Safe Base Meditation

In this meditation, Dr. Julien Lacaille guides you in creating a safe base from which to then explore your own experience, with courage and curiosity.

Transcript

Okay.

So settling into our lying posture or perhaps our sitting posture if we're tired.

Just taking the first few moments of the meditation to make just tiny adjustments as we kind of check in into our body,

Making the adjustments to make sure that we're going to be kind of as comfortable as we can be for the next 15 to 20 minutes.

And at the same time making somewhat of an effort to be alert,

To stay awake.

Whether that means opening the eyes from time to time or changing the posture to be a little bit more straight.

And seeing if we can get a sense of the body as a whole.

Whether lying and the parts that are touching the floor,

The mat.

Or if we're sitting,

Then the legs,

The feet,

Maybe even the hands are touching something.

Feeling the weight of the body.

And recognizing that as soon as we tune into these kind of physical sensations in our body of touch,

Of contact,

We arrive in the present moment.

Because those sensations only exist right now and they keep changing subtly.

So arriving in the present moment through the sense of touch,

Of contact,

Feeling grounded.

And then for this meditation I'm going to invite you to place a hand somewhere on your body,

Preferably somewhere where you're going to be feeling the breath.

So on the chest or on the abdomen.

And then intentionally seeing if you can direct your attention in the space between the palm of your hand and the body part that you're touching.

So we're just kind of delicately placing the attention,

Resting it in that space of contact.

And if it's on the chest or on the belly,

We'll likely sense movement related to breathing.

And we'll likely also sense other sensations like just the sensations of pressure,

Maybe of warmth,

Tingling,

Other sensations.

And for now seeing if we can anchor attention just right there.

Every time it wanders,

Just kind of gently bringing it back,

Escorting it back.

Coming back to the present moment through the sense of touch.

So for now just riding the waves of your own breathing at the hand.

And see if you can gradually notice in addition to the movement of the breath,

If you can also notice the sensations of warmth specifically in that space.

So,

In addition to noticing the breathing that just keeps happening,

We're also noticing kind of a kind and compassionate touch.

As though this was someone else's hand,

Someone who really deeply cares about us and loves us.

The kindest person we can imagine.

And they're offering us this compassionate touch,

This warmth,

And we're just breathing with it.

And this point becomes our safe base,

A place we can come back to again and again and feel safe.

In the present moment,

In the presence of someone who's caring with this warmth,

This kind of gentle touch,

The sense of being alive and breathing.

And the sense of just being okay being here right now,

Not having to do anything.

Just for now,

It's okay,

I can allow myself to be present with this breath,

With this touch.

And now from the safe base,

I'm going to invite you to go explore other parts of your body and to be on the lookout for sensations that are just neutral.

They're not pleasant,

They're not unpleasant.

They're typically places that you wouldn't pay attention to so much,

Like the left earlobe or this specific part on your thigh somewhere.

See if you can kind of scan your body for these easily overlooked sensations.

Some tingling here,

Some contact with my clothes there.

It's not pleasant,

It's not unpleasant.

It's just a neutral sensation.

Once you find a spot,

Just stay there for a few seconds and then move on to find another spot like that.

If you kind of get lost in thought or lost somewhere else,

You can always come back to the safe base at the hand region.

And then begin again,

This interior explorer,

Researcher that kind of goes around and checks out the kind of like nooks and crannies of the sensations in your body,

Places you wouldn't look normally,

The armpit somewhere else,

The gums.

Just point your attention somewhere,

Just stay there for a bit,

See if there's a sensation that shows up.

There is,

Notice it,

Move on.

If there isn't,

Notice the absence and move on.

See if you can keep it fluid.

And then slowly make your way back to the safe base.

And the feelings of warmth,

Maybe it's gotten warmer,

Maybe it's gotten more humid,

But there's the breath,

There's the touch.

Now I'm going to invite you now to,

From this safe base,

To go explore,

But this time to go explore unpleasant sensations,

Sensations where there might be some discomfort,

Like a tension here,

An ache there,

An itch here,

Or can also be actual physical pain,

A throbbing in my knee,

A shooting pain in my leg.

And if you do find one,

See if you can not stay there for too long,

Just for maybe 15 seconds.

Just observe it as objectively as you can without imposing any judgments on it.

Notice that when you kind of put your attention on it,

It fluctuates,

It moves.

It's not a static thing.

As soon as you notice it fluctuating and changing,

Then you can move on to finding another place where there's discomfort or pain.

And it could be emotional pain stored in the chest or in the belly or in the throat or in the shoulders or other places.

It'll be easy to get sucked into a story about it,

But see if you can just stay in the body with the sensation,

Notice it moving,

Changing,

And then keep exploring different parts,

Knowing you can always come back to this safe space from time to time.

All rightfall to wrap up the talk,

Thank you.

Unpleasant sensations and keeping it fluid,

It's going to probably tend to get stuck in one place.

Remember,

Don't stay in a place for longer than about 15 seconds.

Keep moving.

You can come back to it.

Keep moving.

Okay.

And then slowly returning to the safe base at the hand region,

Noticing the warmth,

The warm touch,

Noticing the movement of the breath.

And now from there,

See if you can come back to the neutral sensations that you noticed earlier.

Check in with those regions,

A few of those regions.

Maybe it's changed.

Maybe the sensation is no longer there and no longer neutral.

Who knows?

But see,

Just go back briefly,

Check in.

Maybe with the fingertips,

With the earlobes,

The eyebrows,

Thighs,

Elbows,

Wherever you were noticing neutral sensations.

And then while you kind of keep those in your awareness,

See if you can simultaneously notice the sensations that were unpleasant or where there was discomfort.

Check in with those while keeping the neutral sensations in your awareness as best as you can.

Notice that they're happening at the same time.

So for example,

If there are neutral sensations in my left ear and uncomfortable sensations in my right knee,

Then can I hold in my awareness,

My left ear and my right knee at the same time?

And then seeing if now if we can add to that the sensations at the hand that's touching the body,

The warmth,

The caring,

The breath.

Notice that that's happening at the same time also.

And then slowly seeing if it's possible for you to include more and more and more sensations,

Pleasant ones,

Neutral ones,

Unpleasant ones throughout the whole body.

And then seeing if it's possible to hold all the sensations in the body in awareness at the same time without trying too hard but just being receptive,

Just realizing the body's generating all these sensations at the same time anyways.

And can I just become sensitive enough to notice that,

To hold those in my awareness,

To cover my whole body with my awareness?

Knowing that at the center of it all is the safe base,

This caring touch,

This being alive,

Being open to the kind of richness,

The moment to moment richness,

The moment to moment richness of one's experience.

Okay and as we finish the meditation let's see if we can bring your attention back to the narrow and small area beneath the hand,

Space between the hand and the body.

Just riding a few more waves of your own breathing.

So as you familiarize yourself with those sensations.

So

Reviews

So centering, thank you. This one really managed to pull me from my busy mind.

Thank you very much. A lovely relaxing and compassionate meditation, which enabled me to feel really grounded

For the “kindest presence I could imagine”, I chose Mr. Rogers

So Wonderful! to have a safe place to come to when ever I need it. So nice that that place is filled with love and compassion.

I feel much lighter. Thank you! 🙏

A most wonderful and amazing body scan - an awesome meditation - thank you

I love this meditation!

Very, very relaxing as are his other ones.

Such a nice mindful meditation. It seems this meditation could enhance mindfulness and focus. Excellent, gentle guidance with a soft, warm sounding ending bell. Thank you for this meditation.

Very interesting. Takes a lot of focus, but worth it

Peaceful way to start and look forward to the day. Thank you.

For me, the most grounding and helpful. Thank you.

What a wonderful way to learn to hold positive, neutral, and negative sensations - physical and emotional alike - with a kind, loving presence. Thank you, I will be coming back to this meditation again 😊
Namaste

Feeling very settled and open hearted after this. Thank you! I appreciated the gentle, clear and steadily paced instructions. I really enjoyed a new practice of being aware of mutual sensations and then all sensations in a gentle way. I also liked the freedom of choice to choose where to rest the attention, supported by suggestions such as earlobe, eyebrows. I recommend this as a trauma-sensitive meditation. Thank you!!!🙏🌻

Excellent grounding meditation. Thank you 🙏🏻

Great awareness exercise

Nice support having The safe base for the body scan. It actually allows for a different level of contact that I like.

Fantastic meditation! Thank you. Just the right amount of guidance and silence.

Excellen. Very good practice for mind training. Plenty of silence to try the technique and really hear oneself.