My name is Michaela Millen and this is a meditation for deep relaxation and energy flow.
Before we begin,
I invite you to find your way to a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down.
Or if you prefer to use this as a walking meditation,
Find an environment that is relatively calm,
Where you don't have to interact with traffic,
Where you can feel comfortable and safe,
Allowing your awareness to expand and your mind to move into a relaxed and restorative state.
You can start by gradually and gently deepening your breath,
Breathing in fully,
Exhaling completely,
Doing that a few more times on your own,
And continuing to take these full and complete breaths at any time that you need.
One of the ways that I like to begin a practice of grounding is to feel into the weightedness of your body,
And to feel into the weightedness of your body is to feel your connection with gravity,
Your connection with this planet that we're on.
You might even find it helpful to remember that all the way at the core of the earth is a molten space.
It actually has an iron core within that,
Mysteriously tilting and shifting,
Influencing the magnetic fields of the earth,
Contributing to this incredible force that allows you to be held here,
No matter what's happening for you in your life right now.
And of course,
We all experience stressful times and difficulties.
We don't always feel grounded.
And yet,
You are held here.
Let's take some time to really yield the physical body to that sense of weightedness,
Beginning with the top of your head,
Softening the muscles in your forehead,
Around your temples,
Releasing around the eyes,
The backs of the eyes,
Softening your cheeks,
Nose and mouth,
Softening your jaw,
Your tongue,
The front of the throat,
Maybe tilting your head a little bit from side to side,
Gently encouraging any tension to fall away,
Allowing your shoulders to drop down and back.
And as you're continuing to breathe,
Bringing your awareness to the front of the ribcage.
As you breathe in,
Feel the spaces between your ribs growing further apart,
Those intercostal muscles stretching.
And as you exhale,
See if you can allow that space to soften and release,
Inhaling and expanding,
Exhaling and softening.
And you can also bring your awareness to the center of your chest,
Feeling the tissue of your lungs stretching and softening as you breathe.
Maybe you can even feel into that space of your heart,
Feeling and listening for your own heartbeat,
Tuning into the strongest flow of energy in the body emanating from the field of the heart.
And you can allow this energy to join with your breath,
Inhaling and growing,
Expanding around you,
Exhaling and rooting down,
Inhaling and expanding,
Exhaling and softening,
Rooting down,
Allowing your awareness to travel to your spine,
Feeling all the way up your neck,
Even a little bit into the skull where your spine begins,
And using your awareness to trace down the spine,
Middle of the back to the lower back,
And down into the pelvis.
And within your spine is your spinal cord,
The home of your nervous system.
All the nerves in your body,
Everything that you can feel and be aware of,
Branches off of this central cord,
Like roots,
Feeling along the edges and ends of those roots.
And as you feel all around the awareness of your physical body,
Perhaps you can let those nerves,
Those roots,
Begin to drop down towards the ground,
Letting those roots stretch all the way down through the ground or the floors of the building that you're in,
Anchoring you here so that you can release even more into your own weightedness.
Bring your awareness now to the front of the abdomen and be curious about the degree that you can feel the organs and tissue in your abdomen.
And are there any areas where you're still holding and perhaps you don't need to?
Letting each exhale be a gentle invitation to soften and let go,
Feeling the structure of your hips,
Softening the muscles around the edges of the hips,
The fronts and backs of your thighs,
Softening the knees,
The shins and calves,
Releasing your ankles,
Your heels,
Tops of your feet and arches,
Relaxing.
Each one of your toes relaxing.
Perhaps you can even feel a sense of your own energy extending out through your legs and feet,
Remembering that connectedness to your heart space and extending that energy out through your arms,
Your elbows,
Forearms and wrists,
Palms of your hands and each of your fingers,
Extending your energy out and letting it root down into the ground.
And as you're feeling into this directional flow of your own energy,
Rooting and anchoring into the ground,
Perhaps you can also start to feel yourself perceiving that energy flowing back to you,
Allowing that energy to circulate and move all around your body.
Maybe you can even extend that circulation and awareness into your immediate environment where you are,
Allowing your breath to be a sort of internal wind moving and circulating this energy like a refreshing breeze.
If your mind hasn't already started to soften and join your body,
Perhaps you can invite it to do that now.
And softening the mind doesn't always mean that it becomes inactive.
It's really about changing the quality of that activity,
Allowing it to flow,
Noticing what you're noticing,
Feeling what you're feeling,
Experiencing a full range of sensation,
Each breath,
Allowing you to drop in a little deeper.
Are there areas of your body that could use a little more flow?
Sending your breath there now,
As if you could stir that energy around with your breath and your awareness.
Are there any areas asking for deeper rest?
Can you soften even more into that sense of being held by gravity?
Continuing to breathe,
Taking as much time as you like in this space of relaxing and receiving,
Using your breath to continue that sense of flow and movement or stillness and release.
And whenever you are ready,
You can bring your awareness very gradually back into the physical space that you're in,
Taking all the time that you need,
Shifting into ordinary conscious awareness,
Letting your body and your mind know that you're back.
