Momma Meditation

I'm entitling this post "Momma Meditation" because in the background you will hear a bit of my rowdy kids and the dog next door barking. Instead of trying to escape and push away the messiness of our lives, let's embrace the chaos and breath through all of it.

Transcript

And we'll go ahead and get started.

Thanks for being here.

Appreciate it.

Okay,

So go ahead and find yourself in a comfortable spot.

I invite you to close your eyes.

And if you guys do hear sounds on my end,

My kids,

I have two little boys and they have a little playdate over as well.

I like to start with three breaths.

Breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth.

I like to start that way because it just reminds my body that,

Okay,

We're going into meditation.

Just allows me to become more aware of my breath.

And so now just gently come into your body.

So bring your awareness just to where your sits bones or your bum is meeting your cushion.

And just start to feel just the weight,

The gravity,

Just the natural weightiness,

That familiar tug of gravity.

It's kind of the heaviness of your legs,

Of your lower body,

Sinking into the floor or the cushion or the couch.

What I like to do when I come into my meditation is to set a grounding cord.

If you've never done that,

It's simply a visual.

So you're just using a visualization technique to create some kind of connection between your body and the earth.

So I like to use tree roots.

Some people like to use a waterfall or just a golden beam of light.

It could be like a chain and an anchor,

Like from a ship.

So just take a minute and don't think too hard.

Just grab one visual.

Just gently imagine that thing,

Those tree roots,

Coming off of your sits bones and your back body.

And it just easily goes down through your cushion or your chair,

Through your floor,

Through the foundation of the building,

Into the soil,

To the bedrock.

And it just penetrates all the way down into the center of the earth.

Now you've got this connection between your body and the center of the earth.

So in a way,

You're tethered to the earth.

You're connected to the earth.

And again,

With everything energetic,

It's not about efforting.

We're not efforting here.

We're just allowing.

And so we're just going to allow this grounding cord,

This grounding connection,

To do a lot of work for us.

With each exhale,

We're going to ground off any body aches and pains.

I'm just going to roll my neck,

Shift my head from side to side.

And with each exhale,

I'm just allowing that cord,

That connection,

To do all the work.

And it's just gently releasing tension,

Body aches,

And pain down into the earth.

And since we're here to meditate,

Mental formations,

We can also let those go.

So any kind of judgments or worries,

If you haven't sunk into your meditation space yet,

Just let all those mental formations,

Those concepts,

Those thoughts,

Just like to imagine them.

With each exhale,

You're just allowing them to travel down your body,

Down through the grounding cord,

And they get recycled by Mother Earth.

Recycled by Mother Earth.

So the earth is so much wiser and older,

Stronger than any of our human concerns.

She can easily handle it.

So let's also ground off and down any old programming.

So anyone else's stories that you've taken on,

Shame or blame that people have placed upon you,

Just let those roll off of you.

Just gently move them down and out into the earth.

So we're basically clearing our energetic body for our meditation today.

So I decided today I thought it'd be really nice to do a body scan.

It just feels so relaxing,

And it just feels like such a treat.

So you've already carved out this time for yourself,

And it will benefit all that you come into contact with.

So let's go one layer deeper,

And let's do a body scan.

So all you need to do is just follow along with me as I move through each area of the body,

And we're just going to continue to use that grounding cord to ground off anything that's not serving you.

So really this is an option or activity to take control of your energetic body and to reset for your day,

For your evening.

Let's start at the crown of the head,

So right here at the top of your head.

I'm just going to place your attention there,

Your awareness there.

The first thing is just to kind of breathe into that spot.

I know it seems kind of funny to breathe into your head,

But you're just directing attention,

Blood flow to the center of your head,

Sorry,

The crown of your head,

And you're just inviting any tension or dis-ease to melt away.

Come down and off your grounding cord.

Let's move into our forehead,

And with all these places,

Since they're physical places in our body,

Since we're actually doing a body scan,

Not just with our energetic body,

But with our physical body,

Feel free to massage those places or move them around.

So we're just going to bring our awareness into our forehead,

Behind the eyes,

Under the eyes,

The eyebrows,

Temples,

And again,

Energy follows intention and follows thought.

So our intention here is for relaxation.

Down into our cheeks and our jaw.

Massage the ears.

Oh,

We're just going to allow the body to recalibrate and relaxation,

And we're just paying attention.

We're just giving our body some gentle awareness.

Let's go to the back of the head and the neck.

And again,

I have my boys here.

Meditation happens with and without children.

Bring your awareness into the back of your head,

Your neck.

And with each exhale,

Again,

You're grounding off any physical sensations of tension.

And you're just allowing your body to sink deeper into relaxation.

Down into the throat,

The collarbone,

The high heart,

Left shoulder,

Left upper arm,

The left elbow.

Upper arm,

The left elbow,

The left lower arm,

The left wrist,

The left thumb,

Pointer,

Middle,

Ring,

Pinky,

The entire left arm.

Just feel that weight and that heaviness,

That tethering to the earth,

Knowing that you're fully supported,

Fully nourished this moment and all your moments.

Trusting.

Right shoulder,

Right upper arm,

Right elbow,

Right lower arm.

Right wrist,

Right hand,

Right thumb,

Right pointer,

Right middle,

Right ring,

Right pinky,

The entire right arm.

It's like we're recalibrating to the pace of the earth.

We're allowing the earth to draw out of us any toxicity,

Negativity,

Anything that doesn't serve us today.

Bringing our awareness into the heart space,

The upper chest.

Always like to pause here at the heart and just express gratitude for the heart and its efforts beating every moment of every day.

It's working so hard for us.

It's such a tender,

Receptive organ.

Just if you have the capacity and it feels right,

Just expressing some gratitude for your body and the heart.

And again,

Grounding off any negativity.

You can hear the dog next door barking.

Invitation is a process of allowing in,

Inviting in everything that's happening in the present moment with tender and non-judgmental awareness.

Moving down into our stomach region and our diaphragm and all the organs that are inside our body cavity.

Just breathing in,

Grounding off.

Often we clench.

I mean,

I carry so much tension in my stomach.

Westerners are really good at tightening up,

Buttoning up,

Kind of constricting in this belly area.

And so if it feels good and comfortable,

You might even take a deep belly breath,

Where instead of breathing in your chest,

Which I'm really good at,

Breathing deeper into the belly and allowing for that expansion of the belly.

I always like to think of those Buddhist statues that are fat and happy,

Fat and happy,

And they've got their belly hanging out,

Right?

Just invite you to take a few deep breaths into the belly.

Bringing our awareness back to the top of our back,

So our high back,

Our mid-back,

Our low back,

Our buttocks,

Our groin,

Our pelvis,

Our thighs.

And again,

The invitation here is to,

With each exhale,

Just gently allow that grounding cord to take away,

To carry off,

To move into the earth.

Anything that's not serving you,

It could be energetic,

It could be physical.

Moving into our left side body,

So we have our left thigh,

Our left knee,

Left shin,

Our left calf,

Our left ankle,

Our left heel,

Our left top of foot,

Our left sole of foot,

Our left toes,

Our right thigh,

Our right knee,

Our right shin,

Our right calf,

Our right ankle,

Our right heel,

Our right top of foot,

Our right sole of foot,

Our right toes,

The entire left leg,

The entire right leg.

If any mental formations are still present,

Just invite them to ground off your grounding cord,

And you'll sit in silence for the next little bit.

If you do find your mind wandering,

Just bring the awareness back to the sensation of the breath in your body,

Wherever you feel the breath most easily,

Just bring your attention back there.

You may also like to continue to ground off with your exhales and the remaining aches and pains,

If there's a certain place in your body you'd like to return to,

Feel free.

Again,

If your mind has wandered,

Gently come back to the breath.

Where do you feel your breath most easily in your body?

Just gently bring your awareness there.

If your mind has wandered,

Feel free to reset your grounding cord,

Which is just that visual that connects your body to the earth.

And just send any mental formations down through your body,

Through your back body,

Through your sits bones,

Down into the earth.

The earth is so much larger and wiser and stronger than any of our concerns,

Our thoughts,

Our worries.

She is our great mother,

So we're her children,

And she happily,

Like any mother,

Happily holds us in her arms.

Just allow your body to feel that natural support,

The tenderness,

So much gratitude for the earth,

Allowing us to recalibrate to her rhythm.

We'll sit in silence for one more minute before I ring the bell.

It was such a pleasure serving you.

I'm so thankful that you came and showed up.

Thank you for bearing witness to my boys and the,

I don't know,

The reality of being a mom and meditating.

Mama Meditation,

Thank you for your patience with me.

We'll see you next time.

I am supposed to just put a shout out.

If you'd like to donate,

Feel free.

All the meditation teachers on Insight give this generously,

And I feel so grateful to just be able to give this.

But if you feel inspired to make a donation,

That's beautiful too.

And I haven't figured out what my schedule is for doing these meditations,

But hopefully I'll do at least one a week.

Thank you.

Have a nice day.