Grounding And Centering With Intentions

This is a meditation for use when you're feeling overwhelmed and need to ground and center.
We start by talking about how meditation builds resilience and how that can help you deal with the trials of life. The meditation starts at 3:15.

Elements of Grounding, Connection to Universal Source, Heart Centering, and setting an Intention.

Transcript

Hi everybody!

We had some technical difficulties with the recording today over at Austin Yogatree so I decided that I would go ahead and re-record today's meditation for those of you who are away and have requested to have these posted up on YouTube.

So today's meditation is about resilience and how meditation helps us build resilience and be able to cope with life a little bit better.

For a bit more in-depth explanation about where this is coming from,

I have a very dear friend who has had some off-and-on kind of emotional struggles over the years and it's been particularly bad during pandemic and here leading into the holidays she had an event of some sort that led to her losing the ability to speak and she is very upset obviously and having a real difficult time coping with all of this and it's really brought to the forefront for me the fact that as you learn to meditate and as you build your meditation practice and are using it on a daily basis,

Sometimes more than once a day,

That what you're really building is the pathways in your brain that enable you to easily navigate.

Maybe easily isn't the right word but enable you to navigate with a bit more ease difficult times in your life.

It gives you tools to cope.

It gives you the ability to take a step back and to re-center yourself and to allow you to more dispassionately look at whatever your life situations are.

So that's where this is coming from today and as we're heading into the last two weeks of the year,

Into New Year's,

Personally I was experiencing a little bit of stress over end of year planning for my business and looking at what have I accomplished so far this year and what do I hope to accomplish next year and it's one of those times of the year where you kind of tend to put a lot of pressure on yourself and for some of us there's even an element of a little bit of beating yourselves up over what I didn't get done.

Meditation can help you to give yourself some grace to allow you to let some things go and to bring some perspective back into your life.

So that's what we're doing today.

I thought we would start with some grounding and move into some centering practice.

So here we are.

Let's go ahead and get started.

So wherever you are,

If you're sitting or if you're lying down,

Just wherever you are,

I invite you to make yourself as comfortable as you possibly can.

Comfort is what allows you to actually relax and to focus in.

So go ahead and adjust yourself according to whatever you need.

Get your feet flat on the floor if you're sitting.

And if you're lying down,

Adjust yourself so that you're just completely relaxed.

So go ahead and let your eyes close.

At this time,

If you're not comfortable with closing your eyes,

Go ahead and let them just sort of drop down in front of you with a soft gaze and begin to take some nice intentional breaths.

So go ahead and take a nice breath in,

Breathing in,

Hold at the top,

And breathing out.

Let's do that a couple more times.

Breathing in and breathing out.

One more.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Now let your breath return to its normal pattern and bring your attention to your eyebrows.

Notice if you feel tension,

If your brow is tight or wrinkled,

And consciously just send a signal to relax.

Tell your eyebrows to relax and let go.

Now drift your attention down to your eyes.

Notice if they're tight at all or if you feel like they're a little bit tight.

And let your eyes go soft.

Let them relax.

Let them just sort of sink back into their sockets,

Just letting them go.

Drop your attention a little further down to your mouth,

To your jaw.

And notice if you're clenching at all or even if it's just a tight clench.

And let your eyes go notice if you're clenching at all or even if it's just a tension in your jaw joint.

See if you can let it go.

Release your tongue from the roof of your mouth.

Let your teeth part a little.

Don't forget to breathe.

Now drop your attention down to the tops of your shoulders.

Notice your shoulders,

Tops of them,

Where the muscles connect with your neck.

Notice how they're feeling.

Notice if they're tense or drawn up and see if you can't release them.

Release your shoulders and let them drop.

Just drop away from your ears,

Shoulder blades drop down your back,

Your collarbones.

Let it all release.

Now notice your chest as you're breathing in.

Notice how your chest rises and expands and how it deflates as you breathe out.

Notice if there's any tension or tightness anywhere in your chest.

See if you can just let it go.

Let go of the tension and just let it relax.

Dropping now to your belly.

Notice if you're holding it in,

If there's any holding or tightness in your belly.

Nobody's looking.

You can let your stomach go.

Let it be soft.

Let it relax.

Now to your hips.

Notice how they feel if the muscles are tensed or if they're soft and let them go.

Drifting down to your thighs,

Backs of your upper legs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Your ankles.

Just let it all go.

Let your legs be heavy.

Feel your ankles,

Your feet flat on the floor or your heels on the surface you're lying on.

Just let them fall.

Let them relax.

Let them feel heavy.

Don't forget to breathe.

From this place,

Picture your connection from your feet or your whole backside if you're lying down with the earth,

The floor,

The bed,

The ground.

Just picture that connection and allow it to be strong and allow your connection with the earth to just unfurl like roots going down into the earth,

Going down,

Down into the center of the earth.

Allow them to wrap around,

Make a solid connection with the core of the earth.

Feel that solid strength,

That calm,

Powerful,

Safe and solid energy from the earth.

Let it flow up your roots,

Up into your body.

Allow it to carry on up through your body,

Taking with it anything that you don't need,

Thoughts of future or past or to-do lists.

Just let it get carried back down to Mother Earth.

Any energy of tension,

Any stress,

Just allow it to be carried back to the earth,

Down your roots,

Back to the core to be recycled and renewed into fresh energy.

Just allow that to continue and you bring your attention back up to your heart,

Your heart space where your spirit lives,

Where your connections,

Connections to friends and family,

Loved ones,

All here at your heart.

And let's take some intentional heart breaths to really anchor ourselves back here in our hearts right now.

So breathing in from the back of your heart,

Filling up your heart space and release it with a sigh out the front.

Let's do that two more times.

Breathing in from the back of your heart and breathing out the front of your heart,

Just letting it go.

One more,

Breathing in and breathing out.

And here in the center of your own being,

In your heart space,

Can you become fully present here.

And now,

Don't forget to breathe,

Just noticing what it feels like to be here in your heart space right now.

Now take your attention from your heart up to right above your head and notice,

If you can,

A connection from the top of your head on up to universal source,

God,

Goddess,

Sky energy,

Just connect up to the heart of universal source and allow that energy to begin to flow down that connection cord.

Maybe picture it as a beautiful silver light flowing down into the top of your head,

Down through your center,

Through past your shoulders,

Through your chest,

Into your heart and on down back to Mother Earth.

And if you can,

Picture the Earth energy flowing up still and the universal source energy flowing down,

Allowing them to mix,

Allowing them to replenish you,

Allowing them to carry off that which is no longer necessary for you to be recycled to Mother Earth.

Just keep flowing that energy,

Earth energy up and the universal source energy down,

Allowing you to replenish and to let go of you,

Perfectly balanced there in the middle,

Come back to your heart space,

Back to your center,

Your home.

Don't forget to breathe.

From this place of balance and alignment,

Let's take a few more heart breaths and expand our own our own light,

Our own heart center by breathing in that beautiful balancing light and energy and on the exhale,

Breathing it out through the front of our hearts into our own space,

Breathing in and breathing out.

One more,

Breathing in,

Expanding your light and blowing it out the front,

Giving you your own energy and strength mixed with Earth energy,

Solid and stable and universal source energy,

Clearing and empowering.

Allow that to just continue to grow and strengthen around you.

Picture yourself sitting in the center of your own heart,

Emanating this beautiful energy,

This radiant light of you from this place of centered calm.

Can you ask yourself a question,

Who am I when I'm at my best?

Who am I when I'm at my best?

Allow whatever the word is to just bubble up,

Maybe it's kindness or peace,

Compassion,

Maybe it's energized,

Loving,

Whatever your word is,

Allow it to take up space in your heart,

Allow it to become your intention for the next few weeks of this year,

End of the year,

Maybe even carry it into the new year,

Who am I when I'm at my best?

Now you can release that and allow the universe to take care of it for you.

As we close,

Maybe bring your hands up in front of your heart in prayer position.

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be peaceful,

Sending blessings.

Namaste.

Thank you.