Grounded In Awareness

We can be grounded in our body, aware of sensations and energies. We can be grounded emotionally, allowing and welcoming our feelings, without retreating into thinking about our feelings. We can be grounded mentally, aware, and able to witness thought. We recognize the pull of ruminating or catastrophizing and can come back to the present.

Transcript

Notice right now what's here in my body.

What do I feel like?

How beneficial it is to have this awareness,

To have an ongoing habit of paying attention and tuning in and noticing what do I feel?

One of the benefits of this matic mindfulness,

This practice.

And notice your whole body from head to toes.

Notice that you're located in space.

Your body is connected with your furniture.

Outside it might be directly with the ground.

Sense into that there's the power of gravity that keeps us here on earth.

We don't need to cling to the earth,

It holds us.

And there's the energy of the earth as well.

Sometimes that feels very solid.

My little house is on bedrock.

It's not built on sand or something.

What's underneath your physical body right now?

Let yourself sense into that through your seat or through your feet.

See how much you are actually settled into that support.

Sometimes we hold ourselves on the edge of our chair ready for action.

And that's also a habit.

Let yourself fully commit to being held and being grounded.

Notice what that feels like.

You could let your shoulders settle into the support that's behind or underneath you.

If you're sitting up,

You could let your structure support you and your core muscles.

We don't actually support ourselves through tension in the neck and shoulders,

Although often we have that habit.

If you were to imagine that your body is very solidly held and supported by the ground.

Visualize yourself standing in Tadasana,

That standing mountain pose in yoga.

It's where we're standing on our two feet.

Your body's relaxed,

We're present in our body.

Shoulders are soft and relaxed.

We're breathing diaphragmatically.

There has to be a lot of softness in our body in order to stand.

Tight and contracted,

That's actually very draining of our energy.

If we let ourselves really settle in,

Let your body be soft and imagine what that would feel like,

Or if you want,

You could stand.

And notice if you feel steady.

Balance poses are really interesting in yoga because they reveal how much steadiness is here.

One of the things that we do is we steady our eyes,

We focus on something that really helps our balance.

And when we come up,

For instance,

Into a tree pose,

Some people are like an evergreen or a fir tree or a spruce tree,

They're like,

Oh,

They're solid.

They have a deep taproot.

Other people are more like a willow.

They can move around a little bit,

They flow a little bit more.

And there's nothing good or bad about being a willow or about being a fir tree.

Notice what am I feeling?

Notice what am I feeling right now?

Even in our mind's eye,

This can be a powerful exercise.

Am I more like a fir tree or more like a willow?

Do I feel firmly planted on the earth?

Or do I feel a bit shakier right now?

Are you shaky or is it more like you're flowing?

Sometimes when we're grounded and relaxed,

We can use that as a base to be very flexible.

We don't need to have things our way.

I'm into noticing your breath again.

Notice what it feels like to breathe.

Notice how we can feel anchored in the breath.

We know we're breathing.

We're breathing with awareness,

With intention.

We've all had this experience of being unaware of our body and our breath.

Our body continues to breathe whether we're aware of it or not.

But we might be holding our breath,

Breathing very shallow.

Bringing awareness into the breath can also be very grounding in terms of,

Oh,

I am here in my body,

I'm breathing.

When we allow our breath to be diaphragmatic,

Continuous,

Smooth,

We can relax into the ease in our breath.

It's also very stabilizing for the mind.

We're back to that signaling.

What is our breath telling us about our nervous system state right now?

And when we allow our breath to be smooth,

Continuous,

Diaphragmatic,

Then that signals to the nervous system that we're safer.

It's safe enough to relax our body and to breathe.

What are the sensations and the energy that's in your body right now?

We have the physical sensations and the sensation of a tighter muscle or a softer muscle,

Of a smoother breath or of a held breath.

And we also have that sense of dread or anxiety or fear or joy or happiness or grief.

There's so many emotions in our body.

Let's tune into that for a moment.

What's here in terms of energy,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Emotions?

Emotions and sensations aren't grounded in a sense of stable on the earth.

They're very transitory in nature.

Sensations in our body might be quite familiar in terms of they happen over a long period of time,

But they're not static.

They're very movement oriented.

The grounding around sensations,

Emotions,

And energy is that we're grounded in awareness.

We're grounded in awareness of what's happening here.

What do I feel?

Continue to notice your breath,

Sensation,

Energy.

And notice what thoughts are arising in your mind.

Thoughts in the mind are not random.

The energy,

The pace,

The content of our thoughts is very related to our history and our current circumstances as well.

When we're attuning to sensations,

This is often historical,

Traumatic memory from the past.

And the grounding in the mind isn't again physical.

It's more grounded in awareness or grounded in I'm witnessing the thoughts in the mind.

I'm grounded in this moment because I'm noticing that the content of my thoughts might be about the past or the future,

That I'm present moment aware.

In this moment,

I know these are the thoughts that are in my mind because I'm paying attention.

I'm practicing that mindfulness of thoughts.

If your awareness was sitting behind your head and you were watching thoughts,

Let's sit with that for a moment.

What's going on in your thought stream?

As you're noticing your thoughts,

Notice what changes in your body and your breath,

The energy,

The sensations.

Keeping some awareness of thoughts in the mind,

Let's return to feeling the whole body again.

And notice what's drawing your attention.

Is there a tightness in your jaw?

Are you clenching your teeth?

You could move your lower jaw around and put a bit of space there.

Are you clenching and tight through the back of your neck and shoulders,

Your upper back?

You're bracing yourself.

You can soften and let your shoulders release,

Get heavy.

What's happening in your mind?

Are you clenching your jaw?

Are you clenching your teeth?

What's happening in the muscles of your chest and in your stomach area?

Notice again,

The breath,

The rhythm,

The pace,

Movement of your body with your breath.

Notice your whole body,

Arms and legs,

As well as your head,

Neck and trunk,

Your torso.

And then bring your attention into your heart center for a moment.

Notice what's here when you bring your attention to your heart center.

Some of that might be emotion.

Could be sensation or energy there as well.

And for a moment,

Bring to mind compassion and see what comes up when you cultivate compassion for a moment.

You might have a specific person in mind,

Let it be here.

And let yourself be grounded in your heart,

Grounded in compassion.

Notice your own awareness.

Grounded in awareness.

And notice the flow of that.

It's not a static,

I'm always ever present.

I move in,

I move out.

That's the experience that we all have in awareness.

From that awareness in the heart center,

Expand your awareness now again to include the whole of your experience.

Your body from head to toes.

When you open your eyes,

Bring in the visual input.

Notice sounds that are in the room.

Notice your feet again on the floor,

Your seat.

Notice that you're here.

Grounded in the present moment.

Reviews

Briliant, straightforward and no waffling introduction. Just what i needed 😌 ☺️

Thanks! Your style works well for me, and I LOVE that you don't use music during the meditation. You have a good, solid presence.