Hello and welcome to this grounding meditation through body awareness.
Begin this practice by finding a comfortable seated posture.
This could be on the floor,
On a cushion,
Or on a chair.
However you are seated,
You'll want to be able to feel your connection to the ground.
So,
If you're sitting on a chair,
Plant your feet flat on the ground.
If you're sitting on a cushion,
Take your cushion to the floor,
And either sit on your knees with your shins and the tops of your feet rooted to the earth,
Or cross your legs and arrange the height of your cushion so your knees are lower than the height of your hips.
Once you're comfortable in your seat,
Sit up tall and close your eyes,
Or gaze softly at the ground ahead of you.
Seal your lips and breathe gently,
Quietly,
And slowly in and out through your nose.
With every exhale breath,
Allow the weight of your body to release further down towards the ground,
And with every inhale breath,
Notice an opposing,
Upward lifting energy that lengthens your spine a little bit taller.
With each exhale breath,
Release the shoulders,
Hips,
And legs towards the ground.
With each inhale breath,
Feel a gentle lightness,
A gentle upward lifting.
Rest here for a moment,
Finding a balance between these two breaths,
Grounding exhale and upward lifting inhale.
Now take your attention a little more towards the exhale breath.
Let each exhale breath take a little more time than each breath in.
Lengthen and extend the exhales gently and comfortably without trying too hard.
Now notice all the points of your body that are touching down and connecting to the ground below you,
To the earth,
The soles of your feet or your ankles,
Your shins,
Your sit bones,
Or the backsides of your thighs.
With every exhale breath,
As you ground a bit further by releasing energy down into the earth,
Imagine that each of these connection points expands a tiny bit,
Widens,
The way water spilled on the floor slowly begins to spread.
And if at any time you feel as though you're melting down a little too much,
Just remember the accompanying lightness of each breath in.
Rest here,
Aware of this play and this connection between the solidity of your body and the firmness of the earth.
And now of course the mind is still active,
Perhaps very active.
Any time that you notice the mind has wandered off,
Chasing a thought,
Spend no time wondering why.
Spend no time playing with the what.
Spend no time judging the meditation or yourself as good or bad.
Simply bring the mind back to the body.
Check back in with your sense of the weight of the body,
The form of the body,
The solidity of the body.
Get very curious about your sense of the body.
Is it heavy or light?
Still or in motion?
Solid or fluid?
Be present with the body,
Right here,
Right now,
With the body.
Seated on your chair or your cushion,
In touch with the ground,
Relatively still,
Physically stable,
Rooted,
Grounded,
Neutral.
From this place of stability,
Continue to notice when the mind wanders off.
And as many times as you need to,
Bring the mind back to the body,
Back to this anchor of the form of your body,
Stable and connected to the earth.
Notice the body as home base for the mind.
Wherever the mind goes,
The body remains grounded.
And whenever you notice the mind has drifted away,
The mind has the grounded body to return to.
Before you open your eyes,
Check in one more time with the space in which your body meets the ground.
Breathe out,
Release down into this space,
Into the ground.
Breathe in and push down into this space as you open your eyes.
Stay here for three to five breaths,
With eyes open,
Still aware of your body and the support of the ground beneath you.
And as you rise up to stand,
Be fully aware that to do so,
You press down into the stable,
Ever-present earth.
