Hello and welcome to this meditation on being grounded like a tree.
This meditation will be broken up into three parts.
First,
We will relax the body from head to toe,
Finding stillness.
From there,
We will work on bringing our attention down to the feet.
And even in the word grounding,
The root word is ground,
Which can refer to the floor area,
But also from its Old English word grund,
Which means bottom,
Foundation,
Or surface of the earth.
And if we collect our energy down to the feet,
Which is the bottom part of our body,
We can feel more stable and rooted.
Which brings us to the last step of this meditation,
Which will be imagining a very strong root system emerging from the soles of our feet into the ground.
And by the end of this meditation,
You'll feel very strong,
Rooted,
And stable from within.
Let's get started.
Find a comfortable posture with your feet firmly planted on the ground beneath you.
Take a couple deep breaths in and out.
And on your exhales,
Feel the body relaxing.
We'll now continue this pattern of breathing into areas of our bodies to relax them.
So bring your attention to your head.
And notice if there's any tensions here,
Whether it be in the jaw or the far wing of the brow.
And take a deep breath in.
And on your exhale,
Relax these tight muscles in your face.
And continue to take a deep breath in.
And on your next exhale,
Once again,
Release any tensions in the head and in the face.
Bring your attention to your neck,
Your shoulders,
And your traps.
Breathe in here.
And on your next exhale,
Release any tensions in the neck,
Shoulders,
And traps.
Bring your attention to your arms.
Once again,
Just breathe in.
And on your exhale,
Release any tensions in your neck,
Shoulders,
And traps.
And on your next exhale,
See where you can soften any tensions and tightness in the arms.
Releasing and letting go.
Bring your attention to your chest,
Your abdomen,
And your back.
As you take a deep breath in,
Notice the abdomen rise,
Chest expand,
And the back expand.
And on your exhale,
Notice any tensions and grippings in these areas.
Slowly start to relax and melt away.
Bring your attention to the pelvis.
Take a deep breath into the pelvis.
And on your exhale,
Release any stored tension here.
Bring your attention to the legs.
Feeling your thighs,
Your hands,
And your feet.
Your hamstrings and your calves.
Take a deep breath in.
And on your exhale,
Feel these muscles start to relax.
Now bring your attention to your feet.
Take a deep breath in.
And now begin to clench your feet and curl your toes.
Hold your inhale at the top of your breath.
And on your exhale,
Slowly release your toes down to the ground and release any tensions in the feet.
Notice if there's any other tension or tightness in the feet that still remain.
And notice where specifically these areas are felt on your feet.
And on your exhale,
Imagine breathing out into these areas.
And watching the tension and tightness in these areas of your feet slowly melt away and empty out into the floor underneath your feet.
Continue to rest your attention here on the feet.
If you're having any difficulty feeling the sensations on the outside of your feet,
One question you can ask yourself is,
Without looking at my feet,
How do I know that I have feet?
And usually when asking that,
You may be able to slowly feel subtle sensations in the feet area.
Bring the spotlight of your attention to the tops of your feet,
From the instep area of your ankle,
To the base of your toes.
Just scanning for any sensations here on the tops of your feet.
If your mind wanders,
Gently observe that your attention has strayed.
And without any kind of judgment,
Gently bring your attention back to the rest at the tops of the feet.
Scanning for any sensations from the ankle to the base of the toes,
On the tops of your feet.
Now bring your attention to the bottoms of your feet.
First focusing on the heel of the foot,
Pressing against the ground beneath you,
And scanning the arch of the feet.
Maybe even noticing the space between the floor and the arch of your foot.
Unless you're flat-footed of course,
And then just notice the arch against the ground.
And then feel the balls of the feet.
Feel the sensations in the skin of this area against the ground beneath you.
If your mind wanders,
You can gently bring your attention back down to the feet.
You can also come back to asking yourself the question,
Without looking at my feet,
How do I know that my bottoms of my feet are here?
And usually that'll prompt your attention to go down to the soles of your feet.
It may be just a very faint feeling,
In the heels,
The arches of the feet,
Or the balls of the feet.
But this sensation is all you need to place your attention onto.
And then from there,
Just scan the heels to the balls of the feet.
Now bring your attention to the toes,
The top of the toes,
And the bottom of your toes,
Pressing against the ground beneath you.
Scan each of your toes,
From the base of the toes,
To the tops of your toes.
Feeling the big toe first,
And going one by one,
Until you get to the pinky toes.
Zoom your attention out,
To focus on both the feet.
And feel both your feet.
Feeling the warmth of the sensations that have arisen.
Feeling the stillness of the feet.
The increased vitality that emerges when we begin to focus and be mindful of our feet.
Feel this energy begin to concentrate in a small circle at the center of the soles of your feet.
For further strength,
You can even imagine that these energies are swirling at the bottoms of your feet,
Generating heat and light.
Now begin to visualize roots coming out of the soles of your feet,
And entering into the ground beneath you.
And as these roots begin to grow deeper and deeper into the ground,
Actually begin to feel your feet pull closer towards the ground beneath you.
Any tensions you may feel in the body are slowly leaving you,
As the root system of energy begins to descend further into the ground.
If your mind wanders,
Or your attention gets lost,
Typically the attention may go up in your head area.
Simply just observe this,
Once again redirect your focus down to the soles of your feet.
Feeling heat and energy center in the soles of your feet.
Once again observe a very strong root system emerging from the soles of your feet,
And growing further and further into the ground beneath you.
Seeing any tensions in the body,
Start to leave your body as they drain into the root system under your feet.
And observe the body feeling more and more relaxed as your attention goes further and further down into your feet,
And into the ground beneath you.
Observe how stable,
Still,
And sturdy you feel in this present moment.
Take a moment to zoom your attention outward.
And notice how your entire body feels overall.
Begin to also observe the state of your mind.
What stillness,
Stability,
And a sense of quietness can you observe now?
In this moment.
As you begin to end this meditation today,
Just know that this feeling of groundedness and calm can be accessed at any time during your day.
And this is done simply by bringing your attention down to the feet,
Which will provide a feeling of groundedness.
And also,
By imagining a root system pulling away any tensions developed throughout your day.
Down to the floor beneath you.
Leaving you with a feeling of relief,
And also strength and rootedness.
Bring your hands to heart center.
And take a moment to thank yourself for practicing today.
Thank you.
