Welcome.
I'm Colleen Fletcher,
And in our first session,
We found your space.
We will focus on the architecture of your body,
Of your posture within that space.
Thank you for being a part of this beginning series in meditation.
Now many people I know think that posture is about being as rigid as a statue.
And we talked about this a little bit in the first session.
But I want to go into this on a deeper level.
And it's not that you have to be.
All rigid.
And so straight with it that it hurts your body.
That's not the point with this.
It is to find a balance.
Of an upright strong posture.
And maybe there's some stretches that need to be done or something like that to help your body.
Stay in those positions longer.
But what we want to do is have our body be,
We need to stay awake.
Through meditation as well.
Oftentimes I know we kind of zonk out,
Really.
But with the posture,
We want it so that we are allowed to.
Be in a place where our body is comfortable.
We can stay awake.
So we're going to start to build the posture from the ground up.
And this is the same for whether you are on the floor,
On a cushion,
Whether you're outside in a cushion,
Whether you're in a chair,
Anything like that.
There are a couple things that shift with sitting in a chair versus on the floor,
And we will go over those.
Everything starts with the pelvis,
With your hips,
With your structure.
We're gonna pretend that these are your sits bones,
The bones that you sit on,
Your butt bones,
Basically.
I can't twist my arms big enough to get them totally upright,
Okay?
But this is the area that we're going to be talking about.
And this is why I mentioned previously that we use a cushion,
Because it is going to help elevate your hips up.
Higher than what your feet and your ankles are and that helps to alleviate some of the stress and tension in your hips.
And instead of leaning forward and arching your back,
Because that rolls your sits bones this way.
And remember,
We want to be on top of them.
Sometimes we need to roll our hips back a little bit without the slouching aspect that comes with it.
So it is this.
Gentle dance,
This stretching possibly,
This movement that you need to find for yourself.
I can give you tons of different examples.
You want to be,
If this is the ground or the chair,
You want to have your butt bones resting like this.
If you are arching your back too much,
They're going to go forward like this.
If you're.
.
.
Got away that,
You know,
You're leaning way too forward,
Then that's also going to alter.
So the idea.
.
.
The basic idea is to be on top of your sits bones.
So keep that in mind as you're moving your body around,
Feeling.
Feeling.
I mean the idea with meditation as well is to feel that internal aspect.
While we're a part of the external as well.
So get your hips in a good spot get your body so that it is comfortable okay move back and forth Figure out where you're the most comfortable.
And then start with that and alter it every time you need to.
Now,
If you're in a chair.
Be on the edge of the chair.
Same idea with your sits bones,
Gotta be on top of those,
Right?
So you don't want to be leaning back in your chair.
You want to have,
I call it perching on the edge of your chair.
So perch on the edge of your chair.
Ensure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground.
And this is where same as sitting anywhere else that you just envision that you are.
Firmly planted into the earth.
Whether that's being the roots of a tree or anything like that.
We do want to avoid crossing your legs,
Especially when you're sitting in a chair.
Now when you're sitting in a cushion,
It's the,
You know,
You sit in like that butterfly kind of,
I think anymore it's crisscross applesauce.
You know sit with your legs crossed that way that that is a different way than we are.
You know,
Having one ankle behind the other,
Anything like that.
Really,
We just want this connection to flow.
Has sewed your spine.
We've got the base,
The root of it.
Now we're going to envision the vertebrae.
Daxof.
Stacks of candles,
Stacks of coins,
Anything like that.
Is stacked upon itself.
And we aren't trying to pull them.
Into like this rigid straight line.
Right?
What we're doing with it is we are just allowing it to flow,
To balance up.
And stack up more.
No.
Where a lot of people have a hard time is the head and neck,
And I understand that one.
One of the things to do is to envision a chord.
From your tailbone all the way up your spine.
And that can help with that visualization as well of the coins or whatever you have stacked.
If you left here.
Can see how it alters my whole spine,
Right?
And this is just a visualization.
So it takes away from your coins being stacked like this at an angle,
Right,
Versus upright on top of the sitz bones.
Shoulders will naturally fall back a little bit.
Your job will be at ease.
And that's the beauty of it.
Oh,
The beauty of how our spine works,
Really,
Okay?
So.
This is good.
Uh,
Baseline.
Right?
It's one more thing that we have compounded on where we're sitting,
Indoors,
Outdoors,
Cushioned chair.
Anything like that now we're adding in just this extra layer of how our posture is and you're gonna feel it you'll feel once you get into this more and more like I know you will of Just how comfortable your body can be and sometimes you have to be Move it around.
I am one that goes by move your body.
Work through,
Through movement of it to feel comfortable with it.
Now,
What about your hands?
Where do your hands go?
What do you do?
You can rest the palms down on your thighs for a more grounding feel.
Connection.
You can rest them palms up on your lap if you feel you need more of that pulling in,
That energetic aspect.
It's really whatever is comfortable for you.
And yes,
There are many,
Many other things you can do with your hands,
Mudras,
Anything like that.
That's not where we're going right now,
Okay?
So keep it very simple for yourself.
Up.
Down.
Posture,
Okay?
Now we talked a little bit about your jaw.
Unclenching,
Releasing.
Let there be just a small amount of space between your upper and lower jaw.
Your tongue!
Let it rest softly on the roof of your mouth.
Very,
Very gently.
Your eyes.
You can close them or if that feels too heavy,
Too much,
Keep them open with a very soft focus.
And what I mean by a soft focus is just finding one point.
That you're just going to look at and sometimes they feel heavy.
But you're still going to that spot.
So we have some other aspects with your body here.
Now what are we going to do?
Now we're going to.
.
.
Take a moment.
And be in this space.
Move your body.
So we're going to pull what we started yesterday,
Taking a breath in.
And through the nose.
Gently out through the mouth.
Feeling your body in a different way.
And we're going to enjoy.
Minute of silence so you can compound and bring this to you.
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
Closing your eyes or lowering your gaze.
Notice that thread.
Crown of your head gently lifting your back.
Into alignment.
You And slowly come back to your awareness now.
Opening your eyes,
Maybe taking another deep breath down into your belly and low back.
Feeling your hips move.
As you have just built this new temple for your practice.
How wonderful.
Congratulations.
Well done.
Remember.
If your body is at ease,
Your mind is at ease.
Very easily follows that along.
Now in our next session,
And please join me for that,
We'll take this physical shape.
And where we've been,
And we're gonna add one of the more important aspects.
It's your breath.
So we're gonna work on our breath more next.
I will see you soon.
