Deep Grounding Practice

A guided meditation designed to help you deepen the connection to self and the earth. It's early springtime, the snow is melting and new growth is ready to happen. This is a deeply grounding practice to help you gain insights from your inner world. Breathing On Earth meditations are recorded live on location in nature.

Transcript

All right, Hello my friends. Welcome to Breathing on Earth. My name is Spencer. Thank you so much for joining me today. Currently I'm in the mountains just outside of Bozeman, Montana. It turns out that it's snowing up here. So I've got a little bit of snow. I'm sitting under a big pine tree that's offering a little bit of coverage from the snow. Every once in a while, Because it's been snowing up here for a little bit, Every once in a while the trees will drop just a little bit of snow on the ground. So it sounds like the trees are throwing snowballs. So go ahead and take a seat or lie down and join me in the meditation today. Make yourself comfortable. If you choose to sit upright and support yourself, Get comfortable. And if you're laying down, Just make yourself comfortable as well. So I just want to invite you to take a few deep breaths in. Breathe in as far as you can gently and then breathe out slowly. And if it's helpful, You can breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. So just take a deep breath in through the nose and then out through the mouth. And then just allow your breathing to just be normal and gentle as you just settle into your body. You might take a moment to relax any parts of your body that seem to be tense right now. You can loosen your eyelids, Your eyebrows, Soften the forehead. Notice if you can drop your shoulders a little bit more and relax from the inside out, Releasing tension as much as you can. As you keep relaxing your body, You may want to close your eyes if it's comfortable for you, If you haven't done so already. And just keep relaxing your arms, Your hands. Let the belly soften and be relaxed. Notice if your muscles and your legs are tense, If you're trying to hold on, If you can just loosen up a little bit more in the legs all the way down through the feet. So I just want to invite you today to be here, Be with me today. Perhaps in your mind's eye you might imagine yourself in a forest, The snow falling gently on the trees, These big tall pine trees with moss growing on them. We're removed from the city and day-to-day life. And you might imagine your own forest, A protective forest, Where you can come and feel a sense of safety, A sense of groundedness. So notice in your mind where you're sitting, If it's under a tree or some grass, And allow your body to sink deeper into that space. You might imagine the roots, Your own energy going down like roots into the ground. And as you breathe out, You might just deepen those roots, Just slowly and gently. It doesn't have to be something that you force. Just imagine yourself deepening into the ground. Notice the richness of the soil and just notice how it feels to be connected to the earth. What does it feel like in your body to be connected to the surface that you're sitting on, Connected to the earth? You might imagine yourself in your own forest and in your mind's eye you might look around and notice what do you see just from the place where you are. You're rooted into the earth and you're just looking around your forest. Do you see the sky? Is it clear? Blue skies? Is it cloudy? Maybe there's a lot of trees that are blocking the sky, Most of the sky. Here where I am, I've got a lot of trees with snow on them and every once in a while the snow is falling off of the trees. It's still snowing lightly. So whatever it is for you in your own forest, You might imagine a sense of warmth, A sense of belonging here, Connected to the earth. If you hear noises or your thoughts or emotions take you away from this space, I just invite you to come back, Come back to the forest that you're in and allow each breath to take you deeper. Allow yourself to breathe in and imagine the smells of the forest, The wet pine, The fresh air. Perhaps it's raining in your forest. On the in-breath, Just breathe in those sensations around you and on the out-breath, As you breathe out, Allow yourself to go deeper, Deeper into this space where you're almost becoming a part of the forest and allowing the forest to become a part of you. So notice if your mind has wanted to wander, Just bring your mind back to the forest, Come back to being a part of the forest, Being connected with the forest. So I want to invite you to breathe in love to your forest. Perhaps you can look around and notice where in your forest it's been neglected, Where have things been dying off, Where have things gotten out of control, It's become overgrown. And you might mentally just imagine yourself going over to those places and giving it some love and attention. This is your forest. How do you want to change it? How do you want to take care of it? There may be parts that you haven't really known how to take care of and that's okay. Be forgiving of yourself for that. But see if there's anything that you can do here in this moment. You might imagine yourself clearing away some logs or some bushes or perhaps you want to plant some trees. So go ahead now, Take a moment to tend to your own forest. So you might notice if there's a lot of effort that you're making to try to fix the forest, If it feels very hard to fix the forest. Maybe just take a step back if so and see if you can find ways that you can do the nurturing in a healthy way that doesn't drain you. See if you can tend to your forest in a loving way from a loving space of awareness that also takes care of you. You might notice if there are animals around, Birds or some squirrels or other animals that are here to offer you assistance, Friendly assistance to help you. And you can actually go ahead and invite them to help you. You may also ask them, What is needed here in this forest? Let your intention come to healing the forest and offering what you can offer from a space of love and allow whatever animals, Plants, And other living life forms to help you. Note that there's no right or wrong way to do this, But the idea is to tend to the forest, Tend to the forest of your mind, To your being, To your body, To your heart, To your thoughts, To your emotions, And let this be a place that you can come back to and nurture and take care of. So it's time to come back or go back to where you were. It's time to leave the forest. So take another deep breath in, Breathe out, Take another deep breath in, Breathe out. Go ahead and say goodbye to your forest for now. And you can and you can slowly open your eyes and start to notice the sounds around you. Just sit in this awareness where you are for a moment and feel free to stay here as long as you need to. Thank you so much for joining me today. I wish you all the best.