Gravity: A Stable Force

In this talk, we start with an arrival practice feeling into our feet and seat of the gentle support of gravity from the planet, holding us all the time. We then explore how this stable force can be a place for attention to rest when the mind is very active.

Transcript

Hi everyone,

This is Dr.

Tia H.

Ho with Finding Mindful Now,

Guiding you out of your head and into your life with applied mindfulness.

And Finding Mindful Now is about starting with a mindfulness practice and then seeing the capacity for us to tune in and be present with life more of the time,

Whatever we're up to.

Today we're focusing on gravity as a stable force.

Basically,

That just means that we're going to talk about how your connection to the earth or the gravity of the planet gently holding you to the surface can be a support when you feel overwhelmed.

So I like to start all of these talks with an invited at arrival practice.

And like any invitation,

You can change it or adapt it to what fits you best.

And what I'm going to invite us to do is to encourage or invite attention to join us in this present moment,

To be here between us now.

So where I'm going to invite us to let attention rest on the bottoms of our feet and on the area where we may be sitting.

So if you're standing,

It might be that attention is mostly in your feet.

And if you're seated,

Then attention may rest in your sit bones,

Where they may be on a cushion or on the floor.

So you can take a moment to stand or sit in a spot that feels good to you.

And I'm just going to invite us to notice what this body feels like,

Whether it is standing or sitting.

And if we can feel where our body ends and where the surface of the ground below the feet or the chair,

The cushion,

Where it begins.

So you may want to take a couple of breaths and breathe into your feet,

Sending air all the way down your body and letting it rest in your toes.

You might wiggle your feet,

Wiggle your toes around and feel the change in texture.

If you have shoes on,

It might be that you feel the change of pressure around the tops of your feet.

It might be that you feel the pressure of where your toes hit the top of the shoe.

If they're closed,

Shoot.

If your feet are bare,

You might feel the texture or the temperature of whatever your feet are resting on.

So in arrival practices,

Attention is coming home to rest in a spot in this moment.

It might be that it's resting in your feet at the moment.

And it might be that you want to feel the posture of the body sitting.

Maybe you feel the pressure of the cushion of the chair,

The hardness,

The softness.

And when I think about the planet of gravity,

Always gently holding me,

My body almost sways a little bit with the idea of that.

We don't fly off the planet.

We don't have to tether ourselves the way that people do when they go to the moon.

This earth and its atmosphere and our body are in gentle connection all the time.

I'm just gonna let attention feel into the ground beneath me.

Or if I feel like it needs to be broader,

If the ground feels too restrictive,

Can widen the perspective of this body gently being embraced and held in the arms of the earth with gravity.

And it may be that your torso wants to sway from side to side,

Gently moving like a breeze,

Ruffling it.

And then your seat is comfortably positioned and held by the gravity on the chair.

And it may be that you can feel difference in temperature below your feet,

Below your seat,

Compared to your face or your hands.

I'm gonna invite you to take another deep breath and this time send the breath into your seat like it was inflating a balloon.

You can just feel the air filling your ribs.

And if you feel good,

You can exhale out loud.

You're receiving this air and the atmosphere of this beautiful planet.

You're giving air back to all the plants that may use it.

So my attention feels like it's here with you now after that arrival practice.

So you can use the concept of gravity and your connection to the earth as a support.

And the concept is pretty simple.

When your attention moves into the stable feeling of solid ground beneath your feet or on a chair if you're seated,

This sends a reminder to the brain that that in this moment there's stability available to you.

And unless you're in an earthquake or a storm or a volcano,

Which happen of course,

In which case at those times there may be other supports that you utilize.

The rest of the time,

Even when the earth is changing,

The ground is still there and gravity is present throughout.

And of course,

Gravity alone isn't sufficient to provide all of the supports we need.

This is a practice you can use when the mind is feeling like it's moving a lot.

Or maybe there's so much change that you're looking for something that's more constant,

More stable.

And in mindfulness we are directing attention to the present moment experience and this is on purpose.

And when analysis or judgment shows up in the mind,

We just return back to wherever attention is resting,

Letting that judgment and analysis go.

And when we,

I find that gravity,

Sometimes people call these grounding practices,

But I like the idea of gravity instead of grounding because some of the practices that are called grounding are very much about sending energy downward and that has its use.

Sometimes though that can feel restrictive.

And so gravity is more to me about an embrace.

It's a gentle noticing the earth beneath the feet.

It's a reminder that if you jump,

You'll come down and you can jump if that's available to the body.

Or you can rise an arm and then if you let it drop,

It will also fall back down.

And the regularity that that happens for whatever reason feels stabilizing to this mind,

It may not be for you,

You can try it on.

So in a practice like this when we're noticing the feeling of gravity,

The earth,

The mind intentionally gathers information and it can help the mind see,

Oh we're pausing here.

There's not danger.

Even if the mind has been in a loop about alarm signals,

Even if there are thoughts and sensations and feelings that are arising in the body,

Even when you can hear some judgment coming in about that experience,

This is like adding a layer of thinking on top of the first thinking feeling experience.

Gravity is still here,

Stable,

Steady,

Just kind of like awareness that you are.

And we forget that the mind's goal is to be helpful.

It's to give the attention portion information in case a new action is needed to keep this body alive or to seek help.

And the brain is in this dark box called your head and it only has electrical impulses coming in from the body or from outside the body,

Telling it things about the world and what's happening within this body.

So little fragments of light,

Fragments of sound,

Fluctuations in temperature or puffs of air,

And those anytime there's movement,

Everything shifts.

So the mind has to move really quick and it creates thoughts and emotions on demand as we need them based on prior experience and those current inputs and wherever attention is resting.

It's often unconscious and that's actually how it keeps us safe because it's moving quickly,

But it's also how it can get into mistake loops.

And when we use mindfulness,

Direct attention into something that is stable like gravity or not moving or even if it's a predictable movement like watching waves or ripples on the water,

Watching breeze move,

Tree leaves,

That can feel soothing.

So that brain is keeping us safe all the time with its predictions.

It'll predict when you feel that sensation of thirst,

That's the brain sending signals that you're on the risk of being dehydrated.

And then as soon as water starts to enter the body,

Turns that thirst signal off.

And it's not your fault when the mind gets in a loop.

Might be an anxiety loop.

It's just how the brain body functions.

And the more that we can notice the patterns that the brain has,

The more we can give new inputs like feeling the gravity below gently supporting us.

And this sends a reminder to the brain and it can revise those internal patterns that it creates.

So this weekend or this week,

I invite you to try out letting attention rest below your feet,

Below your seat,

And gently feeling gravity embracing you,

Reminding yourself with this very direct experience of feeling the earth and its stability beneath you.

And I'd love to hear what you notice.