Movingness Meditation, Ground Your Earth Body

In this moving mediation by settling into the ground and gently moving you may uncover where your energy is stuck, how to release it and enter into a flow state. Your somatic sensations will have a conversation and you will notice your breath as it becomes more subtle. You will end this practice with a sense of peaceful ease.

Transcript

Movingness meditation number three.

Ground your earth body.

Hi I'm Mary Ellen Hannon and this meditation was inspired by Willa Bly Baker,

Peter Appel and Reggie Ray and I'm an advanced movingness teacher.

Lie on your floor on a mat or on a rug.

Your knees are bent and pointing up toward the ceiling.

Your two feet are flat on the floor.

Let your hands rest on your belly,

One on top of another,

Just below your belly button.

Let your elbows just rest toward the ground.

Notice and name your state of being and now set an intention for your practice.

Settle into the support of the floor and the earth beneath you.

Connect with your body by bringing your attention to it,

Just by touching your hands together and gently caressing them as if you're touching a newborn baby.

The brain stops chattering and starts listening to the body.

Let your touch alternate between very soft strokes to firmly massaging your hands and wrists.

Now slowly start touching your arms and your elbows,

Your shoulders.

Perhaps give yourself a hug.

Bring your attention to and caress your face,

Your head and your neck.

Notice how your breath deepens as it becomes more subtle.

Usually your attention is focused outwardly.

In this practice we are paying attention to our inner landscape,

Our sixth sense.

It's called interoception.

Your attention will roam around.

You may notice smells,

Visual inputs and thoughts.

You will experience feelings and embodied emotions.

All are welcome.

Just notice them and move on.

Your somatic sensations are having a conversation.

Now turn your attention to your breath,

Not trying to change it.

Sure it may get disrupted and change on its own.

That's okay.

Just keep coming back to your body and listen to your present sensations.

With every exhale let your body melt into the earth a little more.

Inhale brings you back up to the surface,

The ground.

Exhale your body goes a little deeper.

Inhale and slowly rise up.

Repeat two more times.

Inhaling down into the earth and exhaling brings you back up.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Ask yourself,

How am I feeling right now?

Let the sensations of your inhale oscillate through your nose,

Into your throat,

Down the center of your torso,

Into the belly and then into your pelvic bowl.

Exhale and just release into gravity.

Scan your body and see if you can let go into relaxation.

Once again by extending your exhale and just dissolving into the earth.

You're exploring new pathways to presence.

Presence is where your intrinsic naturalness resides.

Slowly,

Very slowly,

Turn your head to the right just to a comfortable range of motion.

Then bring your head back through center and turn to the left.

Feel your skull and its contact with the floor slowly moving back and forth.

Opening up your neck naturally back and forth.

Inhale one way and exhale the other.

Noticing any stiffness or restrictions and just breathing into the sensation.

You are emptying your head.

The brain doesn't like slow and you are letting your brain drive.

You're letting your body drive.

The next time you come to center,

Stop.

Let your body breathe you.

Feel the breath entering your body through every one of your pores,

Dissolving and descending into the earth on each exhale.

This is whole body breathing.

Now,

Inhale and press your pubic bone into the floor.

Exhale and let your low back just rest back on the floor.

Again,

Inhale,

Press your pubic bone down.

Exhale and let it go.

Do this a few more times on your own slowly and being mindful of any restrictions or stickiness that you encounter.

Breathe into it.

When you move quickly,

You bypass these spots of tension easily.

Imagine you are on a boat rocking on gentle waves.

Now stop that movement.

Come back to the center of those two points and just let that sink in.

Now bring your attention to your right hip bone.

Press slightly into your left foot and let your hip bone move closer to the floor and then let it release and come up.

Bring your attention to your left hip bone,

Pressing slightly into your right foot and let your left hip sink down into the floor.

Alternate back and forth between your right and left hip bones.

It's as if you are on a teeter-totter,

Noticing the pressure in your feet and noticing yourself passing through center.

Stop the movement and find your center.

You can go back to pointing your pubic bone and relaxing your low back,

Moving over to your right hip and then your left hip.

See if you can move around these four points as if it's a compass.

North,

South,

East and west.

Just this circle and then pause and rest wherever you feel the sensation of the center of your pelvic region.

Knowing what you are feeling when you are feeling it is a key skill and it's a way to cultivate somatic mindfulness.

This is your experiential body,

Different from your conceptual body.

Our conceptual bodies form from our intellect,

The society we live in and each of our unique embodied experiences.

The beliefs we hold about our conceptual body can remain hidden and they're very powerful.

They override cravings,

Hunger,

Cold,

Fear and anger until we stop listening to them all together.

When we learn to move back into the experiential body,

The feeling body,

Where your breath is breathing you and you feel your heart beating,

You'll notice and feel your body on the floor in its contact.

You'll get lost in thought less.

The conceptual body can stop in a fixed time and that gets you rigid both in your mind and in your body.

The experiential body is the alive body because it's pure sensation.

It's the aware body.

Keep returning to your experiential body whenever you get trapped in your head.

Now let's notice how air might be tingling in your body when you inhale and maybe you can feel your diaphragm rising and falling as you breathe.

Do a quick scan of your body and notice any pain or restriction you might be feeling.

Just notice it.

Pain can easily kick you out of a right relationship with your body because there are emotions connected to your pain.

I have noticed fear is associated with my pain.

Just listen.

More is going on than just physical pain.

Pain is compounded by fear and it has been shown to be paralyzing.

Just start to notice the emotions that are attached to any pain and give them attention.

All transformation comes from within the body.

The body is home to all bliss and pain,

Joy and sorrow,

Fear and trust,

Anger and peace.

They all live in your body and give you shape.

Let your experiential body be the guide for your conceptual body every day for as many moments that you can remember to do so.

Just stop and feel your sensations.

Keep bringing yourself back to your somatic conversation.

The sensations you're experiencing in the moment.

Let your breath soften the stiffness you encounter and let go of any anger that comes up just for now.

Dwelling in your real body and being aware of the earth grounding you has the potential to transform your relationship with others.

Every small change we make influences the larger world.

What will you do after this practice to further nurture yourself?

A walk in nature?

A warm bath?

A massage perhaps?

Or maybe a healthy meal?

Thank you for practicing movingness meditations with me.

I will leave you with an acronym.

GROUND.

G is for feeling the support of the ground in your body.

R is for reset.

O is for oscillate.

U is for untangle.

And D is for dissolve and descend.

Again thank you for practicing with me.

If you enjoyed this moving meditation then follow me and you will receive a notice for my live classes where I will teach and guide you through a more dynamic movingness practice.

I'm Mary Ellen Hannon and I wish you well.

Reviews

This was my first time with somatic moving meditation. I am stunned by the insights and I am looking forward to more!

Very much loved the meditation and hope there may be more there eventually than the two that are there. As for a comment about “n” not there, I took it that “untangle” was “un” :) Really thought the whole thing was beautiful, including your calming voice. Thank you!

Very good. Missed the “N” in your “GROUND” acronym. Namaste 🙏🏼