The Tree

A grounding practice originally done for school children. This is useful for anytime, or when we notice a lot of emotions or thoughts around. Using the image of a tree to assist us in our connection to the earth. Grounding down towards the roots, staying steadier closer

Transcript

We're going to do a practice now called the tree practice. So if you want to take your shoes and socks off, That's okay to do that. This can help us have a nice connection to the ground beneath. We want enough space to be able to stand up with our feet about hip distance apart. If you want to do this practice sitting down, Then that's also okay, Just if we can get both of our feet onto the floor. So we're gently allowing the eyes to close for a few moments, Or if this doesn't feel okay for us, Then just letting our gaze drop towards the floor, Just letting the eyes lower for a few moments. So we're just starting to allow ourselves to let go of whatever's been happening earlier, Just bringing our attention inwards for a few moments. So we're letting go of whatever we've been doing this morning, And just bringing our attention to be here in this moment. And we can do this, We can be here by starting to notice our body. So bringing our awareness down to the feet on the floor, Feeling the legs rising up, Just having a little gentle bend in the knees, And bringing our attention along our back and to the shoulders, Just noticing how the back and shoulders are right now, And the head at the top of the spine. And just for a few moments we're going to notice our breath, So bringing attention in and onto the breath, That flow of air that's moving in and moving out the whole time, So we don't have to pay attention to our breathing, It just happens anyway. And just starting to bring our attention onto that steady flow, Just letting the breath find its own natural rhythm, So we don't have to breathe in any particular way. Just feeling each in-breath, Each out-breath. Perhaps we notice the air at the nostrils moving in and moving out. Bringing our attention with the next in-breath, All the way in through the body and down to the soles of the feet. I'm going to imagine that we're like a large, Strong tree, As we breathe our way around the body. So we're breathing our attention down to the bottoms of the feet, Feeling whatever sensations we can notice here. So can we feel our shoes and our socks, Or can we feel the floor? Can we feel that pressure of the ground underneath, As the earth comes up to hold us, To hold our body from underneath? Just starting to let our attention drop down here to the feet, And imagining if we were a tree, Of our roots going out and into the ground underneath us. It's that connection and that grounding that we get from being in touch with the earth. And breathing in, Bringing our attention up through the ankles and into the legs. This is like we're moving up into the trunk of the tree. So we can breathe up through the legs and the hips and into the body itself. So we can feel the abdomen and the belly, Feel the bottom of the back, The top of the back, And our upper chest. Perhaps here we can notice some movements of our breathing. Just letting all of those be within the space of our attention. So we're noticing this, In this moment. Each time we find our awareness wanders away, It might go off with a sound, Or perhaps up to the head, To a thought. Then we can very gently use our breath to come back. So we're breathing into this space of the body. Moving up from our trunk, We can feel the arms and the hands. So these are like the branches reaching out from the trunk. Just noticing how our arms are today, How our hands are. Have we got them clenched, Or are they open and soft? Breathing in, And we're moving our awareness up through the neck and the throat. Into our heads, Where we can feel all the way to the top of the head. And just noticing the inside of the face, If we've got our eyes closed. Just feeling that expression, How our face is, From the inside today for a few moments. And noticing if it's busy up here in the head. Have we got lots of thoughts going on? Moving around, Thoughts about playtime, About what we're going to do later on after school. Thoughts about what we're doing right now in this practice. And just noticing those, If we can, Using that in-breath to come back down through the body. So quite often, When there's a lot of busyness around in the head, It's much easier to come away and down to the soles of the feet. So we can just breathe all the way back down through the body. So using that in-breath to breathe in, And come back down past the neck, Along the spine, To the hips, And down through the legs, All the way to the soles of the feet. Just feeling our connection here to the ground. Just resting our attention down by our roots. If we were a tree, We'd be all the way down where the roots start to go into the earth. Just breathing in and out here at this point. And letting go of this focus, And just bringing our attention back to this whole space of the body. So noticing the space that I occupy, All the way from the bottoms of my feet, Right up to the crown of my head. The very top of the head. So we can know that if it's a breezy day, Then our tree may move around a lot at the top. It may get blown around from side to side. And that's what it's like when perhaps we're having a tough time, Or perhaps there's a lot of thoughts around for us. So what we can do at these times is we can move further down the tree. So if we watch a tree on a stormy day, We can see its leaves moving right at the very tips. But if we look at the trunk, Or where it meets the ground, We'll see very little movement happening there. It's a lot steadier. And bringing our attention back onto our breath once more. Just noticing what the rhythm of our breathing is like. Just breathing in, And breathing out. And gently starting to bring our attention to our surroundings. Noticing any sounds that are coming from around this space. And then just gently starting to open our eyes. To bring our attention to the colours and the shapes that we can see. And then responding to our body. So after we've done a practice for a while, We might find we need to stretch, We want to move, We want to shake that out. And then as we finish this practice, Just taking away however we're feeling now. And perhaps any mindful moments we've had during that practice. Taking those away with us. Thank you very much.