Gravity Meditation For Grounding And Calm

A gentle meditation where you will be guided to tune into and notice the sensations of gravity within the body, allowing you to feel focused, settled, and calm. A simple but effective exercise that you can return to as often as you need.

Transcript

So we'll start with a simple grounding exercise,

A practice to help bring you into a calm,

Embodied,

Focused state.

You want to ensure that you're in a quiet space where you won't be interrupted and because the focus of this practice is relaxation and we'll have our eyes closed,

You'll want to ensure that you're not driving or otherwise doing anything that might require your attention.

The invitation in this exercise is to tune into and become aware of the sensations of gravity.

Now we spend a lot of our time pulling away from gravity,

Right?

So much so that we generally just don't really think about it,

But we spend our days upright,

Resisting,

Holding,

Straining,

Stretching away and yet there is this ever-present feeling,

This weight,

This heaviness,

This desire of the body to kind of sink all the way down into the earth,

Right?

To become heavy,

To be soft.

So we'll start by just moving and choosing whatever position is the most comfortable.

Perhaps feeling and settling into your sit bones if you're seated,

Noticing the positioning of your feet and just to gently tune into the body and start to become aware of there,

If there's anywhere in the body that feels heavy,

Anywhere in the body that wants to kind of sink down a little bit more and just invite those places to soften a little and perhaps bringing the awareness to the very top of the head,

The muscles of the scalp,

Maybe noticing how that's feeling.

And you might even raise the eyebrows a little to contract the muscles of the scalp and then notice what happens as those eyebrows kind of settle down into a relaxed position.

And you might start to become aware of some heaviness here,

A bit of softening,

Of letting go.

And you might do the same with your face.

You might squeeze your cheek muscles or open and close your jaw a few times,

Maybe stretching your mouth a little and just kind of notice what the most relaxed,

You know,

Neutral position of the face is.

Perhaps becoming aware of the weight of your cheeks,

The heaviness of that jawbone.

Or thinking about or imagining or pretending your muscles just kind of sinking down off the bones and sliding down towards the floor.

And then just start to gently bring the awareness kind of down into the body and start to do a bit of a gentle scan,

You know,

Maybe bringing those shoulders up for a moment and allowing them to drop.

And notice what happens as you simply drop your shoulders.

Or you might,

You know,

Lift an arm for a moment and just notice the weight of your arms.

And as you're noticing the weight of your arms,

I wonder if they might even seem to become a little heavier.

And then simply moving the awareness down through the body.

Maybe sending the breath a little deeper into the belly.

And as you really come into the body,

Into the torso,

The abdomen,

The chest,

The belly,

You might start to just kind of notice this really gentle sensation.

There's sort of this soft downward movement that we can tune into.

Now there's a couple of reasons that I find this exercise really helpful and valuable.

And the first might already be very obvious,

Which is that this sensation is always available to you.

You know,

If we just let go,

The body just naturally desires to kind of sink down towards the earth,

Right?

We're heavy and weighted and if we yield and let go,

Then we'll just kind of collapse and sink down into whatever surface we might be settled on.

But the other reason why I love this exercise is that it's actually an attachment exercise.

Because what is gravity if not the relationship that exists between us and the earth?

Gravity is the earth pulling and holding us close.

Gravity makes it possible for us to live and for life to exist on this planet.

And gravity can invite us back into this attachment relationship with the land,

Which is arguably our first attachment relationship.

So we can locate this feeling in the body and we can also send our awareness even further down.

You can bring your awareness into the surface that you're resting on.

You might notice the places where it makes contact with your body.

And as you notice the places where it makes contact with your body,

You might get a sense of that feeling of being held,

Of being physically supported.

You might notice what that feeling of support allows you to do.

Perhaps that support allows you to relax a little bit more.

I wonder if you can take in another teaspoon,

A little more of a nibble,

A little bite of that feeling of being supported.

Can you relax into that just a little bit more?

And then you might even start to send your awareness down even deeper,

Going down below the surface that you're resting upon into the structure of the building you're in.

Notice how the surface you're resting on is supported by the structure of that building.

And if you continue to go even deeper,

All the way down,

That building rests upon a foundation,

That foundation rests upon the earth.

And you might bring your awareness all the way down into contact with the soil.

And as you come into contact with the soil and the living dreaming earth,

You might become aware that this feeling in your body is that earth,

That soil,

Pulling you down all the way,

Holding you really close.

And you might imagine just sinking all the way down into that earth,

Or simply allowing any tension,

Any tightness,

Any discomfort to move all the way down through all of those layers and send it all the way down into the earth.

The other beautiful thing that comes out of this exercise is recognizing that relaxation is not a verb.

We often get stuck on relaxation exercises because we say,

I don't know how,

I can't do it.

We think of it as a state of doing,

Rather than a state of being,

Of non-doing.

And so the reason I really like this and why I think it's accessible and an easy place to start is because we start to notice that this relaxation is not a thing that we do,

But something we simply allow.

Right?

Relaxation is something we allow.

This softening,

This easing,

Is simply a letting go,

A giving of permission.

If you come back into your body now,

You might notice your eyes.

Notice what happens as you open and close your eyelids slowly,

And notice that your eyelids just really naturally desire to meet each other when you're not holding them open.

And I wonder if your eyelids might even seem to become a little heavier,

Just by your giving them permission to soften and close.

And there's no squeezing or squinting or muscle contraction necessary.

The eyes just naturally desire to soften and close.

The face just naturally takes on this soft,

Expressionless position when we are not,

You know,

Holding expression or masking or smiling or forcing ourselves to project a particular,

You know,

Emotional tone out into the world.

The face just wants to be soft and neutral.

Those shoulders can just relax down away from the ears.

Your arms can just melt down into whatever you're resting on.

Your breath can move from the top part of your chest all the way down into the low belly,

And even all the way down into the pelvic bowl.

That low belly that we contract all day long to look a particular way,

To meet a culturally defined beauty standard,

Can simply soften and just release and relax and let go.

Those big,

Strong thigh muscles that,

You know,

If we're able,

Are carrying us around during the day,

Supporting us and moving us about our lives,

Those muscles can just let go.

The backs of the knees can simply soften.

The calf muscles can just release.

Our delicate feet that are so strong,

That are bearing so much of this intersection throughout the day,

Holding so much of the weight of our being on them,

Those muscles can just let go.

Everything can just soften and let go.

And you can simply rest.

So just taking these last few moments,

These next few breaths,

Perhaps taking a moment while I'm quiet to simply kind of gently scan through the body one more time,

Noticing if there's anywhere that wants to yield,

To soften,

To release,

To let go,

To just sink all the way down.

All the way down,

Imagining your muscles,

Your bones becoming so heavy,

And sinking all the way down into the surface you're resting on,

And all the way down into the earth.

And then slowly and gently with these next few breaths,

Starting to think about coming back to wakefulness.

But as you think about coming back to wakefulness,

Know that this feeling,

This sensation,

This softness,

This is always available to you,

Easily accessible,

It's always there whenever you need.

And so when you're ready,

You know,

Just tuning into the body,

Inviting whatever it is you need,

A stretch,

A yawn,

A deep heavy sigh,

A little wiggle of the toes.

And then when you're ready,

Slowly and gently opening those eyes and coming back to the space that you're in,

Preparing to go back to whatever you need to,

But taking this,

Taking this wonderful gentle feeling,

This knowing of stillness and softness with you into whatever life might be asking from you today.

Reviews

What a lovely meditation, a physical reminder that we are of the earth, held by the earth. 🌍🩵