out of you through your feet,
Through the roots that are connected to the earth.
And from your shoulders just slowly trace the awareness down into the upper arms,
Into the biceps and triceps,
Into the elbows.
Can you really connect with your elbows?
Can you notice how that part of your body is feeling?
Moving into your forearms,
How do your wrists feel?
And then bring your attention into your hands,
Again noticing if there's any presence of heat,
If your hands feel cold,
Maybe tingly,
Just getting curious about what sensations are there.
And then now let's draw the awareness up into the neck,
Especially where the neck connects to the shoulders,
Just allowing everything to soften and loosen.
Bringing your awareness into your face now,
Into the mask of the face and just see if you can allow the entire mask of the face to soften.
And connecting with the sensation in your lips,
Just noticing how do my lips feel right now.
Can I feel my nose?
Can I feel my eyes,
My eyebrows,
My forehead?
And just really seeing if I can soften my eyes so I can just feel them resting in my eye sockets.
Connecting with the jaw,
Feeling the jaw soften and loosen,
Just allowing any tension in the jaw to melt away in the same way that ice melts into water.
How do your ears feel?
Can you notice how your scalp is feeling?
And so now we're just going to do a broad check-in with the body.
Just notice how your body as a whole feels right now.
And hopefully you're feeling a little more relaxed and slowed down from when we first started this meditation.
And so we're just going to sit in silence for the next few minutes and I want you to see if you can really hone in on that sense of relaxation and really allow yourself to receive it and marinate in it.
Okay.
Okay.
And if you find yourself getting distracted,
Maybe by your thoughts or anything else in the environment,
Just slowly draw yourself back to your breath,
Back to your body,
Back to the present moment.
Okay.
Okay,
So we're going to gently begin to come out of this meditation.
You can do that by bringing some gentle movement into the toes,
Into the feet,
Into your fingers and hands.
And if you had your eyes closed,
You can start to gently blink the eyes open,
Coming back into the room or space where you're meditating in.
Good.
And just take your time coming back into the space,
Coming back into your day.
Thank you so much for joining me and really give yourself a bit of gratitude for taking the time out of your day to slow down and to take care of yourself.
Thank you so much and have a wonderful rest of your day.
