I invite you to find a body position where you feel you can settle in for a few minutes of meditation.
Perhaps today your body feels like lying down,
Sitting,
Standing,
Or even walking.
Please find whatever posture feels most supportive to you.
You want your body to feel alert and at ease.
Perhaps rolling the shoulders back and down away from the ears.
You might find a shifting or a swaying that allows you to sense into your center of gravity today.
Coming into what feels to you a supportive and settled posture,
Allowing the mind,
Inviting the mind as well to settle.
This is a practice of not doing.
This is a practice of being.
You already are here so the permission is to find ways to let go of that which does not need to be held here,
Allowing the body and the mind to come into this moment of stillness.
Feeling the whole body as a weighted object here on this earth,
Feeling into the weight of your seat on the chair,
The cushion,
The bed,
Feeling your body's weight on the floor.
Bring your awareness to the contact points of your body and the ground beneath you.
Simply allowing the awareness to rest into that meeting place,
Noticing that you are held here by the surface below you.
And resting here,
Being,
Simply being here.
Bringing awareness to the sound in the environment with listening ears,
Allowing the body and mind to rest in the present moment.
If the mind feels busy,
Scattered,
Or distressed,
That's okay too.
Finding a way to make space for that as you can while slowly you invite all that is unsettled to feel more settled throughout this practice.
This is already practice enough.
This is a practice of resting with awareness,
Allowing the body to anchor you,
Allowing the sounds in your environment to be received,
Allowing the sense of gravity to be with you.
That on this earth gravity holds us all in place.
When the mind wanders,
There's no need to judge or fear.
You can simply return your awareness to your breathing or the sound in your environment,
Simply coming back to your restfulness in this present moment.
Noticing the sounds.
Has the mind wandered away again?
If so,
Gently bring it back to this moment here where you already are being here in awareness.
In this simple practice of being here,
Seeing if you can call forth awareness of belonging.
Belonging here just as you are.
This might be a felt sense in the body.
It could be a feeling of being solid or held.
Inviting yourself to rest deeper into your belonging here on this earth,
In this body,
In this moment right now.
Belonging.
Belonging.
As the mind wanders or carries certain things that arise,
Simply returning again to the restfulness of this practice.
Allowing what comes through to simply move through you to arise and to fall away as it seems natural in your own open state of being here.
Resting in natural awareness.
Belonging here in the present moment on this earth.
The bones and the muscles,
The teeth and the hair of your body are of the earth element.
One of the elements of this earth right here in your very body.
Simply allowing a sense of earth element to be here with you inside of you.
Always remembering you can return to a simple restful awareness in the present moment.
If these words or instructions don't feel helpful for you right now.
The blood,
Liquid and water in your body are of the water element of this planet.
Allowing water element to be here with you present in your very body.
Water is part of this earth.
Water is inside of you.
Resting in this awareness.
The space inside of you between your bones and muscles and joints and organs.
Creating your posture,
Your uprightness,
Your shape,
Your breath.
This is air element.
The air element that lives inside of you.
Connecting you to all of the air element on this planet.
Allowing air element to be with you.
Resting here in this practice of belonging.
The warmth in your body.
The energy of your body that's working.
Creating the life force in you.
This is the element of fire.
Which is an element of this planet.
Noticing fire element in your being right now.
Earth,
Water,
Air,
Fire.
Resting now in the practice of not doing.
Being and belonging as a very simple fact of your existence.
As a very simple fact of your connection to this entire planet.
In which you live.
Wherever the mind is going or has gone,
Simply inviting it back now to the present moment.
In this interconnection of your being on this planet.
And the elements that weave you together.
There's another quality here.
And it's a quality of kindness.
The earth is alive.
Breathing and moving.
Her waters ripple slowly.
Caressing our ears with sound.
The wind bristles gently across the branches.
The sunshine warming the planet.
Awakening the day.
Heating the earth.
In this matrix of life,
All beings,
All creatures are held in their place.
Just as you are right now.
Feel the kindness of the earth that you belong to.
This might be a felt sense of warmth in your own body.
A tenderness in your heart.
Or even an imagining of something that comes to your mind.
Of the beauty of this earth.
Chickadees play in the tangled branches.
And geese cry out and honk overhead.
In the mountains,
The bears are awakening.
The beavers are active in the waters.
The deer and the elk are grazing.
And today.
And you are right here.
In your very place.
Your very own heart and mind and body.
Another creature of this earth.
Who belongs here just as you are.
