Hello friends.
Welcome to Somatic Training for Leaders.
My name is Christopher Wilson.
I am a somatic psychology master's degree student at California Institute of Integral Studies and an integral development coach.
I love practicing and sharing embodied leadership skills.
In today's practice,
We're going to be building on somatic meditation,
Focusing on the first step of arriving,
Finding our seat,
And the practice of full body breathing and tracking sensation through the body.
So let's begin.
Go ahead and find your seat.
And notice as you do this,
That this step,
It's so easy to underappreciate how important it is,
And how special it is to simply find our seat.
I am here.
This is where I am.
In the default flow of my life and my work and my relationships,
Simply finding the courage,
Finding the ability to pause and to pick your seat.
And so whether you're lying on the ground,
You're sitting in a chair,
You have a meditation cushion,
Let's just pick our seat.
And then our next step is to begin to come into the body.
And so I want you to just go ahead and notice,
What do you do?
What do you automatically do to begin to come into the body?
One of my favorite ways to come in to begin the practice is to simply take one of my favorite names for this is the soup breath.
It's a breath like I just walked in the house and I all of a sudden notice that somebody is cooking a wonderful smelling soup or food on the stove.
How do you breathe when you notice that smell in the air?
I just take a deep,
Long,
Slow breath in our nose and out our mouth.
We open to receive the breath.
And so on your next breath in,
Go ahead and simply give that a try.
Now let's begin full body breathing.
On your next breath in,
Go ahead and pull your inhale in through all of the pores of your skin.
Overextending your exhales.
Deep,
Long,
Slow belly breaths in your nose and out your mouth.
Going at whatever pace feels wholly supportive to you.
And as you do this,
You can begin to allow your body to take the shape of your inhales and your exhales.
Rolling your shoulders forward as you exhale.
Rolling your shoulders back as you inhale.
Full body breathing,
Allowing your body to constrict and to open each breath.
Now I want you to just slow down and take a pause.
Letting go of any active attention on your breath.
Just notice what's shifted or changed in your body as you arrived.
Do you notice any pulsing?
Any tingling?
Is any more sensation available to you on or in your body?
Now we're going to begin bringing our attention into the body.
So go ahead and bring your attention down to your left big toe.
And just breathe into your left big toe.
And as you do this,
You might notice that you create an image of your toe.
And it might take a few seconds,
A few breaths for you to actually breathe in through the toe.
And so I want you to go ahead and see if you can do that.
Pulling your energy and awareness in through the toe using your breath.
Slowing down and placing our attention inside the toe.
And as you do this,
Maybe somewhere else in your body turns on.
Maybe your elbow,
Or your left ear,
Your lower back.
And that's totally okay.
This is your body's sense of the felt sense turning on and activating.
And so go ahead and allow that to happen.
And just bring your attention back to your left big toe.
Inhaling and exhaling through the left big toe.
And once you tap into the felt sense,
You start to feel something going on with the felt sense inside your left big toe.
And go ahead and see if you can allow it to move and track it up into the rest of your toes on your left foot.
And so now we're breathing into all of the toes on our left foot and our left big toe.
And now coming up into our heel.
Your left big toe,
All of your toes,
And your entire foot.
And really slowing down to the pace of connection.
And notice how you visualize your ankle and your toes.
And then it takes a little while,
But maybe a felt sense,
A tingly sensation.
Is it bright?
Is it alive?
Is it pulsing?
What's it like for you?
It's okay for this to be your own sense of what it feels like to come into your own body.
We're using our breath.
We're breathing into our left foot.
Anywhere we notice tension in the body while we do this,
We're allowing it to release.
And then coming up into our left shin.
Breathing into the interior of our left shin and our calf.
Allowing our whole lower left leg to turn on.
Deep,
Long,
Slow inhales and exhales.
Pulling our energy and awareness in through the skin.
And really slowing down to feel that felt sensation coming up in through the big toe,
Through the heel.
Allowing your lower leg to turn on.
And then coming up into the inner thigh.
Breathing in through your left thigh.
And exhaling through your thigh.
And then inhaling in through the top of your left thigh.
And then coming up into the left side of your pelvic girdle.
Allowing any tension that's building up inside the body while you do this to wiggle out and down.
With each inhale and exhale,
Allowing that tension to move out the outside of the body and to drip down into the ground.
And then bringing our attention into the pelvic girdle and everything from the waist down.
Breathing into both legs.
Allowing both legs to completely turn on.
What do you notice?
What does it feel like inside your legs?
Inhaling your energy and awareness in through the pores of your skin.
And exhaling through the pores of your skin.
And notice any tendency to visualize.
Do you have a visual representation in your mind,
An imaginatory representation of these are my legs?
And see if you can drop into the felt sense of aliveness going on inside your legs on your next inhale.
Opening and closing with each inhale and exhale.
Planted,
Placed or perched right on your seat on the earth.
Okay,
And so now let's bring our energy and attention into the lower navel and lower belly.
On your next inhale,
Go ahead and inhale in through that lower navel.
And then exhale through your lower navel.
Softly bringing your lower belly in on the exhale,
Letting it go on the inhale.
Pulling your energy and attention in through the skin.
And then let's come through the body to your lower back.
And inhale through your lower back.
And now see if you can connect both of those sides of your body with your inhales and your exhales.
And allowing that to connect into your lower thigh on your left side and your right side.
Your left and right knee.
Your left and right shins.
Your left and right feet.
Allowing your whole lower body to connect with your inhales and your exhales.
Really allowing the whole outside of your skin to turn on and to activate.
And now we're bringing our attention up into our belly button in the middle of our belly.
Breathing in through the middle of our belly.
Inhaling and exhaling through the middle of our upper belly.
What's going on in there?
Allowing any tension you find to wiggle out to the outside of your body and to drip down into the ground.
And how does your body want to move while you do this?
Allow that movement to happen.
My body is rolling in and out as I inhale and I exhale.
And then every once in a while I notice there's like a shiver,
Maybe of tension in my shoulder or my hip.
Allowing yourself to come into the body.
Really finding out what is going on in there.
What does it want?
What does it need?
How does it want to move as we breathe?
Now bring your attention into our lower back,
Coming through the body and inhaling into the middle of our back.
Pouring our loving awareness with our breath into our back on the outside,
Just breathing in as we inhale.
Then exhaling through your back.
And then coming up into your sternum.
Inhaling and exhaling through your sternum.
And up behind your heart,
Behind your shoulder blades.
And exhaling from your shoulder blades,
Allowing your whole body to fill up with your energy and awareness.
And bringing our attention up to our heart space in the middle of our chest.
Inhaling through your heart space and exhaling through the heart space.
And slowing down to the pace of connection.
And noticing what is going on in there?
Where is the felt sense?
Is it tingly?
Is it pulsing?
Is it rough or tense?
Does it have a shape or a color?
Does it have a texture?
Really breathing in through that upper chest and exhaling through your chest.
Now breathing in through your entire torso and exhaling through your torso.
Breathing in through your whole lower body and your torso.
And exhaling through the whole lower body and your torso.
Coming all the way up to the base at the bottom of your neck.
Now on your next inhale,
Go ahead and bring your energy and attention over to the inside of your left armpit.
Breathe in through your shoulder on your left side.
Maybe you're breathing in and exhaling through the back of your left shoulder or the front.
And then allowing that sensation to come down into your bicep,
Your tricep,
And your elbow.
And notice how you do this.
As you do this,
The imaginatory sense or the visual sense of your left arm starts to activate.
Then I want you to pull your energy and attention using your breath in through the pores of your skin on your left arm.
And as you do this,
Maybe the palm of your hand turns on,
The inside of your elbow,
Your left thumb.
And we're bringing our energy and attention down into our left forearm.
And then focusing in on the palm of your hand and your wrist.
Let's see if we can focus in on each one of our fingers.
Go ahead and feel into your pinky on your left hand.
And then go ahead and see if each finger can turn on.
Breathing in through your thumb.
And then maybe allowing the space in between to activate and to interconnect.
Allowing your whole hand to come to life.
Inhaling through the top of your hand.
And then exhaling through the top of your hand.
And inhaling through the palm of your left hand.
And exhaling through the palm of your left hand.
Allowing the whole front of your body to turn on.
Connecting your hand to your left arm and your right arm.
Inhaling through that whole circle created through the front of your torso and your left and right arms.
Inhaling and exhaling through the whole front of your body.
Allowing your torso to connect in.
Your back.
Your pelvic girdle.
Inhaling and exhaling through the envelope of your skin.
And down into your left big toe.
Allowing any tension you notice in the body to pour your loving awareness into that tension.
Allowing it to be there.
Allowing it to sequence.
And bringing your attention to anywhere in the body that you might feel numb or disconnected from.
Seeing if you can just place your energy and attention using the breath.
The gentle power of your energy and attention breathing your loving awareness into the body.
Allowing this to be wholing.
Allowing this to be kind.
There's nothing to do.
Then bring your energy and attention up into the front of your neck.
Breathing into the front of your neck underneath your chin.
And then bring your energy and attention to the back of your neck.
Inhaling and exhaling through your neck.
And then coming up into the bump at the back of your head.
And then coming around to the front of your face.
Breathing in through your chin and your jaw.
And exhaling through your chin and your jaw.
And then coming up into your lips.
Inhaling and exhaling through your lips.
And then focusing in your attention on your upper lip underneath your nose.
Inhaling into that space.
And exhaling out through that space.
And bringing your attention into your mouth and your tongue.
Inhaling and exhaling in through the roof,
The inside of your mouth.
And allowing your eyes to relax.
Inhaling and exhaling through your eye sockets.
Now inhaling through your whole olfactory lens.
And then coming up into the front of your head.
Breathing in through your forehead and exhaling through your forehead.
And then go ahead and tap into how does your brain feel in this moment.
And then go ahead and see if just by inhaling and exhaling if you can allow yourself to tap into the sensational shift of what's happening inside your head.
Your body is teeming with life.
Alright,
Bringing your energy and attention up into the top of our head and we're going to inhale in through the top of our head.
And exhaling through the top of our head.
And then the back of our head.
Now let's go ahead and just look into the body itself.
Is your body smiling?
We look into the body as sensation.
There's this beautiful question.
Is the body smiling?
When I start to look at sensation in an unconditioned way,
Does that subtle ability to be with the sensation that's happening on in the body,
Does that quality of unconditionality,
Does that simple profound quality become subtle joy?
That ability to be with the present moment experience in a felt sense,
Being with that as it is,
Is that joy?
Is that a subtle joy?
Is that a smile?
See if you can let that morph and see if you can tap into that sense in your entire body.
From your toes,
To your hips,
To your chest and your face,
Inside and the outside of your arms,
Down to the palms and up to the top of your head.
Good.
Thank you so much for showing up today and allowing me to share my practice with you.
This was an exploration of full body breathing,
Arriving and tracking our energy and attention through the body.
A practice of interoception,
Somatic meditation,
And developing the posture of pure awareness.
May your practice continue for the good of yourself and everyone and all things,
And may you get what you're looking for.
