Hello and welcome to this grounding meditation through body awareness.
Begin this practice by finding a comfortable seated posture.
This could be on the floor,
On a cushion or on a chair.
However you're seated,
You'll want to feel your connection to the ground.
So if you're sitting on a chair,
Plant your feet flat on the ground.
If you're sitting on a cushion,
Take your cushion to the floor and either sit on your knees with your shins on the tops of your feet rooted to the earth or cross your legs and arrange the height of your cushion so your knees are lower than the height of your hips.
Once you're comfortable in your seat,
Sit up tall,
Close your eyes or you can gaze softly at the ground ahead of you.
Seal your lips and breathe gently,
Quietly and slowly in and out through the nose.
With every exhale,
Allow the weight of your body to release further down towards the ground and with every inhale breath,
Notice an opposing upward lifting energy that lengthens your spine a little bit taller.
With each exhale breath,
Release the shoulders,
The hips and the legs towards the ground.
With each inhale breath,
Feel a gentle lightness,
A gentle upward lifting.
Rest here for a moment,
Finding the balance between these two breaths.
Grinding exhale and upward lifting inhale.
Now take your attention a little more towards the exhale breath.
Let each exhale breath take a little more time than your breath in.
Lengthen and extend the exhales gently and comfortably without trying too hard.
Now notice all the points of your body which are touching down and connecting to the ground below you to the earth.
Notice the soles of your feet or your ankles,
Your shins or the backs of your thighs.
With every exhale breath,
As you grind a bit further by releasing energy down into the earth,
Imagine that each of these connection points expands a tiny bit.
Each point widens just the way water when spilled on the floor slowly begins to spread out.
Every breath,
Allowing your body and the points connecting to the ground to relax and expand and spill out a little bit wider.
And if at any time you feel as though you're melting down a little too much,
Just bring back the lightness of each breath in.
Rest here,
Aware of this play and this connection between the solidity of your body and the firmness of the earth.
And now of course the mind is still active,
Perhaps very active.
So any time that you notice the mind has wandered off,
Chasing a thought maybe,
Don't spend any time wondering why.
Don't spend any time indulging in the stories.
And don't spend any time judging yourself as good or bad.
Just simply bring the mind back to the body each and every time.
Check back in with your sense of the weight of the body,
The form of the body and the solidity of the body.
Get very curious about your sense of your body.
Is it heavy or light?
Is it still or in motion?
Does it feel solid or fluid?
Be present with the body,
Right here,
Right now,
With the body.
In touch with the ground,
Seated on your chair or on your cushion.
Feeling still,
Physically stable,
Rooted,
Grounded,
Neutral.
From this place of stability,
Continue to notice when the mind wanders off.
And as many times as you need to,
Bring the mind back to the body.
Back to this anchor of the form of your body.
Stable and connected to earth.
Notice the body as a home base for the mind.
That wherever the mind goes now,
The body remains grounded.
And whenever you notice the mind has drifted away,
Acknowledge that the mind has the grounded body to return to.
It's almost time to return,
So before you open your eyes,
Check in one more time with the space in which your body meets the ground.
As you breathe out,
Release down into this space,
Into the ground.
Breathe in and push into this space as you open your eyes slowly and easily.
And stay here for about 3,
4,
5 breaths with your eyes open.
Still in awareness of your body and the support of the ground beneath you.
As you rise up to stand,
Be fully aware that as you do so,
You press down into the ever-present,
Stable earth.
Have a beautiful day.
