Hello and welcome to Fitta Mind.
I am your host,
Amy Fitta.
And in today's session,
We will be exploring the technique of grounding.
Grounding can be used anytime we're feeling too much in our heads.
When we dissociate from the here and now,
From the present moment.
And sometimes when we are too much in our heads,
Too distracted by thoughts and worries and even fantasies,
We can sometimes dissociate from our bodies.
We dissociate from our senses.
So this technique will bring us back into our body.
By coming back into our body,
We slowly start to descend from the stories of our mind.
We start to descend from our fantasy world into reality,
Into the present moment.
The only place where life truly exists.
And when we find ourselves anchored in the present moment,
We find that naturally we feel a little bit more at ease,
Calm and relaxed.
Perhaps even moments of joy and gratitude.
So join me now,
Getting into a comfortable,
Ideally seated position today with your feet on the floor,
If that is at all possible.
And when you begin to arrive into your posture,
I invite you now to close your eyes.
Take a moment just to feel and notice your breath.
And as we begin,
Let's take a deep and slow inhale through the nose and an exhale through the mouth with a gentle and audible sigh.
And again once more,
A slow breath drawing in through the nose and an audible sigh out through the mouth.
I use this breath often as it is the most grounding breath we can take.
Drawing a slow inhale through the nose and then allowing the exhalation to be audible with a gentle sigh.
The sound,
The noise of the audible exhalation instantaneously brings us back from wherever we have drifted off to.
I encourage you to use this breath whenever you need to throughout this practice and even throughout your day.
Whenever you find yourself drifting back into stories of the mind,
Back into your thoughts,
Pull yourself down and out by taking that grounding breath.
Slow deep breath in through the nose and an audible sigh.
Now bring your awareness down into your feet.
Moving your awareness down into your feet,
Feel the connection of your feet against the ground below you.
Notice where the weight of your feet rests.
Does it feel that it's evenly distributed from the heel of the foot to the front of the foot?
Is it evenly distributed through the sides of the feet,
The inner edge and the outer edge?
Is it possible to let your feet become even heavier now,
As if you are surrendering the weight of your feet even more into the support,
Into the stability of the ground below you?
Feel a deep sense of connection of your feet and the earth,
As if your feet were made of the earth,
As if your feet were merging into the ground below you,
Becoming one.
Through the feet,
Feeling rooted,
Connected and grounded.
Notice any other sensations you can feel in your feet now.
You may feel warmth or coolness.
There may be a tingling or even a numbness.
Notice any sensations you can feel in your feet right now in this moment.
Now bring your awareness to your seat,
To your buttocks and your thighs resting on the chair.
Notice all the points of contact between your body and the chair below you.
Notice where you feel more weighted,
Where you feel more connected to the chair.
Is it possible to surrender the weight of your body a little bit more here?
Is it possible to become a little heavier,
A little bit more connected and grounded,
Releasing the weight of your body into the chair?
Feeling its support,
Its stability,
The way it holds the body,
Enabling you to stay lifted and tall through the spine.
The support of the base beneath you allows you to grow long through the spine,
Up through the crown of your head.
Notice how it's easy to breathe here with that support and stability beneath you.
Notice how easy the breath is,
How gentle the inhale is,
How gentle the exhale is.
That easy flow of breath.
Rise and fall of breath.
Bring your awareness now to the back of your head,
The back of your shoulders and the whole of your back.
Perhaps you are sitting away from the back of the chair,
So there's just air behind you in space.
Or perhaps you are indeed leaning against a wall or a chair.
I'd like you to feel the back of your body and notice any sensation you can feel here.
Lean a little bit more,
Very little and subtly into the support behind you.
Even if it's just air and space,
Feel as if there were support behind you.
Feel as you gently lean back,
You feel held.
And in this support,
The body is able to relax even more.
The breath is able to flow with ease without disruption.
Feel the fullness of your breath and the stability and grounding of your body.
Then feel your whole body all at once.
Notice any and all sensations you are feeling in your whole body.
Notice sensations at the surface of your skin.
Notice sensations deeper within the body,
The musculature and the bones.
Noticing again your breath.
Slowly beginning to deepen your breath,
Drawing the inhale through the nose,
Taking that audible sigh one more time.
Slowly bring your awareness back into the room.
Maybe a little wiggle of your fingers and your toes.
Whenever you're feeling too much in your head,
Simply come back into your body.
Allow your feeling into the body to be an anchor back into the present moment.
The present moment is the only place life truly exists.
Enjoy the present,
For it is truly a gift.
Thank you for your practice.
And see you next time.
Namaste.
