Welcome.
This is a 10 minute anchoring and grounding practice.
This practice can be helpful in providing a sense of steadiness,
Bringing awareness to the body and a sense of being connected,
Held and anchored.
This practice is intended for sitting but could easily be adapted for lying down.
So as you sit here having a sense of the feet being flat on the floor,
The spine being long,
The front of the body being soft and allowing your shoulders to rest down,
Either closing your eyes or allowing your gaze to settle.
So having a sense of the whole body sitting here and awareness of the body resting on the chair and in particular the contact between your feet and the floor right now.
So allowing your awareness to settle in the sensations that are around in both feet.
Maybe noticing in particular the places where the weight of the body resting down through the feet is most noticeable for you.
Perhaps the balls of the feet or the heels.
And bringing some curiosity to each and every sensation throughout the entirety of both feet.
And as we do this practice,
If we're noticing our attention is still dispersed,
Thoughts and worries or noticing daydreaming or distractions of any kind,
Then remembering nothing has gone wrong.
We can acknowledge where our attention has gone to and without criticising or judging ourselves,
We can bring our awareness back to the sensations in both feet right now.
So moving on from having awareness in the feet by expanding our awareness to include not only the feet but the ankles and the sensations in the lower legs and the knees and the entirety of both legs including the knees,
The ankles,
The feet.
This sense of our legs resting down.
No work they need to be doing.
And in a similar vein,
Bringing our awareness to the contact between our body and the chair we're sitting on.
Noticing the weight of the torso resting down.
Bringing some curiosity to the sensations at the particular place where this weight resting down is most noticeable for us right now.
And broadening our awareness to include each and every sensation that's around between the contacts of our body and the chair.
And again if we notice our mind becoming distracted,
Then remembering nothing has gone wrong.
No need to criticise ourselves or judge ourselves but rather we can bring a friendly curiosity and bring our awareness back to the sensations of sitting on the chair.
And expanding our awareness again to include the sensations of the hands in contact with whatever they're resting on.
Bringing awareness too to the sensations in the palms of the hands,
The backs of the hands.
Sensations out in the fingers on the edges of the skin.
And expanding our awareness again to include the sensations of the breath in the body.
Maybe the air coming in and out the nostrils.
The movement in the ribs and the chest.
Or the sensations down in the abdomen with each in breath and with each out breath.
So no need to change our breathing but rather just bringing our attention alongside the sensations that are there for us as we breathe in and as we breathe out.
So opening our awareness now with some choice.
Choosing one anchor to rest our awareness on for the next minute or two.
So maybe the sensations of contact between the feet and the floor.
Or the body with the chair.
Or the sensations in the hands.
Or those that come along with each in breath and with each out breath.
So choosing and settling our awareness on one of these anchors.
Bringing a friendly curiosity to the sensations that are around at the anchor of our choice.
And recognising that it often takes time for our attention to settle.
Acknowledging distractions again and again.
Bringing some friendliness to our experience.
And returning our awareness to the anchor of our choice.
In a friendly and non-judgmental way.
Coming back again and again as best we can.
To this place of steadiness that we've chosen within the body.
So as this practice draws to a close.
Whether the events you meet during the rest of the day are pleasant or unpleasant.
Knowing that these anchors are a place to come back to.
A place of steadiness.
A sense of being connected.
A place of calm.
