Welcome to this guided meditation for Earth Element.
Take a comfortable seat on a chair or a cushion.
Maintain a tall,
Neutral spine.
So if you're sitting on a chair,
Avoid leaning back and keep both feet flat on the ground.
Place your hands in your lap to promote relaxation in your shoulders.
Keep your chin level.
Eyes closed or gaze low and soft.
Breathe quietly in and out through your nose.
Take a few cycles of breath to feel settled here,
To intentionally arrive in your meditation.
Begin to lengthen the exhale breath a bit,
No forcing,
Just a gentle nudging.
With each exhale be aware of the points of your body that are connected to your seat,
And aware that beneath your seat,
Beyond the floor beneath you,
Beyond the structure of the building,
Is the Earth.
In this quiet and stillness,
Bring attention to your body.
Begin with the gross form of the body,
The general outer silhouette,
The overall shape.
You might visualize the body as just an outline,
Or slowly fill in all the details,
But rest in awareness of the outer form of the body.
Your skin,
Your hair and nails,
The body as it appears to others.
And then turn your attention a little further inward,
Aware of the flesh and the muscles of the body,
The layers just below the skin.
Further inward,
Aware of the bones,
The skeletal structure of the body,
Holding you tall,
Supporting you,
Protecting all your most vital inner organs.
And then turn attention again,
Further inward towards those organs.
Maybe you can sense the movement of the lungs,
Or the beat of the heart.
Is it possible to sense any other organs?
The belly,
The kidneys,
The liver.
Keep going inward until you reach the level of the body at a cellular structure.
Zone in on one small,
Detailed area,
Or hold awareness of a general sense of all the atoms and molecules that create your form.
And then draw your awareness to the dance of these molecules at the edges of what we think are the boundaries of our body.
These tiny particles,
Always in exchange with the space and the form around us.
We know that the breath is a means of exchange between the outer and inner worlds.
Particles in,
Particles out.
We know that we're constantly shedding pieces of hair,
Skin,
And nails.
But what about this connection,
Right here and right now?
Between our body and the earth?
All the particles of your body,
Continually exchanging with the world around you.
Zoom in on the space between your body and the object upon which you sit.
Can you see the boundary line?
What does it look like at its most microscopic level?
There's a dance,
A play,
An exchange.
All of the elements that make you up are the very same elements that make up the world around you.
All of the earth elements that make the ground underneath you solid are the same earth elements that make the cushion,
Or the chair on which you sit stable,
With form.
And these are the same earth elements that create the shape of your human body.
All of it is the same.
All of it connects to you.
All of it is connected.
Rest in awareness that there's no separation between you and your world.
Energy within reflects energy without.
Energy without comes from energy within.
Your calm breath,
Your quiet mind,
Your stillness,
Create the same in the space all around you.
