Hello and welcome to this standing meditation.
If standing isn't a good option for you right now or maybe it's not accessible at all,
Then it's no problem to participate in this meditation while seated and I just encourage you if possible to find a seated position where your feet are able to rest on the floor.
And so to begin if you're standing,
I invite you to bring your feet about hips distance apart and allow there to be a soft bend in the knees.
And before we move into the body and into the standing meditation more deeply,
I just invite you to bring in a few deep breaths into the body.
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling out the mouth.
Taking a couple more deep breaths on your own.
Inviting your body to relax,
Maybe giving over to the pull of gravity.
And now bringing your attention back into the feet,
Lift and spread your toes wide,
Feeling them grip the floor beneath you.
And just take a moment to rock back and forth on the feet,
Feeling all the different points of contact between your feet and the earth.
Rocking backwards and forwards,
Left and right.
And then slowly finding some stillness.
And I invite you to bring about 60% of your body weight into your heels.
But really just finding whatever feels grounding and solid for you in this position.
And let your awareness fill the feet.
So noticing any sensations,
Noticing if the feet feel warm or maybe they feel cool.
Is there any sensation of pain or tightness in the feet?
Maybe you can't feel much of anything or maybe the feet feel numb,
And that's okay too.
Just allowing that,
Feeling into that.
And then let your awareness rise up into the ankles and the calves,
The lower legs.
And into your knees,
Where again,
We bring in a softness,
Making sure the knees aren't locked out.
And then bring your awareness into the pelvis,
Maybe tucking the tailbone slightly,
Drawing your belly in,
Letting there be a softness in the belly.
And now grow your spine long,
Maybe imagining that there's a string attached to your spine.
The crown of your head,
And it's being pulled gently upward.
We also want to check in with the chest here,
Drawing the chest in,
Letting the shoulders be soft.
Sometimes we have a tendency to puff the chest outward when we grow the spine long.
So again,
Tucking the tailbone,
Drawing the belly in,
Growing the spine long,
But allowing there to be an openness and a softness in the chest and the shoulders.
And now relaxing the jaw,
Relaxing all the micro-muscles in the face.
And around the eyes and the forehead.
And allowing your awareness to fill the back of the skull and the top of the skull.
And then again,
Drawing in the tailbone and the belly,
Growing the spine long,
Soft chest,
Heart,
Shoulders,
Jaw.
And notice if there's a natural sway in the body as you stand here.
Maybe you occasionally feel the tops of your thighs flexing in order to help you maintain balance.
And just noticing how the body responds to standing here.
And also just experimenting with where you feel the most stable in this position.
And finding your center point.
And once you've found it,
See if you can find some stillness in your position.
And maybe tuning into the sensation of gravity.
And feeling your body rooted to the earth.
Maybe you can feel your blood pooling in your hands or your feet.
And just find a point here in the body to allow your awareness to rest.
Maybe in the sensations of your feet on the floor or in your hands.
Maybe in your chest as the chest rises and falls with each breath.
Or maybe you bring your awareness to the breath itself as it flows in and out of the nose.
And the mind will wander and thoughts will come,
Thoughts will go.
Just see if you can allow them to rise and fall without clinging to a thought or creating a story around it.
But just letting it go and then returning back to your point of focus.
Back to the body,
To the breath.
And feeling stable and solid here in this position.
And now inviting a few deeper breaths into the body.
Breathing in through the nose.
And exhaling through the mouth.
And again.
Now invite some movement into the feet.
Maybe rocking your hips back and forth.
And rolling the wrists and the shoulders.
And on an inhale,
Bringing your arms overhead,
Palms to touch.
And exhale to lower your hands to heart center.
And if you haven't already,
You can blink your eyes open.
Maybe shake out the limbs a little bit.
And I hope this meditation helps you to feel a little more grounded moving into the rest of your day.
Thank you.
