Anchored And Grounded In My Body

We enter a relaxation and grounding practice to reconnect with our bodies and surroundings. It begins with gratitude for nature and encourages awareness of physical support, from the ground to the furniture beneath us, and uses sensory engagement (5-4-3-2-1) to anchor us in the present moment.

Techniques like body scanning, mindful breathing, and gentle movement help release tension and regulate the nervous system. It highlights the importance of daily grounding to soften, settle, and cultivate presence, even amidst life’s stresses, fostering grace and ease.

Transcript

Start with being aware that we're supported through Mother Earth and through the furniture that we're on. To the air that we're breathing. If you have your eyes open and looking around a little, Notice that we're supported in a space. There's some safety and warmth in the space that we're in. Noticing the support that we have. If you can feel the soles of your feet or the back of your legs, You could also notice not very far below is our mother earth, The rocks and the soil and maybe the trees, Depending on where you are. So locate ourselves in this space. And it's so hard sometimes to be in our body. There's often a lot of stress that we're holding in our body. It's easier sometimes to disappear into thought or trying to figure out how we're going to keep ourselves going. So coming into a relaxation and grounding practice could feel a little uncomfortable. Sometimes when we come in and we notice I'm tense through the neck and shoulders, Or I'm still clenching my teeth, There's some kind of tension in our body. And we come in and maybe we're able to soften that a little bit, Or maybe we move. So I thought we could start with a little bit of movement as we're breathing. As we're working through some of these practices to tune into what would help us to get through this time that we're in with as much grace and ease as we can. Often we can't do anything about the circumstances that we're in immediately, And we can often engage with them with more ease. So as you're breathing in, You might breathe your shoulders up. And as you're breathing out, Let your shoulders release. This movement, It could be a big movement all the way up to your ears. It could be a micro movement. But each time that you breathe out, If you can let go of what you're holding on your shoulders. You might make other motions with your shoulders as well, Bringing one shoulder forward or the other one. Lifting up your collarbones. You can lift your arms as you breathe in. Really move around in some way that will help you engage with your body in a way that feels comfortable. But look behind. And then coming back again to this knowing that we're supported. On the earth, On the furniture, Air. And there's a practice of working with our senses. Some of you I'm sure are familiar with it. It's the five, Four, Three, Two, One. So as we start, We look around and we notice five things that we can see. And if you're in an environment where you can say them out loud, Say them out loud. So I see, Whatever it is she's seeing, Say five things you can see. And then four things that you can touch. And part of that might be holding your own hand, Might be the fabric of your clothing. I can feel the coolness of my desk. Or things that you can touch. And then three things that you can hear. What are three sounds that you can hear right now? And then two things that you can smell or two favorite smells. I like the smell of the rain on the earth. What are two of your favorite smells? And then one taste, Something you can taste right now or maybe a favorite taste, A taste you had earlier in the day perhaps. And then looking around again, Just noticing here we are. One of the anchors that I find is so helpful as well is this holding the hands. Holding our own hands. It's not that odd when we see someone do that. Oftentimes people do. Or we could have our hands on the table, You know, In front of us or on our lap. And just to move your hands around and feel the warmth and the strength of your hands. And to remember that that is also an anchor that you could use anytime that you're feeling a bit unanchored or not in your body. Come back into this. I've got my hands here. I can hold my own hand. Let yourself feel the warmth. Let's do a little body scan relaxation. Coming into the forehead, Eyebrows, And eyes. Often we're really busy in the mind. We have a lot going on. We're trying to manage things. So if instead of getting caught up in the thoughts, Or when we notice we're caught up in thoughts, Come into softening the forehead as you breathe out. Sometimes people will frown or worry with the eyebrows knitted. You could bring your eyebrows up, Let them soften for a bit. And one of the things that helps us to go a little bit deeper into the softness is exhale and let your eyebrows and your forehead soften the little muscles around your eyes. And then on the inhalation, Keep your attention really focused there. And the next time you breathe out, You can soften a little bit more. And don't let your attention wander away on the inhale. Just keep your focus there and then exhale, Soften some more. We begin to notice there's a sensation of air. Notice as you're breathing in, The air feels a bit cool. Breathing out, Air feels warmer. And as much as you can without gulping in a whole bunch of air, But just to breathe in in a way that feels like I'm getting enough air. Notice we have the softness of the forehead and the eyebrows, The eyes, Sensation of air in the nostrils. It's very calming for our nervous system to have a continuous flow of breath. As you're coming to the end of your exhalation and your forehead is softening a bit. And then you're starting to breathe in. Come smoothly into the inhale. And then when you have enough air and you're at the end of your inhale, Smoothly let the breath go. For several breaths, Focus on that continuity of the air flowing in the nostrils. Breathing in, Breathing out, Letting your whole face soften as you breathe out. And bring your attention into your mouth, Your jaw, Your tongue. If you could let your tongue and your vocal cords be still. Relax the hinges of your jaw. You might move your lower jaw around a little. And then come back into the neck and shoulders. If you wanted, You could lift your shoulders again on the inhale. Exhale, Release. Maybe sigh or make some kind of noise with your breath if you want. Grrr. And bring your attention to the back of your neck, Your shoulders, Your upper back. And see if you could soften through your upper back. You could move a little, You could be still. And as you're breathing out again, We could soften and release any burdens that we're carrying on our shoulders. Breathe in and then breathe out. Let that release. Even if we need to pick them up when we finish the practice, It's helpful just to get a bit of softening in there, Give us Come back down through your face, Forehead and eyebrows, Mouth and jaw, Down into your throat, Large muscles of the chest. As we're getting to the lower rib cage, We're moving into the stomach area, Navel center. Lower belly. And sometimes it's not quite comfortable focusing on the stomach area, And you could focus on your whole body or back to the forehead, Something else. And then let's bring our awareness into the arms and hands, Legs and feet. So as you're coming down through the sides of your neck, We're coming into the large muscles of the chest and the back that go into the arms. And notice your lower arms, Your hands, Your fingers, Fingertips. And you could move your fingers around if you wanted. Notice the energy in the palms of your hands can be a bit different than the back of your hands. And notice if your arms and hands could be still. There's a edgy energy sometimes that helps to shake or flick the energy off. Bringing your awareness down into your hips and then down into your legs. Notice your thighs. Large muscles at the front and the back. You could maybe do a little tension and release. Sometimes that's helpful. Squeeze on the inhale. Release the muscles on the exhale. Or if they're feeling kind of edgy, You might do a bit of shaking or move your legs around somehow. Get in touch with your legs and feet again. And when we're doing a practice like this, There's no right or wrong way to do it. So if you're feeling restless, You could get up and move around. You want to focus on the breath. If that's comfortable, You could do that. Let your belly really soften as you're breathing out. And if you find that you're really engaged with thought, Which is really understandable, We have a lot going on often. And sometimes it's helpful to look around a bit, Open your eyes again, And just notice, I know that later I'm going to be doing this other thing, And maybe I'm kind of dreading it, Or maybe I'm looking forward to it. But right now, In this moment, I'm right here in this particular space, In this particular time. And I could allow myself to settle a bit and just to be here in whatever way that's the most helpful, The most nourishing. And if you notice there's a lot of thoughts in your mind, You might see if you could watch or witness the thoughts, Let them kind of roll through without gauging too much. And sometimes the way that we can do that is to give our mind something else to do. So you might even count your breath on the inhale. Count to three on the exhale, Count to three or whatever length your breath is. Notice that mental count in your mind and noticing the continuity again of the breath. Without making it any kind of a demand that we need to breathe out a certain length of time or anything like that. Just to notice the length of your inhale and see if you could match your exhale to that. Inhaling 123, Exhale one. Whatever an easy length of breath is for you. Notice how that feels. The mind tends to get a bit bored after a while, It might wander back into thought, That's okay. Just before I finish this part of the practice, Sometimes it's really helpful to use a syllable or a sound as we're breathing out. So on this one, We're just breathing in through the nose, And then exhale the sound. And just keep that going for a little bit. Inhale through the nose. Exhale, Soften your throat, Let your muscles relax in your throat and in your chest. And if that's not something you want to do out loud, You could also just do it in your mind. Inhale and then. Dhammo. We could allow the exhalation to be quite a bit longer, Or we could continue to work with the even breath, About the same length. Inhale and exhale. Finish with looking around the room again. Noticing our feet, Our seat. Moving your body a bit. It's really helpful to do some kind of nervous system regulating practice every day. It reminds our body that it's okay to soften and settle. We remember about the breath, And then we develop the habits of a more continuous breath. We'll remember maybe to hold our own hands or whatever that is as we're moving through the days and weeks ahead. Music