Welcome to the self-soothing meditation.
Find a comfortable seated position preferably out in nature and as you take some time to land here,
Could you feel the weight of your body on the earth?
Perhaps leaning your back body back to the space behind you a little bit and just notice how you're feeling here,
How you've arrived in this practice.
Notice what's alive within you and could you come back to that awareness of your body's weight on the earth now and feel her holding and supporting you here exactly how you are now and as you land into that connection,
That remembering,
Could you just have a look around you and notice what you can see,
Just noticing a couple of different things that you can see,
Then noticing sounds meeting your ears,
A couple of different sounds,
Perhaps one that's further away and one that's closer.
Bringing your awareness now to something that you can feel,
Perhaps the temperature of the earth beneath you,
Your clothes,
Temperature,
Just grounding yourself in this moment here right now where you are and as you bring your senses,
Your awareness of your senses closer to your being,
With your next exhale could you just drop your awareness into your body and notice what's alive here.
As you notice what's alive here,
Could you give it a color,
A texture,
As if you were describing it out loud,
Just observing what's alive in your being and then just bringing your hand or hands to wherever the strongest sensation is in your body and just noticing how intense this sensation is from one to ten,
Ten being super intense,
One being not very intense at all.
And then as if this sensation in your body had a life of its own,
Could you just begin to allow movement from this space in your body,
Inviting its intelligence to move you.
You might want to get up,
Move around,
Do whatever you need to do to allow this sensation to animate,
To express itself.
How does it move?
How does it breathe?
Giving your body permission to move with this sensation.
Then just gently coming back to stillness and coming to tap on the side of the hand,
Saying out loud after me,
Even though I'm experiencing this and just insert how it feels in your body,
Including its color,
Any textures,
Shapes,
I choose to be here now.
Coming to tap on the inner eyebrow points and just say this and then just say out loud what you're experiencing,
The sensation in your body.
Tapping on the outside of the eyes,
This,
And repeating it.
Underneath the eyes,
This.
Underneath the nose,
I'm noticing this,
Inserting the sensation or sensations.
Tapping underneath the bottom lip,
All of this is continuing to meet this sensation in your body.
Tapping underneath the collarbones,
I'm choosing to be here with it now.
Tapping underneath the armpits,
I'm choosing to meet myself in this experience now.
Tapping on the crown of the head,
I'm choosing to self-soothe here and now.
Bringing a hand back to whatever's alive in the body,
The system,
Your being.
Just noticing how it feels now,
Deepening the breath slightly and we'll just find our physiological sigh.
So as we breathe in,
We breathe all the way to the top and then we take an extra little sip in at the top,
Exhaling out of the mouth,
Perhaps inviting sound.
Two more like that,
Breathing in all the way,
Sipping,
Exhaling all the way out.
One more here together,
Breathing in,
Sipping,
Exhaling.
As you finish your exhale,
Allow that to descend you back to the sensation of your body on the earth.
Just notice how you feel here now,
Coming back to the texture on your skin,
Temperatures and perhaps you invite some touch here on your skin,
Just really tending to your sense of touch as if you were caring for a pet or a loved one.
Gentle strokes,
Maybe some squeezes,
Maybe you give yourself a cuddle here,
Wrapping your arms around yourself and really receiving this embrace.
From here could you feel the embrace of the air around you?
And notice the sounds that are present.
When you're ready,
Gently opening your eyes and noticing the sights that are present here.
Feeling nature meet you,
Hold you,
Breathe you,
Soothe you.
And just noticing if there's any whispers from your being or from the nature surrounding you,
Reminding you of what's true,
Allowing yourself to breathe and just give space to what wants to arrive here.
If there's anything for you to remember to anchor you in this moment,
In the remembering that you have the power to hold yourself,
To self-soothe in your own time,
Closing the practice however feels good to you.
