Somatic Meditation 1: Introduction And Awareness Practice

This is the first in a series of Somatic Meditations and introduces how to sit in a relaxed yet free position, and then how to use our attention to improve the body-mind connection. While this is a largely static class, the follow-up lessons will introduce gentle movements to release Excess Muscular Tension impacting the ability to breathe freely and freedom of the spine.

Transcript

Welcome to this first in a series of Somatic Meditations created and delivered by myself,

Robert Anderson.

And I've designed these to really be an introduction to the essentials of Somatic Education.

It's a bit more talk intro today and then in the following sessions we will launch as it were straight into the practice.

But in this series we are going to be concerned with the central column of the body,

That is the spine,

And how our breathing organizes around that.

The reason for this is that our spine is really essential to how we can move in space and how we experience our being.

So hopefully through doing some of these practices you might be able to find a few more possibilities,

Maybe a little freedom both in your body and in your mental clarity.

This is a purely experiential introduction to Somatic Education.

So I won't have time and it's not necessary right now to go into the theory.

However it's important you realize that this is brain work rather than physical work.

So when we're moving it's not based on how far you move,

How hard you work or how it might look from the outside.

It's about how you are connecting with the internal sensations of movement in the practice.

Because it's that connection which will start to change that relationship between your body and your brain.

There are a few principles that we do need to cover and I'm going to introduce those over the next couple of sessions.

And they will be enough to guide you at this stage to doing this kind of internal work.

Today the principle we're exploring is called awareness.

There's so much greater sensory input from our body than we normally pay attention to.

In fact there's much more inputs into our brain from our body than there are motor commands coming down from our brain to the body.

And really to develop awareness it's an active skill to be able to listen to your body.

We might be receiving signals but unless we're listening to them they're not going to be of much help to us.

So the practice we're going to do today,

It might seem like we're doing very little,

But by actively using our mind to place our awareness onto different areas of the body and different sensations,

It is the beginning of this somatic process of change.

So as we do this awareness practice and as we do the other somatic movements in this series,

I want you to really try and define what you're feeling in your body and where.

Now it doesn't need to be a verbal explanation,

In fact it probably won't be a verbal explanation because we're talking about kinesthetic knowledge.

Really what I want you to do is to make an effort to define what your sensations are,

What is going on internally.

If other things arise such as thoughts,

Memories,

Distractions,

You don't need to focus on these during the practice.

You can acknowledge what arises and then you can continue.

If these are distracting,

If these are causing difficulties,

You can make this less intense by opening your eyes or even taking a break from the practice and trying the exercise at a time when you're more settled.

Finally before we start,

It's important to sit in a way which is going to help your body be more free.

And all the sequence of meditations we're going to do will be in the seated position.

So firstly I'd like you to try and find a chair which feels solid and relatively immobile.

This is going to help you feel more grounded and make sure that the seat isn't tilting you backwards into it.

It's good to have a seat where it's high enough that your hips can be level or above your knees.

If you need to get extra height,

I recommend sitting on a cushion or even a folded bed pillow to get extra height.

How you sit,

I'd like you to make sure you're sitting on your sit bones.

Usually you'll need to roll your pelvis forward slightly to do this.

As you do this,

Your back will be more straight and you'll be able to rest unsupported,

So you're not using a backrest.

If you sit on the first third of the chair,

It's going to help you roll this pelvis forward.

Then you can put your feet directly under your knees and you can use bare feet,

Socks or some kind of minimal shoe padding if you can.

It would be nice for your feet to be planted on the ground and your ankles to have some freedom in them.

As you sit,

You can rest your hands on your thighs and take a few moments just to find comfort in that sitting position.

You've rolled onto your sit bones and then just sway or gently move your chest and your head backwards and forwards until you find a nice spot of balance where you're not using too much effort in order to maintain this upright seated position.

If you need to take a few moments to find this comfortable seating position,

Do so now.

You can pause the recording.

I'll be waiting.

Now we'll commence with a body scan practice.

As you sit,

Start to bring your attention into how your breath is filling your body as you inhale and as leaving your body as you exhale.

How is the breath as it comes into your body moving your belly?

How is it moving into your ribs,

Maybe around your chest?

Without changing your breathing,

Just noticing how is the in-breath and the out-breath,

How might they be impacting your collarbones,

Your shoulders?

Now bring your attention to your right foot,

Noticing the sensation that is arising in your right foot.

Bring your attention to your right ankle,

Noticing what sensations there are in your right ankle,

Noticing what space,

What inner space there is in your right foot and ankle.

Bring your attention to your right calf,

Noticing the sensation in your right calf.

Bring your attention to your right knee,

Noticing the sensation in your right knee.

Bring your attention to what space there is inside your right calf and your right knee.

Bring your attention up to your right thigh,

The front of the thigh,

The back of your thigh.

Bring your attention to your right hip,

Feel what space there is in your right thigh,

Your right hip.

And feel the space from your right hip all the way down to your right toes,

This connected leg.

Now bring your attention to your left foot,

Bring your attention to your left ankle.

Feel the internal space in your left foot and ankle.

Bring your attention to your left calf.

Draw your attention further up to your left knee.

Feel for the space in your left calf and your left knee.

And notice the internal space in your left calf and your left knee.

Bring your attention up to your left thigh,

The front of your thigh,

The back of your thigh.

Bring your attention into your left hip and feel the space,

The internal space within your left hip and your left thigh.

And connect that space down through your calf to your left foot.

Feel the connected limb of your left leg.

Bring your attention to the area below your belly button on the front,

Around your pubis.

Feel the internal volume in the pelvic balls,

Bring your attention to your tailbone,

To the back of your pelvis.

Bring your attention up to your lower back,

Then around the sides to your waist,

Then around the front to your belly button,

The area of your belly.

And widen your awareness to include the space around your pelvis,

Your hips,

Your lower back,

Your waist,

Your belly.

Bring your attention up to your solar plexus,

Then to the left side of your ribcage.

Noticing how far your ribs come up,

And to the right side of your ribcage.

Noticing the length of your ribcage.

Place your attention onto your sternum,

Noticing what sensations there are in your sternum.

Place your attention onto your mid-back,

Onto your upper back as it comes between your shoulder blades.

Expand your attention to feel the internal volume delimited by your ribcage,

Your solar plexus,

Your mid and upper back,

Your sternum.

Expand your attention further to integrate your pelvis,

Your lower back,

Your hips,

And further down to your thighs,

Your both knees,

Calves,

Ankles,

Feet,

Toes.

Rest for a moment with this awareness of your body.

Next place your attention onto the top part of your head,

The skull cap.

Let this attention trickle down or melt down from your cap,

Down to your face,

And through the top of your neck,

Base of your skull at the back,

And down of your ears on the sides of your head.

Let this awareness filter further down the back of your neck,

The sides of your neck,

The front of your neck and your throat.

Let this awareness come down to the sides of your shoulders and your shoulder blades behind your back.

Keeping awareness of your head,

Your neck,

Your shoulder blades.

And you move your awareness down your upper arms,

Biceps,

Triceps,

Elbows,

And let it trickle down into your lower arms and your wrists,

Your palms,

Your thumb and finger.

You're holding all these elements in your awareness as you listen for what messages,

What sensory information is coming from your arms,

Your neck,

Your head.

Let this awareness filter down as if by slow gravity from your shoulders and your neck,

Back down into your trunk,

Your rib cage,

Your stomach,

Your back,

Your pelvic center.

Feel the weightedness,

The comfort with which you are resting in this position.

Bring your awareness further down through your thighs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Your feet.

Hold your whole body,

That awareness,

Internal awareness,

A unified awareness.

And in this awareness,

Notice again how you are breathing,

How the breathing is being done by you or by itself.

See if you can connect with a quality of pleasure in this feeling,

In this state,

A quality of pleasure arising from the body,

From your body,

From the simple act of being.

There's likely a fundamental,

Quiet quality of pleasure.

It's one of the gifts of the present moment.

As we close this practice,

I invite you to gently move your fingers,

Your toes,

Gently move,

Gently open your eyes if they are closed,

And see if you can hold on to some of this feeling as you start to go about your daily activities.

Reviews

Wonderful for beginners but really great for everyone. I liked his pace and patience, no rush.

Sometimes the teacher , always the student . Thank you for this. 🙏

Remarkable! I find many body scans kind of push you through quickly but the instruction here is specific and well balanced so that I can really connect with parts of myself that I often have trouble experiencing. Really lovely, thank you 🙏🏼

I enjoyed this! Very calming and relaxing. I look forward to the next session. Thank you 🙏💜

Excellent! Thank you 🙏🙏🙏

Excellent pace. Just what I have been looking for.