Grounding the mind and body practice.
So to start is grounding the mind and body practice.
We start by gently settling into our meditation posture.
So while they're sitting on a chair with our back straight,
Feet touching the ground,
Hands resting on our laps,
We can sit crossed-legged on a cushion or we might even lie down flat on our backs with a mat or a bed beneath us.
So gently settling into a posture that is supportive of the body and having a sense of dignity within this posture.
So maybe that sense of a golden thread pulling you up from the top of your head,
Elongating your spine.
And gently notice the sensations of breathing as they enter and exit the body.
How does the breath feel within the body?
Is it shallow,
Is it deep,
Is it fast,
Is it slow?
Gently noticing our breathing without needing to change anything.
And then gently noticing the points of contact between your body,
The chair,
The cushion beneath you,
The feet,
The ground and whatever might be supporting your body.
Gently noticing how does that sense of contact feel?
And then gently expanding your awareness to the whole of the body,
From the tips of the toes to the top of the head,
So holding the body centre stage in awareness.
And gently noticing the overall feeling within the body,
The general felt feeling within the body.
Is the body relaxed or tense?
Is there a sense of restedness within the body or restlessness?
Are there any areas of the body where we might notice a particular sense of tension or maybe pain or just there might be an overall neutral sense within the body?
So we're gently noticing without needing to change our experience.
So letting experience unfold as it is.
And then gently taking the next few moments to scan through the body,
To acknowledge each body part.
So gently taking our awareness down the body,
Down the torso,
Down our legs and gently noticing the toes.
The bottom of the feet,
The tops of the feet,
The heels,
The ankles,
The shin,
The calf muscle,
The knee,
The thigh,
The hamstring,
The big bone of the pelvis,
The sense of contact between the buttocks and whatever the buttocks might be resting upon,
The lower back and any sense of the curvature of the spine and the lower back,
The abdomen,
Any sense of the abdomen rising and falling as you breathe in and out,
The upper back,
The chest,
The fingers,
The hands,
The forearms,
The elbow,
The biceps and the triceps,
The shoulders,
The neck,
The face,
Our eyes,
Ears,
Nose and mouth,
The back of the head and the tops of the head and gently noticing the whole body breathing,
The whole body breathing,
Resting supported by the ground and gently noticing if there is any felt sense of the weight of the body and gently noticing how the ground beneath you unconditionally supports your body.
So as we breathe out,
Having that sense of giving in to,
Relying on this unconditional support of the ground beneath the body and just as the ground unconditionally supports the body,
The body unconditionally supports the mind.
So as you breathe out and you might notice a sense of the body relaxing a little or that sense of the body softening a little as you breathe out,
Breathing out with the mind resting within the body unconditionally supported by the body,
With the body resting on the ground unconditionally supported by the ground beneath us.
So that we're mind and body resting here right now unconditionally supported by the ground beneath us and surrounded by space and gently taking the next few moments to rest within this sense of embodiment.
Mind,
Body,
Here right now supported by the ground and surrounded by space and gently resting within this sense of embodiment,
Mind,
Body,
Being here right now and then gently understanding this practice with an intention,
An intention to see if it's possible to carry this sense of embodiment into what we're gonna do next,
Into the day and into the rest of our lives and then in your own way and in your own time on the sound of the bell gently ending the practice.
