Being One With Earth

This sensory and imagery-based meditation guides you through layers of time and existence, to connect with the deep truth of your own body and being. As you journey into your own center and connect with Earth energy, you can release unnecessary attachments and anchor in a sense of deep grounding and constant peace.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

The following is a guided meditation by Renee Seals,

A somatic movement educator,

Energy worker,

And astrologer.

This meditation is intended to help support your embodied meditation practice.

If in the recording you are prompted to do something that doesn't feel good for your body,

Please adapt and modify to make it work for you.

Please also note that the content of these meditations sometimes explores deep and subtle states and memories,

And sometimes guided visualizations.

You are encouraged to work with discernment as you practice with them.

If any of the guidance Renee offers feels too activating or uncomfortable,

Please listen to your body's knowing and pause the recording until a later time if you wish to return to it.

These guided meditations range anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes and do not require any supplementary equipment to participate.

We hope you enjoy.

Hello and thanks for listening.

This is Renee and I'll be guiding you in a somatic meditation.

Somatic refers to the body and the way that I approach meditation is through the felt sense using imagery and visualization and sensation.

In today's meditation we'll be exploring our basic connection with the earth and of course our bodies are made from earth,

So we'll traverse through the landscape of our own bodies and connect to the planetary force of our home here.

And before we begin I'd like to just say thank you for listening and if you receive benefit from these meditations please help support me to continue making them by sharing them with your friends,

By commenting or liking on the posts that you find,

And if it's possible for you donating a couple of dollars or signing up to make a recurring donation monthly,

I offer these meditations for free and I will continue to do that because I think they're important and I really appreciate your help in creating a sustainable practice for myself.

All right,

So to begin today's meditation please find a space and way of being that's comfortable for you.

You don't need to take an upright seat with crossed legs if you don't want to.

You can lie down on the floor,

You can practice movement as we explore.

The priority here should be that that you can really investigate your own sensation and that you're not trying to hold any kind of form or shape.

So once you've made all your arrangements and you've figured out how you want to be,

Then we'll start by letting the eyes soften and recede away from anything that they might be looking at.

And you're welcome to close your eyes if that's comfortable for you.

And you can feel that the energy of your eyes gets released from anything that's in front of you,

That the corners and the backs of your eyes can broaden,

And there's no need to reach out through your eyes.

And then let's invite that sensation to move through the entire face,

Around your forehead and your cheekbones and your nose and your mouth and even your ears.

So the organs of perception are not needing to reach out right now,

Even to my voice.

You can let any information that's passing by,

Your ears,

Your eyes,

Your nose,

Your mouth,

Or your skin,

Just to enter in.

And if associated thoughts come up or if you feel like your attention gets grabbed by something that you're perceiving,

Just notice that and then come back to a space of relaxation and inward looking.

And then let's start to take some deeper breaths.

And if it's all right for you right now to breathe in through your nose and exhale out your mouth,

Go ahead and begin that breathing cycle.

And as you inhale through your nose,

Allow your belly and your back and your chest to soften and receive your breath.

And when you exhale,

Feel free to sigh out and sound out if it's comfortable.

As you feel the touch of your breath,

There's no need to do anything with your breath.

You can just notice how it moves in your body.

You can let it saturate all of your tissues.

You can enjoy its movement.

You can be curious about it.

And when you exhale and sigh,

Really let your body receive that sigh.

Sighing is very therapeutic and it's a good thing to do.

I love sounding.

I'm not going to do it in your ears,

But when I'm meditating on my own,

Often the exhale is accompanied by some kind of sound and it's just an energetic releasing.

And then begin to notice the pause at the end of your exhale and just feel what that sensation is in your body.

And as you exhale,

Feel the touch of your body release into your chest.

And then begin to notice the pause at the end of your exhale and just feel what that sensation is in your body.

And then notice how the inhale begins.

And for a lot of us,

The exhale has a lot of energy.

It's a little bit of a stretch in the body.

And for a lot of us,

The exhale has a kind of weighty sensation and the inhale brings in a little bit more levity.

Makes sense.

You're filling your lungs with air.

But in the end of the exhale,

What I'd like you to do is really surrender and succumb to gravity.

So as you exhale and you feel the completion of your exhale,

If it doesn't create any tension in your body,

To pause just for a second or two seconds before you inhale.

And then really let that moment be a moment of connection to gravity.

And so you can feel all the surfaces of your body that are touching down on the ground.

And fully give your weight into those surfaces.

So you exhale and it's like,

Ugh,

Just settling down.

And then as you inhale,

Don't lose it.

So even as the breath comes in,

Even as your body starts to fill and there is more levity and space,

See if you can also expand and broaden into the sense of gravity and the support of the ground.

And it's almost as if in the inhales you're growing roots through whatever surfaces of your body are touching the floor.

And then as you exhale,

You're releasing yourself into those roots.

And you can feel the ground coming up to meet you.

And let's just imagine for a moment this planet,

The home that we are all sharing,

The planet Earth.

And as soon as I say that,

I imagine the Carl Sagan picture,

That tiny blue ball spinning out in space,

And this kind of just beautiful sphere of colors swirling together.

And I imagine the oceans and all the green space and the brown space and the clouds swirling around it.

And whatever is coming into your imagination when you visualize the planet Earth,

Just see that.

And then in your imagination,

Recall the waves of life that have swept over Earth.

So before humans ever arrived,

There were different kinds of beings,

Tons of animals,

There were the dinosaurs,

There were the single-celled organisms that are kind of an evolutionary path from the ocean on down to the Earth.

And so you might just call up whatever images you have from whatever biology or classes that you took or museums that you visited or planet Earth movies that you watched.

And just kind of let those images move through your mind's eye.

And then as you notice these images,

Just continue with this breathing practice that as you exhale,

You're feeling gravity and you're allowing yourself to move into gravity.

And as you inhale,

You're expanding your touch to gravity,

Even as levity comes in.

And so you feel your breath and you feel this kind of rhythmic pulsation that roots you and grounds you and brings you towards the Earth and that fills you up and spreads you out and moves you a little bit away from the Earth.

Inhale.

And then through your mind's eye,

You're just watching evolution.

You're imagining the eras that humankind has gone through and what we know,

We know from movies and books,

Right,

And our history classes.

And maybe you have memories of those times as well,

If you're someone who recalls past lives or you've had dreams about them or something like that.

But without getting too attached to any one time or place or moment of evolution,

Just kind of let it all roll through.

And as you exhale,

Feel the ground underneath you and commit to sensing that support.

And as you inhale,

Expand the surfaces of your body that touch the ground and feel the movement of your breath and its swelling through your body and out into space.

There's a really beautiful idea of the life of any organism,

The life of any animal or being,

That life is kind of pulled up from the Earth towards light.

And the light draws life towards it.

And when you think about kind of the elemental forces that we commonly name,

So Earth,

Water,

Fire,

Air,

Ether,

You're thinking in the Chinese system there's metal and wood,

Right?

But with these kind of classical elements,

The Earth and the water forces are dense,

They're material,

They move down and in.

And the fire and the air forces are light and they're fast and they move up and out.

And with this idea that life pulls life towards it,

You can imagine how the materials of Earth,

The minerals and the clays and all of the plant life and the waters that are here,

Get infused by the warmth of the sun and by air and the atmosphere and all the gases including oxygen that travel through the atmosphere.

And the interplay between these elements is the space of creation,

It's where life arises from.

And so now in your breathing practice and in your imagination,

As you exhale really give yourself to Earth and water and feel your body moving down and in to the Earth's body.

And as you inhale,

Imagine the heat and the light and all of the space and information that's in the atmosphere and even outside of our atmosphere kind of pulling your body out and up.

And in your breathing and your imagining,

Can you remember that your body is a collection of molecules and it's a moment of creation,

It's a moment of arising.

Your body of course is impermanent,

It's temporary and in this moment materials have come together and it's formed this vessel.

Some people call it a flesh suit,

Right?

It's formed this place where your spirit resides.

And you are more than your body,

You are inspiration,

You are some kind of consciousness or spiritual substance,

However you want to think of it.

You are your thoughts,

You are your words,

You are the influences of all that is around you and all that's come before.

And can you feel that in your breath?

Can you feel that in this kind of very basic primary pulsation,

The inhale and the exhale?

And as you exhale,

There's a returning to the material,

The denseness,

The Earth,

The water.

And as you inhale,

There's an enlivening and there's an expression and a reaching out and inspiration with everything that's around.

And call up whatever imagery or memories are being associated with these words right now.

And as you inhale,

You might feel your breath and your energy extend towards people and ideas that are stimulating and inspiring and hold your passion.

And as you exhale,

You might feel yourself connected with all of the ancestors and with all of the layers of evolution that have come before this moment in time that you find yourself.

And as you feel the passage of your breath,

Can you feel the passage of time?

There is an image here that I feel that I've heard in many different kinds of myths or religions and other ways that we orient ourselves to our stories.

But that every life on Earth is one inhale and one exhale from God.

So whoever or whatever the Creator is,

An inhale is an imagining,

A creating,

A manifesting,

And the exhale is the letting go.

And in the philosophy of yoga,

Which is a very deep and extensive philosophy and understanding of life much more than poses or physical practice,

There's a story about a dance between two characters,

Purusha and Prakriti.

And Purusha is the character of consciousness and Prakriti is the character of manifestation.

And manifestation,

Prakriti is just doing this dance and performing all of the things that consciousness could be.

And consciousness is watching and is identifying and is getting absorbed.

And at some point,

The dance stops and all of the movement kind of rests and consciousness realizes itself.

It realizes that in this back and forth and this identification,

There really was no one thing.

No identity was fixed.

It was just all imagining everything that it could be just moment to moment to moment.

Oh,

I'm that.

Oh,

I'm that.

Oh,

I'm that.

And if you think about your life,

How many times have you done this?

Phases begin,

Cycles begin and you go,

Ah,

This is the thing that I am.

New relationships come in.

Oh,

This is who I want to be.

Even moment to moment,

This happens that we identify with whatever's happening,

A mood that passes by.

Oh my God,

I'm going to feel this way forever.

I'm so hungry,

Whatever it is.

And the language that we use is an identifying language.

I am that.

And eventually we realize that all the things that we thought we were,

Were just moments.

They were just moments of arising and moments of identifying.

And none of them were real.

None of them were complete.

So as you inhale and you exhale,

Can you remember this?

Can you inhale into the ideas of everything that you have been or wanted to be?

And as you exhale,

Can you let them go?

And of course,

This is a constant process.

This is allowing ourselves to get filled up and excited and inspired.

And the releasing,

The humbling and the dying.

And this will happen over and over and over again throughout our lives until eventually it happens to our bodies.

And then material,

The material realm will go on.

And whatever our bodies are made from will change forms and will become something else.

And whether or not our consciousness follows is a question that none of us really get the answer to,

At least not now.

So let's continue with this and just find a little bit more of a locational center.

And what I'd like you to do is find your sacrum.

And your sacrum is part of your pelvis and it's at the base of your spine.

And if you don't know what it is,

Feel free to pause this recording and do a quick Google search and find out what your sacrum is and look at some pictures of it.

It's a really amazing bone.

It's kind of a diamond shaped bone.

It's got a curve to it.

And it's where the nerves in your spine terminate.

They end up kind of moving out from this part of your spine and down into your legs.

And of course,

Sacrum has the same root as sacred,

Which has the same root as sacrifice.

So to make sacred is to let something go.

So please bring your hands to your sacrum and if it feels uncomfortable or inappropriate to do that right now,

Then bring your attention to your sacrum.

And let's see if we can sense and imagine both the front and the back of the sacrum.

So the posterior and anterior sides are the side that faces your skin and the side that faces your inner body.

And then let's move our attention to the front side of the sacrum,

The side that faces the inner body.

So if you have a working image of this bone in your mind,

You know that there is a slight curve to it.

And the curve here is convex.

So the front side of the sacrum would be like a little cave.

And what I'd like you to do is allow this part of your body to soften and relax.

And see if you can direct your breath here.

And there's still the same idea that as you inhale,

You feel an expansion and a swelling and moving into space.

And as you exhale,

There's a releasing into gravity.

And if you're sitting or lying down,

There's a good chance that your sacrum or your tailbone are actually contacting the floor or some kind of support.

So really invest in the relationship that you have to that support if you're sitting or lying down.

And when you exhale,

Really let your sacrum be heavy.

And as you inhale,

Breathe into the space right in front of your sacrum.

I heard a teacher that I loved the other day quoting T.

S.

Eliot.

And I can't remember the first part of the quote right now,

But the last part of the quote said,

We come back to the place that we started and recognize it for the very first time.

And this part of our bodies is the place that we begin.

And in this part of our bodies,

We have the energetic root.

We have,

Of course,

The organs of production and elimination.

Where things begin and end.

This is the part of the body when you're developing as an embryo,

As a collection of cells,

Where the first moment of vertical axis occurs.

So when you're just a cluster of cells,

The moment that you start to grow a spine,

It happens right at the base of your pelvic floor.

And when I clue into this part of my body,

When I bring attention to it,

I feel such expansive quietude.

And this kind of vastness and silence that feels very nourishing.

And what I'd like to suggest right now is that as you breathe into this part of your body,

That you meditate on your own death.

And that you imagine a time when your body does not exist.

And when your identity has ended.

And when you have let go of everything and everyone that you have cared about and who has cared for you.

And as you feel whatever feelings might arise with hearing those words,

I want you to notice any sensations that come in in this part of your body.

And then continue to practice inhaling into its spaciousness and exhaling into its surrender.

And in your heart and in your mind,

Can you invite peace and knowingness and acceptance of the inevitability of your own death.

And just to calmness,

It will happen.

And you won't get to choose when or how,

Probably.

But it will happen.

And can you just invite it in?

Not in any kind of hurry up way,

But just to yes,

I know that one day I'll do that.

And when I do,

It will be the right time.

And breathe into whatever sensations come up with that.

I feel in myself all kinds of constrictions.

They come up around my joints and my heart and my belly and my head.

The resistance to letting go.

And with every exhale,

I just want to reinvest in my connection to gravity.

And in the feeling of that downward,

Inward flow.

And with the inhale,

Feeling space.

Knowing that all beings and things will form and reform.

They'll come and go.

And that's exactly the way that it should be.

So now if there are parts of your body that are having trouble letting go,

I'm going to invite you to bring your felt sense,

Your awareness,

Or your touch to those places.

And as you inhale,

Just feel the touch of your breath expanding in them.

And as you exhale,

Feel the space at the front of your sacrum and rest towards gravity.

And as you inhale into these spaces that are having a hard time letting go,

Can you give them the message?

I'm with you.

I'm here.

And as you exhale,

Just feel the space in the front of your sacrum and surrender into gravity.

Accompany yourself in your fear and your resistance.

The hardest part of letting go is trusting that it's the right thing to do,

That there will be something after.

And surely there will be something after you let go,

But you don't actually know what it is.

And in your heart,

You can just say to those places that are scared,

I'm with you.

Whatever your consciousness is,

You'll be with yourself in whatever way you are.

And as you exhale,

Imagine the earth.

And as you inhale,

Imagine all the space around you.

And see in your mind's eye and feel your body as a conduit and a bridge between earth and space.

And as you inhale,

Imagine all that you've created on this earth.

And as you exhale,

Just feel how all of those creations eventually change and resolve,

Probably more quickly than eventually.

And remind yourself that you are one with the earth.

So just as the earth is in a constant state of evolution,

Where its materials are forming and reforming,

Coming together in different variations,

Being inspired and ignited by light and air,

So is your body and so is your being.

And there is really no sense in holding on to anything,

Any fixed way of being.

That would go against the life force itself.

It would go against the natural order of things.

Feel free to take more time with any of this.

And if and when you're ready to close,

Then allow your eyes to open.

And take in whatever light is available.

And if it feels good to you to close with this gesture,

Then take an inhale and sweep your arms out and up and gather all the space around you.

And as you exhale,

Pull your hands and the space into your heart,

Into your body,

Into your being,

And then bow.

And thank yourself for arriving,

And trust yourself for creating exactly what it is that you'll need to create.

Thanks so much for participating in this meditation with me.

I hope that it's been helpful and healing for you.

If so,

Please feel free to share it.

And thanks so much for your support once again.

Until the next time,

Much love and be well.