Mindful Grounding Focus

Grounding is like a magic trick - one minute you're up in your busy head with your mind spinning circles... the next you feel calm and centred as you shift your focus. Energy flows where your attention goes. Try this gentle approach to yoga Tadasana to help you notice the difference between thinking your way into grounding, versus the magic of feeling it in your body. This audio was originally created to accompany a focus from my first book, The Magical Unfolding.

Transcript

This is the mindful grounding focus to accompany the book The Magical Unfolding. I'm going to invite you to stand with your feet parallel and hip width apart to allow your weight to transmit into the earth. And if you're not sure about hip width, It's roughly the same distance as two fists placed side by side between your feet. So give yourself time to really feel into the underside of your feet and move them around until you get a really good connection with the ground. Spend time on this. Your feet are your foundation. The greater your connection, The more optimally your body aligns. Ideally lift and spread your toes as much as is comfortable for you and then lower them down. Have a soft bend in your knees and try not to lock your thigh muscles. Take a breath and release them. Now imagine your pelvis is like a bowl holding fruit. You don't want to tip it too far forwards or too far back. Gently move it millimetres back and forth until it feels just right so that if you had fruit in the bowl of your pelvis, It would sit there nicely without falling out. Very lightly draw in your abdomen and notice as you do so that your upper chest lifts slightly. You might want to gently rotate your shoulders at this point until they feel softer and maybe feel free to gently move your head from side to side to soften the muscles in your neck. Rather than trying to get your upper body perfectly aligned, Gently lower your chin ever so slightly until it feels as though you have a large orange underneath your chin. You might need to play with this to get this sense but you want to imagine that someone has attached a thread to the crown of your head and is gently elongating it. Those two together will naturally help elongate your upper body. Notice your breath, Notice your feet, Soften your jaw and your face. Release the tip of your tongue gently on the roof of your mouth, Just behind your top teeth and keep it there as you breathe. Once you feel you are in a stable position, Keep tuning into the sensation of someone lifting your crown and keep noticing your feet. Play with shifting your weight from the back of your feet to the front and from side to side. Doing your best to hold every other aspect of your body in position as you do. Just do this for a moment and then settle back into a still position with your weight evenly distributed. Keep softening, Breathing consciously and relaxing whenever you notice you are holding tension. Breathe softly in and as you breathe out imagine sending roots down your legs and deeply into the ground through a point called the bubbling spring on the sole of each foot, In the middle just behind the ball of your foot. This really helps you sink your energy and send it into the ground. With each inhalation play with bringing your energy back up from your feet to your belly and as you exhale send it down through this point in each foot. So with each in breath you are imagining bringing your energy back to your belly and with each out breath you are imagining sending it back down again into the earth. Repeat this as many times as you like but stand for no longer than about 10-15 minutes each time. When you are ready to move and let the focus go make sure that you really come back to a sense of the room around you and that you are gentle as you bring your attention back. So you are really being kind to yourself, Coming back to the here and now. Noticing how you feel, Noticing how your breath has changed, How your head feels and how your body feels. Noticing whether you feel more spacious, Calmer, More centred and grounded. So feel free to continue this for as long as you like or as I end this audio feel free to come back to the room around you. Take a breath. Thank you for listening.