Standing Meditation

Meditation isn’t always about sitting! In this 27-minute guided meditation, practice mindfulness of body and awareness of the present in a standing posture.

Transcript

So,

During this session,

We're going to do a standing meditation.

If you haven't done this kind of meditation before,

That might sound a bit funny because usually when we talk about meditation,

We picture meditation in our minds.

If you think of someone meditating in your mind's eye,

You tend to picture them in a seated posture.

And most of the instructions that we hear and read about meditation involve sitting meditation.

But there are actually a wide variety of postures in which we could meditate and instructions from the Buddhist tradition and the yoga tradition about meditating in this variety of postures.

So there are instructions for meditating sitting,

For meditating lying down,

For meditating while walking,

And for meditating while standing.

In fact,

There are instructions for meditating while doing a wide variety of activities as well.

Thich Nhat Hanh often speaks about meditating while washing the dishes,

Bringing your full attention into that act of feeling the temperature of the water on your hands and the contact with the dishes and so forth.

So really any posture of the body and any activity that we're performing can be a meditation,

Can be an invitation to mindfulness.

So go ahead and come to a standing posture if you're not already.

And we'll begin with the foundation,

The base of the posture,

Which is the feet.

In yoga,

When we talk about Tadasana,

Which is mountain pose,

Which is the standing pose that we do at the beginning of a vinyasa sequence,

We often say big toes touching,

Heels slightly apart.

But for the purposes of this meditation,

Which is a standing posture that we'll be holding for a while,

I find that that is a rather narrow base for the body to stand with the feet together like that.

So I like to separate the feet a little more.

They can be about hip distance apart.

If you look down at your feet,

Maybe one fist or two fists between your feet.

Lift your toes from the floor for a moment and feel what are called the four corners of your feet,

Which is the base of the big toe or the ball of the foot,

The base of the pinky toe,

And the two sides of your heel,

The inside edge and the outside edge.

And take a moment to kind of shift your weight around,

Forward,

And backward from side to side and experience what it feels like to shift too much of your weight forward and more weight is going into the ball of your foot and the pinky toe.

And then lean back a little bit and experience how it feels to have a little bit too much of your weight in the heels and the slightly off balance sensation that you get there.

And then do the same from side to side.

So you begin to feel in your body what it feels like to have too much weight on the right side or the left side.

And then see if you can find that balancing point in the center where your weight is evenly distributed across the four corners of your feet and you're standing upright in that still point,

Neither forward or backward or side to side.

Allow your toes to relax back to the floor.

And throughout this meditation,

You'll be using this foundation of your feet to rise taller in your standing posture,

Which I'll speak more about in a moment.

Bring your attention up to your knees and notice if you're hyperextending your knees or pushing them back,

If the joint is locked.

Allow that to relax and soften a little bit.

You could even have a micro bend in the knees so your legs can be relaxed and you're not endangering the joint of the knee.

And the next major place to bring your attention is the pelvis,

The hips.

So many of us tend to tilt our pelvis forward a little bit so the butt sticks out.

You can actually do that for a moment and experience what that feels like,

How it exaggerates the curve in your lower back.

And others among us tend to do the opposite,

Which is tilting the pelvis backward.

So the front of the hips juts forward and the whole body is in a little bit of a bend,

A forward bend like a bow.

So see if you can find the placement of your pelvis that's neutral in the middle,

Neither tilting too far forward nor too far back,

But is neutral and provides a solid,

Even foundation for the spine to sit upon.

Drawing your attention up to spine,

To your shoulders,

Roll your shoulders back,

Allow them to melt down,

Lifting a little bit through your chest,

Your heart is open,

And finding a bit of length through the back of your neck.

The metaphor that's often used in sitting meditation and in standing meditation is that you could imagine that there's a string attached to the very crown of your head and it's gently pulling you upwards.

So starting from the very foundation of your pose,

Which is the feet rooting down firmly into the ground in order to rise taller through your legs,

Through your spine,

And through the back of your neck.

Your arms are comfortably by your side.

Your palms could be face forward if that's comfortable.

This is what we call anatomically neutral,

Or just facing the body.

Begin to become aware of your body breathing.

Not trying to breathe in any particular way at this moment,

But just noticing the natural rhythm of the body breathing in and breathing out.

If it's okay for your balance,

Go ahead and close your eyes.

If you need to open your eyes at any point during the meditation,

If you feel off balance,

That's fine.

Or if you need to keep them open in order to maintain your balance,

That's okay too.

But if it's okay for balance,

Go ahead and close your eyes.

This will help you direct more of your attention within and notice more deeply the various sensations of the body standing and developing what we call proprioception,

Which is the internal felt sense of awareness of where the body is in space,

Where the parts of the body are in relation to each other.

So as you continue to hold some of your attention on the breath,

Allowing the breath to be a continual anchor that holds your attention in the present moment,

Let's return some of the attention again to the feet.

Notice the sensations on the soles of your feet making contact with the floor.

Notice the texture of the floor beneath you or if you're wearing shoes,

Notice the physical texture of the shoe,

Its contact against your foot.

Notice if you're gripping or if there's tension within your feet.

See if you can allow that to soften,

Allow your feet to be relaxed and draw your attention up to the ankles and do the same.

Notice if there's a kind of holding or gripping in your ankles.

See if you can allow that to melt away into the floor.

And scanning your attention up through your calves and your shins.

As you make contact with your awareness touching each part of your body,

The first thing is to notice.

Just notice what's going on there.

Notice what sensations you feel in the area.

See if you can name them.

This is a warm or a cool sensation.

This is a tingling,

This is a tightness,

Whatever it might be.

Just notice what it is.

Name it in your mind.

If it's a kind of tension that you think you can relax,

Let it soften.

See if you can allow that again to melt away down towards the floor beneath you.

As you continue bringing your attention up through the knees,

Into the thighs,

The front and the back of the thighs.

First noticing sensations and then if there's tension,

Allowing that tension to melt,

Soften.

Bringing your attention up into the glutes and the hips.

And noticing,

Experiencing,

Relaxing.

And bringing the attention into the base of your spine,

The lower back.

And notice if there's a forward or a backward tilt of the pelvis or if too much weight is being shifted onto the right leg or the left leg.

See if you can find that neutral point.

And drawing your attention up into the middle back.

The muscles that lie on either side of the spine,

The quadratus lumborum,

The erector spinae,

The large ropy muscles that run the length of the back on either side of the spine.

And drawing your attention up into the shoulder blades and the area between the shoulder blades.

The back side of the shoulders.

And scan your attention down your arms,

The upper arm,

The tricep and the bicep,

The elbows,

The forearm and the hand and the wrist.

Notice if there's any tension or fidgeting or restlessness in the hands.

See if you can allow that to soften.

Drawing the attention back up through the arms to the front of the shoulders.

Hands on the neck,

The back of your neck,

The back of your head.

Bringing your attention to your ears and all the little muscles that surround your ears.

Muscles within the scalp,

The top of the head.

Moving around to the forehead,

The brows,

The eyes and the intricate web of little muscles around the eyes.

For many of us this area,

The brows,

The eyes,

The network of muscles around the eyes tends to be an area where we carry tension that we're not aware of.

Just notice what's going on in your face,

Around your eyes,

Between your brows.

Notice what the sensations feel like.

Just explore,

See if it's possible to soften.

Continue bringing your attention down through the face,

Noticing the cheekbones,

The muscles of the jaw,

Your tongue,

Your nose and the air coming in and going out through the nose or the mouth.

Scannying down the front of your throat,

The very top of your chest,

The clavicle,

The center heart area of your chest,

Down through the front of your abdomen,

The reproductive organs.

Coming back finally down your legs,

Coming back to the soles of your feet.

So having scanned your attention through one complete circuit of the entire body,

See if you can hold a sort of holistic awareness of the entire body all at once in your standing posture.

Noticing the very simple experience of being alive in this body,

How this body feels as it stands here in this particular space,

At this particular moment.

Finally standing and breathing and being aware.

And if it's helpful to return your attention to any particular places within the body that seem to call for your attention as you scan through the body,

Places where there's a particular strong sensation,

You can return your attention there.

Just be curious to notice what this sensation might be trying to tell you.

See if it has a kind of message for you.

A message that might not be expressed in words,

But nevertheless is trying to tell you something.

The body contains great wisdom and a tremendous amount of information is always being communicated by the body.

One of the fundamental benefits of meditation is slowing ourselves down enough to listen and hear what the body is telling us.

And through that listening,

Body and mind begin to become more synchronized,

More joined together,

More in unison.

Very often we ignore what the body is telling us or we're not aware of it.

Or we're just kind of generally not aware of being in the body because we're so caught up in the activities of the mind.

To be very curious about what it feels like in this moment,

To be a human being standing,

Breathing,

Experiencing a world of sensations,

Perceptions within the body.

As you slow down more and direct your attention more and more within,

Perhaps you can begin to notice more subtle sensations,

Things happening within the body.

Perhaps you notice your own heartbeat,

Your pulse.

It's always there.

It's always happening.

But usually we don't notice it.

If your eyes are still closed,

You could begin to flutter your eyes open.

And take a deeper breath in and exhale slowly.

Take in another deep breath,

Breathing into the lower belly,

Feeling the chest expand and exhaling slowly.

One last time to end the practice,

Breathe in deeply.

Exhaling,

Allow your attention to ride out with the breath out into space,

Into the space in front of you,

Around you,

Behind you,

Above you,

Below you.

Just rest your attention in that open space.

Namaste.

Reviews

Excellent guidance! Feel so grounded and calming. The body scanning made strong connection with my body, I was emotional at one point. Namaste.

Excellent! Relaxing voice of author, I feel calm and relaxed.

Beautiful body scan, clear guidance, steadying voice, interesting to meditate standing. Deep bow 🙏

Very relaxed though I couldn't keep my eyes closed this first time

Helpful introduction to standing meditation. I used it while traveling on a crowded buss. Very relaxing. It also made me reflect on my body and it's needs. Maby I'll be kinder to tonight and avoid alcohol.

Just what I was looking for, like a body scan but with directions for standing, some differences but only things that kept me attending. Bookmarked and will become a regular practice.

My first time trying a standing meditation posture. Very grounding!!! Loved It! Thank you!

Namaste. Calming and centering.

Interesting and good quality.

Rooted standing meditation to remember our physical presence in the world

First time for this type of meditation. Enjoyed it a lot. Thank you

Really a wonderful guided practice as standing is not typically in my meditation routine. Great way to keep attention despite feeling drowsy.

Wonderful meditation thank you

Excellent instruction and very nice practice. Thank you very much 🙏

Interesting. I have never done a standing meditation. Made me aware in a new way. Namaste.