Mind-Body Connection Practice For Grounding And Safety

Welcome to this guided experience to cultivate inner strength and a sense of security. During this session, we'll explore the powerful connection between your mind and body, empowering you to navigate life's challenges with greater resilience. Please, prepare a yoga mat to lie down on, a sleeping mask, and a pillow or a stuffed toy with a blanket. You may play your favorite calming music in the background.

Through a combination of gentle breathwork, mindful movement, guided visualization, and tapping into your bodily sensations, you'll learn techniques to find inner grounding, enhance your sense of safety, and connect with your inner strength. No prior experience is necessary, and all are welcome!

If you want to learn more about cultivating a strong mind-body connection, check out my ‘Build Mind-Body Connection’ course and the Plus-recordings of the Mind-Body Connection sessions! Feel free to ask any questions and share your experience in the comments.

Transcript

Hello.

Let's take a few deep breaths to connect to ourselves and to the space that we are in.

Thank you for joining our session today.

Let me introduce myself shortly.

My name is Diana Mirzaeva.

I am a Mind-Body Connection coach,

A psychosomatic specialist,

And a meditation teacher.

Let me shortly tell you what we will be doing today.

So the session will consist of a few parts.

It will be slow-paced because the main goal here is to connect,

To connect to yourself,

To experience everything that will come up,

And to integrate it.

So if you feel that I'm moving quite fast for you,

Please feel free to slow down a little bit to maybe skip some of the exercises.

You are free to leave this event if you need to integrate something right at the moment or if you don't feel comfortable.

Please always listen to your body,

What feels good,

What doesn't feel right,

And make sure to adjust some of the exercises,

Breathing or physical,

To your current state.

And please do not push yourself too much,

Even though I encourage my clients to widen the comfort zone a little bit,

To try something new,

To maybe step out of the comfort zone,

But do not push yourself too much.

We are here with the gentle intentions of discovering and perhaps enjoying.

So let's take a deep breath together,

Deep into your belly,

Widening your chest,

Up to your crown,

And you're free to close your eyes.

And let's do it one more time.

Deep breath in,

Listen to the sounds outside of the room without any judgment,

Just acknowledging them.

Switch to the sounds inside the room,

Perhaps to the sound of your body breathing.

Just notice what is there.

Notice how your belly moves and chest goes up and down with every inhale and exhale.

And let's fully arrive into the present moment.

Allow yourself to enjoy this hour or so that we will spend together.

Open your eyes and look around.

Look at everything that you see in your room,

In the space where you're in.

Notice in each object,

One by one,

Yourself,

Sitting,

Aligned.

Acknowledge that you are in this space,

In this room.

Notice how you are touching the ground below you and how the ground rises to support you.

And,

As you guys know,

The topic of our today's session is groundedness and safety.

This is what we will be exploring in our body,

Within ourselves.

This is what we will be embodying during our practice today.

And if you guys are here for the Mind-Body Connection,

I'm sure that you already know that there are numerous benefits of it,

Of this practice.

And it is very related and it stands very closely to working with stress and anxiety and emotional resilience.

So,

For our today's practice,

I encourage you maybe to take a pillow that might give you some sense of comfort in the later part of our session.

You can grab a face mask for the final closing meditation that will help you to activate better and smoother the parasympathetic system in your body.

You can play some gentle music on the background,

If it is what you would like to have alongside.

I host online sessions in silent,

In case you want to adjust it to yourself a bit more.

And,

Once again,

Trust your body,

Your sensations,

Your feelings.

And there is no wrong way to feel.

It is your personal experience.

Everyone is completely different,

Has a different background and perception,

Experience of this life.

This is a very safe space to feel different emotions and sensations.

But,

If you feel that it is too tense for you at the moment,

Do not hesitate to seek for the professional help or simply put aside this practice for today.

And you will be able to come back to it a few days later.

And let's tune inside in our emotional body.

You can put your hands on your chest,

Maybe tap this area a little bit to awaken it,

To give a signal to our body that it is safe to tune in now,

That you have the right space and the right time for that.

You can just gently pat your chest,

Your shoulders,

Wherever it feels good to you.

You can give yourself an encouraging warm hug and allow yourself to feel all of the different tones of our emotions.

And you may find that something doesn't feel comfortable.

Maybe there is a part of you that does not feel safe at this moment or that wants to simply feel more relaxation or safety.

Just acknowledge this part,

See it,

Let it be felt.

Do not resist it.

It is okay.

Perhaps you find a controlling part in your body or mind that doesn't want to let go,

Doesn't want you to relax.

It tells you you have to be somewhere else,

You should do something else or you should be someone else.

Acknowledge that.

Recognize that it just wants to protect you.

Say thanks to that and give it a bit of more space.

Don't be resistant or neglecting.

These are all the parts of you.

And we all are beautiful in our differences.

I encourage you now to sit down if you were having a different position previously.

Make sure that you are sitting firmly either on the ground,

On the mat,

On the chair.

And make sure that your spine is straight and up.

Soften your shoulders a bit,

Your neck.

You can move it from side to side,

Whatever feels good.

Listen a little bit.

But once again,

Your chest relaxed but looking up.

And close your eyes and let's concentrate for a few moments on our natural breath.

Do not change anything.

You're breathing just fine.

Your body knows how to breathe.

You don't have to control it now.

Notice the sensations of your body breathing.

Acknowledging which part of your body you feel your breath the most.

Either in your chest or belly areas,

Perhaps your shoulders,

Or the area below your nose.

Notice how you breathe in fresh,

A little bit cool air in.

You let it travel down to your body.

Your lungs soaking in every bit of oxygen.

And you let it go smoothly and gently.

The warm air out of your body and lungs through the nose back.

Perhaps you may notice your heartbeat.

If not,

It is completely okay.

Notice without any judgment,

Positive or negative,

How fast your heart is beating.

How fast your breath is.

And thank your breath and body for being here now as you anchor to the present moment.

For now,

Let's make a little adjustment to our breath.

Let's breathe in for four counts and breathe out for eight.

If my counting will not feel comfortable to you,

Feel free to adjust your pace.

Just make sure that your exhales are about twice longer than exhales.

It'll be a signal to your body to relax more,

To let go,

And to turn on your parasympathetic system.

Let's breathe in two,

Three,

Four,

Out seven,

Six,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Sorry for the counting.

Breathe in two,

Three,

Four,

Out seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In,

Continue,

And out.

In,

Out.

In,

Out.

And if your exhale finishes quicker than the eight counts and you want to extend it,

You may exhale the same way as practicing Ujjayi.

So you are making a little constriction in your throat when you're exhaling,

And it helps your breath out to get longer.

I will show it to you guys now.

In,

And out with a little constriction in the throat.

If you could hear some noise when I was exhaling,

This is Ujjayi.

It is like the sound of a snake or probably a wind going through a little hole.

Continue exhaling longer than inhaling,

And stay present.

If this breath doesn't feel,

Doesn't feel good,

Causes a lot of feelings of uncomfort in your body,

Feel free to come back to your natural breath for a while.

And let's make a final long breath out and come back to the natural breath.

The final breathing technique for our Mind-Body Connection practice today is the alternate nostril breathing.

Let me show you how we can practice it all together.

Take your right hand,

Foot,

Middle,

And the second finger in the air between your eyebrows,

And let your fourth and first fingers be free.

They will help us to close our nostrils later.

So for now,

With the first finger,

Let's close the right nostril and breathe in through the left nostril.

In.

Now you switch your fingers.

With the fourth one,

You close the left nostril.

With the first finger,

You open up the right nostril and you breathe out.

Now breathe in without changing anything through the right nostril.

Switch your fingers and breathe out through the left nostril.

This is all without pauses.

Imagine that you're breathing through a triangle between your nostrils and your third eye.

And let's do it together.

Breathe in through the left,

Breathe out through the right.

Breathe in through the right,

Breathe out through the left.

Find your pace.

Whatever feels comfortable.

And don't forget to switch your fingers.

Let's practice this technique for about three minutes.

Relax,

Let go of all the thoughts.

Do not put too much pressure on yourself to follow this switching.

It is okay if you mix up anything.

And notice any special sensations that this breath brings to you.

You may notice that it is easier to inhale through one nostril,

A bit more difficult through another one.

Perhaps both feel the same.

Draw in your mind the triangle that the oxygenated air brings into your body,

Into your head.

We are here just with our physical sensations.

Try to keep your mouth closed,

Though only your nostrils will bring the oxygen into your body.

And without opening your eyes,

You may let go of the alternate nostril breathing.

Rest your hands on your lap or beside your body.

And simply notice how you feel after this practice.

Notice whether something has changed or shifted.

Notice how your nose,

Both nostrils breathe together at this moment.

When I first tried the alternate nostril breathing many years ago,

I felt that I was walking on the clouds.

Such an effect.

And this is when I knew that this breathing technique really suits me.

Perhaps you may feel the same way,

Perhaps not.

And both are great.

So let's come back to our space.

And for now,

I would like you guys to lie down.

You may lie down on your bed or on a yoga mat,

Which I will be using shortly too.

Make sure that the floor is warm to spend about 5 to 10 minutes at this stretch of our session.

And I simply want you guys to lie on your back.

Lie on your back.

Let your arms rest beside your body,

Beside your torso.

Your legs be fully stretched out about hip-width apart.

No crossing.

Try to fully relax lying down on your back.

And let's do a short and very general body scan to notice what is present in the body right now in the beginning of our physical movement part of the Mind-Body Connection session.

Close your eyes.

You may use your eye mask or any blankets.

Tune into your physical body.

Feel yourself as whole lying down here in your room.

Notice your feet and heels resting on the ground.

Soles of the feet,

Your toes,

Ankles,

Your lower legs,

Your knees and upper legs,

Inner part of your thighs,

Your glutes.

Feel whole lower part of your body lying down,

Touching the ground.

Notice your pelvic area,

Your belly,

The movement your breath causes in that part of the body,

Your lower back,

Perhaps touching the ground slightly,

Middle back,

Stomach area,

Ribcage and chest,

Upper back,

Shoulders,

All the inner part of your torso,

Your arms,

Upper arms,

Shoulder blades,

Elbows and lower arms,

Wrists,

Palms of your hands,

Fingers,

Whole arms together,

All the upper part of your body.

Try to hold still.

Notice your neck,

Throat,

The air traveling inside,

Your whole head,

Jaw,

Lips,

Cheeks,

Ears,

Nose,

Eyes,

The muscles around the eyes,

Your front,

Your skull and even your hair.

Tune into the sensations inside your head.

Rest your attention in the middle of your brain for a while.

Find yourself here and now,

Your body lying down and breathing on the floor.

Take a slightly deeper breath in and out with a sigh to let go of all the thoughts remaining tension of any expectations.

Put your attention into your whole body,

None of the parts of it and tune into the energy inside.

And for now,

Let me also use my yoga mat and we will be moving to some of the other exercises.

Keep lying on your back and with your heels firmly attached to the ground,

Back of your hands resting on the floor,

Try to bring some movement into your body,

Moving your feet from left to right,

Allowing whole legs kind of swing along.

You may do it quickly,

Whatever feels right to you.

You may shake your legs a little bit,

Something that will help you feel completely supported by the ground.

You may do it slowly.

You may move your shoulders as well and pay attention to all of the points where your body is supported by the ground.

Perhaps it is the back of your head,

Shoulder blades,

Glutes,

Elbows,

Backs of your lower legs,

Your heels and continue rocking from side to side when lying down on the ground.

Continue this movement and you may imagine yourself somewhere out in nature,

Lying down on the grass.

If you start seeing any visualizations,

Welcome them.

And while keeping this movement of rocking and swaying on the floor,

Notice that at every given moment,

Any second,

You are completely supported.

There is nothing that can happen that will take this support from you.

Feel how firmly or perhaps softly this contact with the ground feels.

And if you would like to close this movement,

Feel free to just keep lying down,

Welcoming this support from below.

And when we are talking about groundness,

It is not only what we experience when standing or sitting or lying right on the ground,

On the support.

It is the feeling inside our body as well.

And I find this feeling present many times in my lower back.

How much we are carrying on with us every day.

Not only our duties,

But also expectations that we put on ourselves.

And most of it is stored in our lower back.

And unfortunately,

It is a very common problem to have some tension or even some more serious conditions in that part of our spine and body.

So for now,

To relax this part a little bit,

Please put your knees,

Your thighs closer to your chest area,

As I am doing it right now as well.

And include some circular movements.

What you may feel now is some pressure,

Physical pressure that you put in different parts of your lower back by the weight of your legs.

Continue these circular movements in any direction that feels right.

And notice perhaps some new sensations in that area of your body.

Unfortunately,

We don't pay too much attention to our lower back in a daily life until we get some sharp pain or a lot of discomfort in that area.

You may change this circular movement to moving from left to the right,

From right to the left.

Discover some parts of that area that you haven't felt yet today.

Allow this part to relax,

To let go.

Stay present in your sensations and do not let any stories of your mind to bring you away from our practice.

Acknowledge your thoughts or perhaps emotions that arise and let them be while being present in your body.

You may continue this movement for as long as it feels comfortable.

You may continue experimenting with sensations in that part of the body after our session.

And I definitely encourage you to do it daily and especially at the end of your day before you're going to sleep to let go not of only physical tension but everything that is stored in the muscles and the bones of our lower back.

For now,

Please make yourself seated on your mat.

We will be standing soon.

Feel free to move a little bit.

Make sure that you don't have too much dizziness and if you do,

Please keep sitting.

Grab some water.

And again,

Find yourself in your space in your room here and now.

Well,

For now,

We will explore some of the poses standing up.

And before we do so,

Let's make a little experiment.

So,

I would like you guys to stand just on one of your feet.

And just try to stand on your feet.

No judgment here.

You don't have to do it perfectly.

You may have already fallen down five times and it is completely okay.

Just notice how you may or may not stand on one foot at this moment.

You may change your foot and notice if something feels differently.

If you may hold still longer or shorter time on another foot.

And just play a little bit of this.

And come to just standing position.

We will explore some of the poses,

Gentle movements that will help us to feel more grounded and that will bring us more peace and safety into our body.

So,

First of all,

Just stand with your legs being hip-width apart.

It is a mountain pose from yoga or a variation of it.

Breathe out.

If it feels comfortable to you,

If it doesn't mess up with your balance,

You may close your eyes.

And tune into the sensations in your feet.

How your feet are firmly standing on the ground.

And go quickly with your attention from your feet up to your crown and back.

Turning all of the body parts that help you to maintain this pose up and down.

And if you want to have a little bit more stability,

You may widen your toes.

Not sure if you can see that.

The same as I'm doing with my arms.

Try to widen your toes as much as possible as it feels comfortable.

On the right,

On the left leg.

And come back to the mountain pose.

Stretch the soles of your feet.

Sort of lengthening your feet.

Put your heels firmly on the ground and notice how different it feels.

How indeed much more stability there is in your feet.

How it allows the big muscles of your legs to relax a little bit.

And how perhaps your belly softens.

And from this mountain pose,

Start moving.

Perhaps moving from one side to another,

Bending your knees a little bit.

But still being present in the stability that is in your feet.

When you're moving from left to right and back,

Notice how different muscles switch on and off in your feet and in your legs.

Allowing you to incorporate this gentle movement.

You may include some gentle movements,

Waves in your arms.

And feel free to take up as much space as you want.

Maybe right now you're feeling like doing some small movements right next to your torso.

And it is completely great.

Perhaps you want to explore the space around your torso.

Make sure to do so.

And let's be a little bit more active while still standing firmly with your feet in one place.

Let's shake.

Let's shake a little bit.

Feel free to shake your hips,

Your legs,

Perhaps your knees.

Oh,

Your shoulders,

It always feels so good.

Your arms,

However you want.

Do not follow any specific instruction.

Just turn into your body and do what feels good while standing in one place.

You may bend.

You may stretch up or out.

You may add some sound when you're exhaling.

Let everything go out.

Be a little bit wild and let your feet and legs be free.

Change your pose and explore the space of your mat or of that part of the room where you're in.

You may simply put all your weight on one foot and on another.

You may be as active or as slow as you want.

You may turn.

You may turn.

Just turn on your imagination and do what your body asks you to do.

If you want to stretch,

Please do so.

Perhaps stretching your lower back will feel good at this moment.

You may do so as well while still swaying from one side to another.

And let's hold still for a few moments,

Your feet on the ground.

Your attention in your body.

Notice if there are any shifts.

Notice how you feel.

And acknowledge that all this time when you were moving around,

The ground has always been there for you.

Now,

When standing,

Let's visualize our connection with the Earth,

With the center of our planet.

You may pick any color that you want and imagine a stream of light coming through the center of the planet,

Right into the feet,

Up through the whole body,

Leaving the body through your crown chakra and out to the universe.

Tune into this connection with the planet.

Let the energy travel through your body.

Welcome this energy and let it go.

Let it bring all the positive,

Necessary changes into your state,

Your physical,

Emotional,

Mental and spiritual states.

And thank our planet in this connection with the Earth.

Remember that it is always with you.

No matter what is happening outside,

You always have this connection inside.

Well,

And this concludes our second part of the session.

For now,

We will be slowly moving to the meditation and visualization part.

So you are free to change your position in your room as you want.

I love to practice this part still lying down on my back.

You may do so either on a yoga mat on the floor or in your bed where you will feel sweet and comfortable and warm.

There will be some gentle movements as well,

Combined with visualization and some arising emotions.

Feel free to grab some water before we start.

And in this part,

We will be concentrating on the feeling of safety,

Safety in our body.

And when lying down,

I want you to imagine and to feel that you are an embryo.

You are in your mom's belly,

In your mom's womb.

If this visualization doesn't bring comfortable memories or images,

You may envision yourself being a little baby of the mother nature,

Lying comfortably in her womb,

Being surrounded by love,

Total acceptance and safety.

Feel free to take any pose that feels good.

It may be on your side.

Perhaps you want to have your knees.

Feel the warm air around you when lying down in the womb of a mother.

Feel free to switch your position to any other one that brings you a sense of comfort.

You may hug your knees when sitting.

You may brush your shoulders,

Your arms.

You may wrap yourself up in the blanket or hug a pillow or your favorite stuffed toy.

And with your eyes closed,

Bring the memory of a place or a situation where you felt completely safe and relaxed.

Do not try to search your memory too hard,

But rather let your body bring this memory to you.

And if you can't find such memory,

If it doesn't come up to you now yet,

You may simply imagine a safe place,

Your favorite place,

Wherever it might be,

Whether it is a real place or a space in your imagination.

And while being wrapped in that memory,

In that visualization,

In the visions in your mind,

Notice the softened muscles,

The warmth of your body parts,

Your relaxed chest,

Your widened lungs,

Relaxed shoulders,

And relaxed head.

There still might be areas of tension or discomfort in your body.

Feel free to notice them as a curious observer.

Breathe in this calm,

Quiet,

Sweet air of a safe place where you're in.

Let it travel to all of the cells of your body and let the energy and softness generated inside your body pour out from every cell outside,

Creating a safe,

Energetic cocoon around you at this moment.

Right now,

You are free from any worries.

You are protected.

You are safe.

You are seen.

You are seen.

And you are fully accepted.

It is safe to be yourself.

It is safe to experience life fully.

Find some new sensations,

Some physical feelings in your body that are born in this moment.

Welcome them and let them expand.

Make them as big as you want.

Let them grow and fill all the space in your room.

In this moment,

All is well.

Deepen your breath,

But don't control it too much.

And while still being wrapped in all of these soft,

Comforting feelings and sensations,

Allow everything that you experience now to enhance ten times.

All of the positive and comfortable sensations in your physical body.

Let them grow by ten.

You can do that.

No pressure.

You don't need to know how.

Your body knows.

Play with it.

And let it grow ten times more.

So it's already a hundred times more than it was in the beginning.

And notice all of the changes and shifts that it brings into your state.

In which part of the body these feelings are concentrated the most.

Where are these sensations?

Take a deep breath in and sigh out.

If it feels comfortable,

Please stay with this multiplied by hundred sensations.

If it is too much,

Lower them at a comfortable level.

And let them stay with you.

Slowly start coming back to the present moment.

Thanking your safe space.

Know that you can always come back to that safe place of yours whenever you need it.

Just by setting such intention.

And I want to thank you guys.

It was the final part of our Mind-Body Connection session for today.

I want you to believe,

To know.

That the sensations that you experienced and cultivated today are forever with you.

Your body experienced them in real life.

And you can always come back to them.

And as a little conclusion,

What we have done together today is we connected to our physical bodies,

To our emotions as well.

With the breath and physical sensations.

We explored and found groundness with the movement.

And we remembered,

Cultivated and embodied a feeling of safety.

Once again,

Everything that you took from this practice stays with you if you want so.

And feel free to come back to this practice or explore other Mind-Body Connection practices in my profile here on Insight Timer.

I have also hosted two series of Mind-Body Connection live events where we were exploring all the different aspects of it.

They are in my playlist,

So you are very welcome to listen to them.

And again,

I am very open to your feedback.

So I want to thank all of you for your presence,

For your participation.

And I hope to see you in our next session.

Bye.