Centering & Grounding

Centering & Grounding is a short guided practice to allow sensing and feeling into the body through gentle yoga movements and pranayama, which is to stretch the out-breath to reduce stress in the body.

This short practice can be used anytime during the day to invite us home to the body and open to the language of sensation through grounding and centering easily with patience and kindness.

Transcript

Hi,

Welcome to this practice called centering and grounding.

So often in our busy everyday lives it's really hard to sense and feel into our bodies and often with all those racing thoughts we can have headaches and it's really lovely to try and center ourselves with the body and the breath.

So we know that yoga means union and it helps us to understand this practice by connecting the breath with gentle movement.

So I invite you to join me in this practice today.

If you could come to a standing position,

If that's not available for you you might be able to do it sitting down and modify as best that you can.

So start by having the hands together and you'll notice the touch of the hands,

It might feel like warmth,

A little bit of pressure and I invite you to breathe in and out through the nose.

If your nose is blocked breathing in and out through the mouth and only doing what feels right for your body today.

As you inhale,

Opening the palms to the length of your breath and as you exhale the palms are touching together.

So elbows are bent and elbows are in close to the body,

Palms are in front of the belly.

So inhale opening through the palms of the hands,

Exhale touching.

So continuing this with your breath,

Inhale through the nose opening the hands,

Exhale bringing the palms back together,

This gentle touch and just trying that three more times.

And the hands are in front as you come back to stillness and then releasing the arms along and now we'll try some grounding into the feet.

So gently rocking side to side,

One foot gets heavier than the other,

Just sensing and feeling.

That slight shift in pressure and then forward into the toes back into the heels,

Being aware of how that feels if you need to hold on to a chair to support your balance using everyday props and then trying to draw a circle with your pelvic bowl.

Circles can be small or a little bit larger and then going back the other way just inviting your body to move gently.

So you can take the awareness down from the head or it can feel a little bit of pressure with overthinking and just dropping your attention down into the physical sensations that you're aware of.

And then you might like to write your name with the pelvis,

Seeing if you can do perhaps running writing where you join the letters of your name.

And then you might like to add in your middle name or your second name.

Feel that gentle movement through the pelvis.

I know since I've been doing this each day I have less headaches and coming back to stillness,

Feeling the legs and that gentle pressure into the floor.

And now we're going to have the palms facing forward,

Arms are long.

We're going to inhale,

Open the hands,

Fingers spreading,

Exhale squeeze the fingers around the thumbs.

Inhale opening through the hands,

Exhale a little bit of squeezing fingers around the thumbs.

Notice how your awareness drops into both hands.

Just doing that with your breathing.

Inhale opening,

Exhale squeezing.

And hands soft,

Coming back just noticing.

And now inhale opening the thumbs,

The pointer,

The middle finger,

The ring finger,

The little finger.

And now closing the little finger,

The ring finger,

The middle finger,

The pointer,

The thumb.

Trying that again,

Opening through the thumbs,

The pointer,

The middle finger,

The little finger,

Sorry the ring finger and the little finger.

And then bringing the little finger in,

The ring finger,

The middle finger,

The pointer and the thumb.

So trying that again,

Taking your attention to the hands.

And then we're going to take the awareness back down to the feet.

So curling the toes and then letting go through the feet.

Notice how that little bit of contraction into the toes takes your awareness down and letting go.

Letting the feet be soft.

Trying that again,

Curling the toes.

Notice how your attention drops down to the feet and letting go.

And then drawing the belly back as if someone was going to throw a medicine ball at your tummy.

So we're just going to draw the abdomen back.

Notice how it gets tight often through stress.

If we're holding tension in the belly it's harder to breathe,

The diaphragm can't move.

And when we have this upper chest breathing can cause anxiety in the body.

And then letting the belly be soft.

Trying that again,

A little bit of tension drawing the belly in.

And letting go.

Notice how it feels to let go.

Inviting ease,

Allowing the belly to be soft.

And we're going to squeeze the fingers around the thumbs,

Bend at the elbows,

Draw the shoulders up to the ears.

A little bit how this can feel like stress.

And then gently releasing,

Softening palms open.

And even having the palms open can signal to the brain to invite ease.

And we'll try that again,

Fingers around the thumbs,

Bending the elbows,

Shoulders up to the ears,

That tension,

Contraction.

And then letting go.

Arms long,

Hands soft,

Palms open.

And you might like to try that if ever you're feeling that stress response going into the body,

That tension through the shoulder girdle.

Can you gently have the palms open,

Arms long.

And then we're going to try some breathing.

So you might like to sit down in a chair if you have a chair available for you.

So sometimes when we're a little bit stressed it can be a good idea to try and lengthen the out-breath.

And sometimes using sound,

This can help us lengthen and increase the out-breath.

So just observing the natural breath in and out through the nose.

And we're going to inhale through the nose and make a shhhhh sound with the out-breath.

We're inviting the out-breath to be smooth,

Steady and long.

So joining me if you'd like to try that,

Sitting in a comfortable position with an upright spine,

Open through the heart,

The chest.

Hands can be down on the thighs or palms up,

Whatever's more comfortable for your neck.

Breathing in through the nose,

Breathing out making this lovely sound.

And we'll try that one more time together,

Breathing in through the nose,

Out through the mouth,

And come back to natural breathing.

Feeling any effects of that breathing practice.

Might be something you can try if you're feeling a little bit stressed.

I do this sometimes in the car if I'm running late for an appointment.

I might do the shhhhh breathing and I find it really helps to slow down and calm the autonomic nervous system.

So notice how you're feeling sitting in the chair after doing some centering and grounding.

And we're just going to notice the mouth,

Another place where we can hold lots of tension and around the jaw.

So with the tongue you're going to trace around the top of the teeth on the outside and then the inside of the teeth and back the other direction.

And then the tongue comes down to the bottom teeth tracing on the outside of the teeth,

The inside,

Back the other direction.

And then unhinging the jaw,

Seeing if you can let go a little bit around here.

And then we're going to use the thumbs and do some lovely circles into that part of the jaw that can be a little bit tense,

The hinge of the jaw,

The most used muscle in the body.

A little bit of circling there.

I know for me that always feels a little bit tender particularly on my left side so just little small circles might be quite unpleasant,

Just releasing any tension.

And now turning the circles back the other way.

Observing,

Noticing.

And now we're going to rub the hands together,

Feel a little bit of warmth or heat in the hands and then gently placing the hands over the eyes,

Cupping the hands and just observing.

Might feel a little bit of warmth over the eyes.

Releasing the hands and we're just going to sit in silence just for a minute,

Observing if there's more of a centered or a grounded feeling for you inside your body.

Being aware if you can release tension around the eyebrow center,

Unhinging the jaw.

Feeling grounded through your seat,

Lower legs and your feet,

Arms long,

Hands soft and open through the chest.

Just pausing and breathing,

A pause,

Breathing space.

And notice how you're feeling now.

So thank you for your practice,

I hope you can try this whenever you're feeling a little bit rushed,

It's a lovely grounding and centering practice for you.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.

Bye for now.

Reviews

I’ve never done a meditation using movement as part of the practice. It was a lovely change. I also like her very soft, accented voice, speaking as an American.

Very comforting loved the release of the tension in my mouth & jaw

Left me feeling fully centered, grounded, relaxed a ready to begin my day. Thank you!

Wowzer, thank you 🙏
I enjoyed the combination of gentle moves with breathing in a different way 🧘‍♀️

Been feeling very out of body lately as I go through some significant changes in my life - this was a really calming and simple way to feel more connected to the present and my body. Thank you.

So so good! I tend to overthink a lot and feel super ungrounded, really enjoyed that the practice is standing..it got me feeling my body and becoming present a lot faster/intenser than sitted practices! Thank you!

This was wonderful! I will keep it close at hand to enjoy as a break from computer time and other busyness that engulfs my day. It’s a great offering when I can’t or prefer not to take time fir a whole hour or more for yoga. Thank You 🙏

Subtle and divine. Gracias 🙏🏻

Lovely. Definitely adding this one to my practice, especially when I'm feeling stressed/rushed at work

Beautifully effective!☘️

A wonderful practice that invites gentle movements to really ground into the body. Thank you 🙏

Gentle. Effective w/o much work.

What a fabulous way to begin our day, grounded and calm. 🙏🏼

The time flew by. Great start to the day, I feel grounded

This was perfect. I will be utilizing it often. Thank you 🙏📿🤲

I really liked doing the movements you suggested and feel much more 'in my body' now. Thank you.

So helpful thank you

I was heading for a panic attack. Noticing my signs I decided to try this grounding meditation to bring back my focus and the feeling of solid ground beneath my feet. I am now much calmer. I am slowed down. I can handle my emotions. Thank you, genuinely!

What a lovely voice she has. I'll bookmark this to do again. Thanks you.