Lesson 1
Grounding in Our Body
Learning out to ground ourselves in our physical body can be an incredibly useful skill in both times of stress and times of relaxation. This grounding practice can be an alternative way to direct your attention if you get distracted or overwhelmed by your thoughts during a meditation practice. It’s a foundational practice of embodied meditation to help us feel safe and present in our physical bodies.
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Lesson 2
Mindfulness Muscle
This short meditation is designed to help you cultivate mindfulness - or awareness without judgment. Mindful states are associated with a huge array of health benefits, largely through the powerful way in which awareness and acceptance of our internal state regulates our stress response. Many people come to meditation with the concerns of “I can’t meditate, my mind is too restless” - but this lesson shows us how a restless mind is actually the perfect ingredient for building mindfulness.
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Lesson 3
Breath Awarness
In this next meditation, we will do a deep dive into breath awareness as a means of cultivating embodied mindful awareness. Awareness without judgment. Tuning into our body with love. Learning how to find moment to moment awareness of our breath for the dual purpose of anchoring the mind in the present moment, as well as exploring how to listen to and regulate our nervous system through the breath. Approaching this work with curiosity, embracing the fact that there is no right or wrong will be a powerful step towards letting go of the judging mind. In fact, if you find yourself wondering if you’re doing it right or wrong, then there is an opportunity to exercise your “mindfulness muscle” and remind yourself to just explore the breath as it is!
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Lesson 4
Slow Belly Breathing
In this meditation, we will learn a powerful technique for connecting the way we breathe with how we feel, helping us tune into and regulate our stress/relaxation response. Learning to practice “slow belly breathing” can help us tune into our relaxation response, effectively shielding the body from internalizing the stress of the outside world, bringing a sense of calm and safety to our bodies.
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Lesson 5
Breathe / Pause / Slow Exhale
The way we breathe has a two-way communication link with our stress/relaxation response: our inhales are linked up with our “fight/flight” stress response and our exhales are linked with our “rest and digest” relaxation response. This relationship is like a two way street - the degree of stress or relaxation we feel will affect our breathing, but our breathing can also affect the degree of stress or relaxation that gets manifested in our body. This “breathe/ pause/ slow exhale” breathing practice is a powerful tool for regulating our nervous system so that the stress of the outside world doesn’t enter our bodies quite so deeply. Like a force-field keeping the stress in the outside world and not letting it in. It’s a great technique that can be used both in-the-moment when a stressful event is occurring, but it’s also great to practice at times where you aren’t necessarily in any immediate stress. The more we practice it, the more we soothe and calm our nervous system, releasing any hidden stress that we might not have even realized was present in our bodies.
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Lesson 6
Embody your Thoughts
This lesson teaches us how to tune into our “inner voice” through both the exploration of our thinking mind, but also through the echoes and reverberations that our thoughts have in our physical body. Through listening to the connection between our thoughts and our physical sensations, we glean powerful insight into the body/mind connection. Perhaps even viscerally experiencing how our mind and body are not two separate entities, but part of the same whole.
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Lesson 7
Embody your Feelings
In this meditation, we will explore how and where our emotions live inside our bodies. If an emotion should arise that feels unsafe, or bigger than you’re able to process, please stop the practice and seek help from a trained mental health professional. However, it’s normal for feelings to emerge during meditation (and in life!) that we may or may not consciously understand or instantly know what to do with. This meditation offers one process for experiencing the connection between our physical body and our emotional experience in order to find greater equanimity, connection, and loving acceptance of our inner state.
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Lesson 8
Polyvagal Meditation
This next experience of embodied meditation will delve into the complexities of our nervous system. While most of us are familiar with the “fight flight” stress response in the body, many of us are not aware of the different types of relaxation responses we have built into our biology. This is often referred to as the “polyvagal” system, named from two branches of the vagus nerve, the main nerve that regulates our relaxation response. This meditation teaches us how to recognize where our “polyvagal” system is at, and gives us some foundational tools to help regulate and adjust our nervous system responses as needed for improved stress management, connection, and happiness.
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Lesson 9
Awe Aerobics
This embodied meditation practice brings us into how we experience the spiritual qualities of joy, meaningfulness, connection, and awe in our bodies. Exploring what it feels like to experience the feeling of connecting to what is most important or fundamental to ourselves. Through the practice of “Awe Aerobics” (a phrase coined by playwright Jane Wagner) we experience what it feels like to connect to something bigger than ourselves.
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Lesson 10
Embodied Meditation Template
Congratulations on making it to the end of our 10-lesson series on Embodied Meditation: Listening to your Body’s Voice! What a powerful investment you’ve made during these practices in discovering how to decode the messages from your body, your breath, and your internal sensations. Learning to leverage the intertwined nature of body/mind/spirit to find insight and deeper connection with yourself, others, and the world around you. Here’s a template you can use to continue this work in both brief to more extensive meditation practices.
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