Returning To Ourselves

When life becomes hectic, stressful, and is full of worries, our minds become overstimulated and our bodies can react in many different unhelpful ways. This is a gentle guided practice, to re-connect with the present, to re-mind ourselves 'we are here' in this moment. We are safe, grounded, and balanced. We are back, with ourselves again.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Gavin,

Gavin Weir Jones.

I'm going to be guiding you on this simple grounding awareness meditation.

So the first thing to do is finding yourself a perhaps quiet and simple place to rest.

You can do this practice either sitting on a chair,

Perhaps lying on a mat,

Or maybe you're listening to this outside,

Perhaps on your lunch break,

Or after work,

In the car.

Wherever you're doing it,

Just making sure that you have space and time to do this without interruption as best you can.

So coming into this space and time now,

By that,

The invitation is to simply become aware of where we are when we practice,

Wherever we are.

That may mean the contact points of the body,

What we notice,

The temperature and the environment,

Sounds around us.

If you like the more factual concrete aspects of the environment and the place in which we practice.

So simply coming to notice the contact points,

Wherever we are.

If we're sitting on a chair,

We may be sitting sort of more freely towards the edge of the chair.

So the body is self-supported and the back is upright but not rigid.

If we find that this is not a comfortable posture or we're very new to practices,

Then finding something that has a firm support on the back,

That enables us to be supported,

To focus more fully on the practice itself.

If we're lying down,

Just a small shallow pillow perhaps underneath our heads,

The spine is straight in line with the pelvis.

And if we have lower back,

Sometimes just raising the knees and allowing the knees just to rest on each other can be a comfortable position.

Spending a few moments just adjusting our posture.

And then these moments starting to become aware of the surroundings,

The body,

The breath and other aspects of temperature and sound and of course thoughts.

If there is any particular focus for this practice,

It is the simple sense of the expanding and the growing of awareness.

Awareness of what is.

And for some who feel that the thought patterns move forwards in life into worry or anxiety or perhaps backwards into sadness or concern,

Then this is a way of grounding ourselves and becoming much more present.

And we move from what if to what is.

And often the best way to access the what is,

Is by focusing on the body and on the breath.

Both of which are clear indicators of the present moment.

Our body and our breath cannot live in the five minutes in the future.

And it's unlikely that we recall how they were five minutes ago.

So coming to notice the body as best we can without judgment.

So simply scanning the body,

What do we notice?

Sometimes it feels pleasant all over.

Sometimes it doesn't feel pleasant.

Sometimes it just feels neutral,

Neither very pleasant nor unpleasant.

Remembering we're not trying to find anything.

We're not trying to make something happen.

We're simply taking an inventory,

Being a witness.

So we might start by perhaps imagining there is just a gentle finger on the top of our head,

On the crown of our head.

And this acts,

If you like,

As an indication to pause,

To stop what we're doing,

Even if we are being still.

And allowing that attention and awareness to drop into that space around the body,

Around the head and the skull.

And then slowly taking in the rest of the face area,

Forehead and the eyes,

Bridge of the nose,

The cheeks,

Mouth,

Teeth and the sweep of the jaw and the chin.

See if we can just hold this gently in a simple awareness.

And we may well notice a little tension or holding,

Or maybe parts of the face or head feel cooler or warmer.

We may be suffering from a little headache,

Some frowning.

So as best we can to simply noticing these areas without trying to move to fix them,

To have some sort of internal conversation about why we have them,

Seeing if we can drop the story.

Simply notice,

Oh,

This is what's here for me right now.

No more,

No less.

So then just allowing the scan through the rest of the body,

Perhaps down the back,

Noticing what's here,

Across the shoulders,

Down the left arm and the left hand and down the right arm and the right hand and across the chest,

Around the ribs,

Feeling the breath expand and contract.

See if we can just allow the belly to be soft,

Gentle.

And then noticing that we can take in the whole of the upper body,

From the crown of the head to the waist.

Just holding this gently in awareness,

What do we notice?

What's here for us now?

And we may have already noticed that the mind becomes busy.

Perhaps it's tired,

Perhaps it's bored.

Maybe there is just many things on our minds.

This is okay,

This is what minds do.

So not judging ourselves for not getting it right or not being good at this,

This meditation.

Simply being aware that this is what minds do,

They are there to think and consider and be engaged.

So this practice is offering an alternative place to being pulled by the thinking mind,

The busyness of our heads,

And allowing us just to be with our bodies,

Practicing the dropping of judgments and noticing when the mind goes away it gets caught in thought.

And simply and gently just reminding us,

Ah yes,

My body.

See if I can just return here.

And it doesn't matter if we've forgotten a bit or can't remember where we were,

Simply start wherever feels comfortable.

And so each time the mind may go away we bring it back.

We realize after a while these are moments of mindfulness,

Times when we have caught our mind and we've taken back a little bit more control,

We've re-established a choice and we realize we can actually do this.

And like all things it takes a little practice.

So to be kind to ourselves when we're learning and even if we're familiar and well experienced we all know that this happens again and again.

So returning to the body and allowing the sense of awareness to come in around the waist,

Allowing it to flow through the pelvis,

The hip joints and the hips,

The buttocks,

Down through the thighs and the knees,

The lower legs,

Into the ankles and across the feet,

The tops of the feet and the soles of the feet.

Right through to the toes at the end of our feet.

What do we notice now?

What do we notice about each leg?

Each cool area,

Each warm area,

Either contact of the clothing or what we're lying or sitting on,

Whether there is any tension or holding in this part of the body.

Simply noticing.

We don't have to comment,

We don't have to do a back story,

Just what is here.

So now seeing if we can hold the whole body in this awareness from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes.

In doing so we must also become aware of the breath,

Just gently working on its own in the background.

So whilst becoming aware of the body and holding that in a gentle awareness,

So aware of the breath entering and leaving the body.

Noticing perhaps how the breath touches and expands further than the chest area or the belly.

You may even start to imagine that the breath is touching all areas of the body as if the body is gently breathing in and out,

Expanding and relaxing.

So just taking a few moments before this practice ends just to allow that sense of the body breathing and knowing if the mind is busy,

Or goes away in thought or boredom,

Bringing it back to the sense of the breath.

This breath in your body rising and falling.

Now as this practice comes to a close,

The invitation is just to tune in to again the contact points,

Feeling these a little bit more fully.

Perhaps tuning into any sense of sound that is around you wherever you're practicing.

Maybe even the light coming through the eyelids if the eyes were closed.

So bringing the senses a little bit more fully into awareness.

Now allowing the sound of the bell to signify the end of this practice.

So until next time,

Go well.

Reviews

Lovely. Thank you so much. Clear and gentle and perfect for beginners and experienced meditators alike

Good to finally have you here Gavin.
That's my 'car rest' meditation sorted for this week.
Though missed the end as I fell asleep doing it during afternoon bed test today. Much needed. Thank you.