Welcome to your three-layer grounding practice.
This practice is designed to help you be more grounded,
Centered,
And connected to yourself by taking you on a journey through the three types of embodied self-awareness.
First,
We'll explore your exteroception,
Or your classic five senses.
Next,
Your proprioception,
Or your body's ability to sense itself in space.
And finally,
Your interoception,
Or your awareness of the inner state of your body.
Throughout this practice,
I invite you to notice what you can sense with non-judgmental awareness.
That means just noticing without telling stories about what you imagine your sensations mean or where they came from.
So I'll invite you to get started by getting yourself into a comfortable position,
Whether that's sitting,
Standing,
Or lying down.
Make sure you can be in a position where you can relax and be at ease.
Notice what you sense in your body,
If anything,
Before we begin.
And as we begin,
I'll invite you to start with your eyes open,
Letting your gaze rest somewhere where your eyes can relax.
Allow the colors,
Shapes,
And light to come to you,
Rather than trying to force yourself to see something in particular.
If you feel comfortable closing your eyes,
Let your eyelids meet your cheeks.
If you don't feel comfortable with your eyes closed,
Don't worry.
There's no wrong way to do this practice.
Next,
I invite you to notice what you can hear.
Like your eyes,
Let the sounds come to you,
Rather than trying to stretch or strain or hear anything beyond the sound of my voice.
Then,
Notice what you can smell.
Maybe you begin to breathe a little bit more deeply.
What can you taste?
Even if you can't identify anything in particular,
Every time you ask this question and seek an answer,
You strengthen the neural pathways between your brain and whatever part of your body you are trying to connect to.
Next,
I invite you to notice what you can feel,
And not your emotional state,
But what you can sense with your skin or a sense of touch.
Perhaps your hands are folded in your lap,
Or your ankles are crossed.
You can notice what that connection point feels like.
Now,
We'll go even one layer deeper and feel the shape your body is making in space.
So,
Starting with the top of your head,
I invite you to notice where your head is in relation to your shoulders.
Is it a little bit in front?
A little bit behind?
Maybe off to one side?
Coming down your neck and into your shoulders,
Noticing the shape that your shoulders are making in space.
Maybe they're a little bit rounded forward and you're kind of slumped.
Maybe they're just sort of neatly stacked and open.
Maybe they're even a little bit arched back and maybe one is a little bit lower than the other.
There's no right or wrong way to be.
You're just building up a felt sense in your mind's eye of the shape of your body in this moment.
Coming down your arms and around the corners of your elbows and out into your forearms and your wrists.
I invite you to notice the shape that that part of your body is making and where your elbows are in relation to your shoulders and where your fingertips are in relation to your wrists.
And then coming back up through your arms and then coming down through your spine and your rib cage.
And noticing the shape of that part of your body.
Maybe there's a natural curve in your spine.
Maybe you're rounded forward.
Either way,
Noticing what you can feel,
What you can sense in this moment.
And for some of you that might feel like a really hard question to answer.
You might even not quite be able to sense a certain part of your body and that's completely okay.
Again,
What you're trying to either build for the first time or strengthen is those are those neural connections and pathways between your brain and your body.
And the more you seek to connect,
The stronger those pathways become.
So it's okay if the first time or the 10th time or the 50th time you don't feel anything.
Keep going.
As you come down your spine into your hips,
I invite you to notice your pelvis and notice where the weight is and where your pelvis is in relation to your shoulders.
Do you feel that it's right underneath your shoulders or if you're lying down?
Is it in alignment?
Maybe you notice there's a little bit more weight on one side than the other.
Maybe your pelvis is tilted forward or back.
Just kind of noticing that positioning as you let your awareness continue to drift down through your legs,
Down through your knees and shins,
And out through your feet.
And again,
Noticing the angles,
Noticing the placement,
Noticing if your knees feel higher than your hips or if your ankles are tucked back beyond or behind your knees.
And seeing if you can feel that shape.
And then we'll go one layer even deeper.
Take a moment and sense into the inner part of your body,
Focusing on your center from your throat to your hips.
And here you might notice things like your heartbeat or how it feels to breathe,
To expand and contract your lungs.
This is where you're going to sense either expansion or contraction,
Maybe tension or ease.
You'll be aware of temperature.
And you might have an overall sense of comfort or discomfort.
And it might even be hard to pinpoint where or why or how you feel that.
But as you sink in or deepen your connection into this part of your body,
This is where many of those sensations can live.
And so I invite you to like you have a flashlight.
So take your attention and focus it on the inner part of your body.
And notice what's here,
What you can sense.
And again,
Without any judgment,
Without any storytelling,
Just notice what sensations are present in this part of your body.
Maybe your heart feels a little fluttery.
Maybe it feels steady.
Maybe your breathing feels shallow.
Maybe it feels deep down in your belly.
Maybe you're not really noticing much of anything at all.
And even that in and of itself is beautiful noticing.
So again,
We're not looking for anything in particular,
Just trying to be present to what sensations are here for you.
And as we begin to shift out from this deeper part and aspect of yourself,
I invite you to let that happen slowly.
Maybe you take a few deep breaths.
Maybe you slowly begin to open your eyes.
And I invite you just to take a moment and notice what feels different on the other side.
What new awarenesses do you have after going through those three layers?
And what did you learn about yourself?
Or what did you notice in that experience?
And so the more you do this kind of awareness,
The more you tap into these three layers of what's available to you within your nervous system,
The stronger your connection to yourself becomes.
And the more space you create for yourself to feel what's present and to learn how to meet each moment with what is.
Thanks for joining me,
And I hope you have a great rest of your day.
