Hello and welcome to this short mindfulness track on grounding.
The fourth in a series of very short grounding exercises,
None of which has to be taken in any particular order.
Being grounded simply means being present where you are and having your awareness focus on what you're doing at the present moment.
So we'll begin this exercise seated if possible with your feet planted firmly on the floor and your back upright and we're going to do a short body scan.
Nothing complicated,
Just going to invite you to concentrate on your breathing.
Notice the inflow and outflow of your breath and then very gently bring your awareness to different parts of your body and see if you can recognize or be aware of any place where you're holding tension,
Of any place where the muscles feel tight or you feel knotted.
If you can identify a place like that,
With each breath visualize the breath coming directly to that area and as you breathe out notice the area soften.
Notice the relaxation that comes with each exhale.
You can repeat this for different areas of the body if you feel you need to.
Otherwise you can bring your attention to your breathing and simply let go.
There's no need to control your breathing,
You simply need to be aware of it,
To notice it happening.
If you like you can say quietly to yourself breathing in as you breathe in and breathing out as you breathe out.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
As you continue the practice,
Allow the quiet words that you're saying in your head to fade gently into the background.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Breathing in,
Breathing out and sit calmly with your awareness on that breathing process.
And as you continue with your awareness on your breath,
We're going to introduce an idea which you can call noting or labeling,
Which is really as simple as it sounds.
Whatever you experience during your breathing and your awareness of it,
Simply give it a label or note it.
It might be hearing,
It might be thinking.
Whatever label or notation works best for you.
The moment you become aware that something else is happening,
Note it,
Give it a name or a label and let it go and return to your breathing in,
Breathing out and watch your breath.
As you stay with this process for longer,
You may become aware of discomfort.
You can label that and return to your breathing.
As thinking reoccurs,
You may find that a particular kind of thought repeats,
Such as planning,
Such as worry,
Such as anxiety,
Such as regret.
No matter what thought process arrives while you're breathing,
Simply name it,
Label it,
Let it go and return to breathing in,
Breathing out.
And this is all there is to it.
A conscious awareness of breath,
A noting of any other experience that distracts from the breathing.
Noting,
Naming,
Letting it go.
No judgment,
No overthinking,
No analyzing.
Just letting go and returning to breathing in,
Breathing out.
You can continue this practice for as long as you like.
You can do it for as little as a minute.
You can do it for as long as 10 or 20 or more.
Its simplicity is its strength.
Breathing in,
Breathing out and noting whatever else you experience.
I hope that you find this technique helpful and it's something that you can incorporate into your daily awareness,
Your daily groundedness.
