Hello and welcome to this guided 10 point meditation.
The 10 point meditation involves bringing a kind and gentle attention to 10 different points in the body.
And this is a lovely exercise for both grounding and also for stimulating our ventral vagal network.
And the ventral vagal network is the part of our nervous system that innervates,
That is spread throughout the upper part of our body,
Through the head and face,
The neck,
The chest,
And through the hands and the arms.
We may think of the ventral vagal network as our network of connection and affiliation.
And the ventral vagal network consists of parasympathetic nerve fibers.
The parasympathetic nerve fibers,
When stimulated,
Counteract the activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
It's in part the way that we regulate our nervous systems and the way we regain regulation when we notice that we're getting dysregulated.
So this is a wonderful practice that you can give to yourself at times when you may be feeling stressed or overwhelmed,
Disconnected from yourself or others.
So for this meditation,
It's preferred if you can have a seated position and just taking a few moments to let yourself settle into a chair or cushion.
Just allowing yourself to be comfortable,
But upright and wakeful,
Not in a rigid position,
But one that is upright and that allows you to remain alert.
You might just take a few moments to connect with the breathing,
Noticing the movement of the breath without trying to make it do anything in particular,
Without trying to change it.
Just noticing how very naturally and easily the body breathes itself.
Tending to the breath and the level of sensation,
Perhaps at the nostrils,
Movement of the air,
The sinuses,
The throat,
Movement of the chest or the belly,
Finding where you notice the breath most acutely.
Being aware of the breathing in and the breathing out.
And now dropping your attention,
Your awareness down to the body to find your feet,
Finding the bottoms of your feet,
Contact with the ground,
With the earth.
And if it's difficult to really connect on a feeling or sensation level,
What you might do is first press down just a bit with your right foot,
Not in a straining sort of way,
But with just a little bit of pressure,
Enough that you can really feel that contact,
The pressure there,
The sensations,
The bottom of the foot pressing down into the earth,
Feeling also the muscles that engage through the foot and the ankle,
Through the leg,
Even up into the hip and into the core a bit.
And then whenever it feels most right to you,
Perhaps on an out breath,
Just letting all those muscles go and allowing that right foot to just drop in to the holding of the earth,
Noticing the residual sensations in your foot,
The bottom of the foot,
Anywhere else that it's noticeable,
Allowing the foot to be heavy and held.
And now with the left foot,
The pressing down,
Again not straining too much,
Just enough that you can really feel how solid the earth is beneath your feet and feel the sensation of contact and also that activation of the muscles and the feet and that left leg up through the hip and into the core.
And just as with the right foot,
Paying attention to when it feels most right to you,
You get to decide when perhaps on an out breath,
You just let it go and let that left leg and foot just relax into the holding that's here,
Allowing both feet to be heavy,
To feel the tug of gravity.
And then moving the awareness upward through the legs and finding the sitz bones,
Those points at the very bottom of our pelvic bone that is most in contact with our seat.
And as a way to really connect more acutely with these sitz bones,
You might just do a little bit of tiny little micro movements,
Maybe just slightly tightening the muscles around the right sitz bone,
Releasing that and then tightening just a little bit the muscles around the left sitz bone,
Releasing that and just a little bit of back and forth movement.
Again,
We're not straining really,
It's just a subtle movement,
An awakening.
And then whenever you're ready,
Releasing that movement and just allowing your sitz bones to drop into the holding of the cushion,
The chair,
The couch.
And now directing your attention up to your shoulder blades,
Letting yourself have a little bit of movement there,
Just a little bit of back and forth movement.
Again,
Very subtle,
Very small movements.
Right and left,
Almost like you're flexing your wings a little bit.
Just allowing yourself to become more aware of the shoulder blades.
And then when it feels right to you,
Releasing that movement and then just allowing the shoulder blades to drop down with gravity,
Almost as if there are tiny little weights at the very bottom of the shoulder blades that gently tug downward.
And you might notice how that pulls the shoulders down.
You might even feel a little bit of opening in the chest,
Allowing the shoulder blades to be heavy,
To feel the tug of gravity.
And now directing your attention upward to your jaw bones,
To those joints on the right and on the left.
Notice if there's any clenching or tightness there,
Just being interested and observing.
You might bring just a little bit of micro movement slowly,
Side to side of the jaw.
And then tiny slow movements forward and back.
And when you're ready,
Perhaps on an out breath,
Releasing the movement and releasing the jaw,
Allowing the jaw to drop down,
To sort of dangle,
Releasing the jaw into the gentle tug of gravity.
And then directing the attention to the back of the neck.
And what we're going to do now is we're going to just very slightly extend the neck and head upward,
Kind of giving some elongation in the neck,
Very gently.
And then tucking the chin,
Allowing it to remain loose,
But kind of tucking it in towards the chest and allowing the face to drop forward towards the ground.
Opening and opening up in the back of the neck.
Softening in the chest.
And tending to your own body's needs,
Noticing what feels comfortable,
Not going beyond comfort.
You might feel a little bit of a stretch,
But honor your body and back off the extension if you feel any discomfort.
Just finding a place where you can allow the head to be bowed forward,
Downward,
And noticing the sensations of that opening,
The space between the vertebrae of the neck and the upper back.
Bringing your attention to the indentation,
The spot that is where the very top of the spine and the skull meet.
Bringing your attention there,
And almost as if there's an opening there,
Similar to the blowhole of a whale,
Imagining that you can breathe in and out through this opening at the back of the neck.
Allowing the breath to be easy and natural,
Feeling as if it is entering that spot at the back of the neck.
You might sense it,
Imagine it moving down and up the spine.
You might imagine it filling the chest,
The back,
Feel it filling the abdomen,
Feeling that breath filling the head and the face.
Just breathing in and out through that opening at the back of the neck.
Feeling the breath,
The opening at the back of the neck,
The stretch along the neck and the back of the spine,
Softening of the chest,
The gentle tug of gravity.
And if it begins to feel like a bit of a strain on the neck or the back,
You might allow yourself to place elbows on your thighs and to drop your face down to be held by your hands in some way,
Any way that feels most comfortable and holding to you,
So that you still have that opening,
That lengthening of the spine.
Just holding your own sweet face as you allow your body to relax as much as possible into the tug of gravity.
Just breathing in and breathing out through that opening in the back of the neck,
Allowing yourself to be as relaxed as possible in the gentle tug of gravity.
And if you're comfortable in this position,
Just remaining so,
Or if it would be more comfortable for you to move into an upright posture,
Doing that,
Doing it slowly,
Mindfully,
Rising in a slow,
Mindful way,
Stacking one vertebrae on top of the one below,
One after another,
Sort of zipping up the spine.
And now bringing your attention to our final point of awareness,
Which is the heart.
Sensing the heart in its home in your chest.
You might imagine that you can breathe in and out through the heart.
You might imagine the breath wrapping around the heart,
Caressing and cradling the heart,
Touching into the front of the heart,
And the top of the heart,
The bottom of the heart,
The sides and the back of the heart.
And imagining the breath,
Perhaps as a color,
Wrapping around and filling the heart.
Breathing in,
Too,
And all around your heart.
Hmm.
Allow your sweet and tender heart to be caressed and held by the gentleness of the breath.
Allow your sweet and tender heart to be caressed and held by the gentleness of the breath.
Allow your sweet and tender heart to be caressed and held by the gentleness of the breath.
And if the attention has wandered,
No problem.
Perfectly normal.
Just notice that as soon as you can,
Releasing distractions and bringing your attention back to this,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Filling the heart with the breath,
Caressing the heart with the breath.
Perfectly normal.
Perfectly normal.
And now,
Allowing your awareness to expand,
Reconnecting with the shoulder blades and the dropping down into gravity of the shoulder blades,
Reconnecting with the sitz bones,
Contact with the surface you're sitting on,
The support,
Dropping down into the gravity of your seat,
And then bringing your attention again to your feet,
Right where we began,
Noticing points of contact,
The holding of the earth,
Feeling the gentle tug of gravity,
Feeling the natural rhythm of the breath.
And when you're ready,
Maybe bringing just a little bit of movement to your feet and toes,
To your hands and your fingers.
And when you're ready to open your eyes,
Being gentle with yourself,
Allowing the eyes to open gradually,
Slowly letting in the light of the room,
The colors,
The shapes that surround you,
Reorienting to the space around you.
This concludes our meditation for now.
Thank you for your practice,
And namaste.
