Welcome to practice.
I'm glad you're here.
For today's practice I'd like you to be lying down on your back.
So you want to get comfy here whether it's on the bed or a couch or the ground.
You might like to pop a cushion underneath your knees especially if your lower back gets a bit grumpy.
You might like a cushion or folded blanket underneath your head.
And once you're in that position on your back you can either close or lower the eyes.
Today's practice we are using the element of earth in order to get a sense of being grounded.
Now to be grounded can mean different things to different people but to me it means this feeling of being entirely in your body.
So often we can kind of get caught up and carried away by the mind and almost feel as if we're floating above our body up in our brain.
So today we're going to use this element of earth to pull the mind back down into the body.
Mind and body in exactly the same place at exactly the same time.
So first of all we're going to feel the parts of our body that are connected to the ground.
The back of your head,
The backs of your shoulders,
The backs of your arms and the backs of your hands,
Your middle back,
Your two hips,
Two butt cheeks,
Backs of your thighs,
Backs of your calves and your heels.
And with your mind get very closely in towards this space seeing if you can find that exact place where body meets earth and earth meets body.
That delineation between you and the ground beneath you.
And then as you really focus on this space where you end and the earth begins,
Can it begin to become less clear?
So there's almost this blurring of the boundary between you and the earth.
Almost like you're melting into each other,
Almost like you're becoming one.
Your bones are heavy,
Sinking downwards.
The muscles and tissue almost melting off the bones,
Sinking down into that earth beneath you.
Until you are so connected to the earth that it almost feels as though you are growing roots.
Tendrils of awareness,
Tendrils of energy snaking downwards into the cool rich earth beneath you.
And feel how the more these roots attach you,
Connect you to the ground,
To that element of earth,
The steadier and more grounded you feel.
Your awareness,
Your focus deep within your body.
And out of this rich fertile space of awareness,
We can begin to grow.
We can plant little seeds of ideas,
Of concepts in that fertile soil of our brain and our body.
We can watch as little seedlings begin to reach up towards the sun,
Firmly rooted in that awareness,
That awareness of earth beneath you.
But for now we let those little seeds germinate within us.
We feel those roots,
Those tendrils of awareness,
Of consciousness,
Start to slowly move back up out of the earth and into our body.
And we become aware of the spaces where our body touches the ground.
At first blurry and melded,
We can feel this delineation,
This demarcation,
This difference between the earth and the body as we feel those spaces of connection.
The heels,
The calves,
The backs of the thighs,
The bum cheeks,
The hips,
And the middle back.
Feel the backs of your hands,
Backs of your arms,
The backs of your shoulders,
And the back of your head.
That clear space where the earth ends and you begin.
When you are ready,
You can slowly move the closed eyes around behind the eyelids.
And then when it feels right,
You can blink open the eyes.
Thank you for sharing your practice with me.
I look forward to seeing you next time.
