Welcome to the Stillpoint Meditation.
Today I'm going to be guiding you through a nice grounding visualization to help with feelings of stress and anxiety.
We begin this practice with a simple but powerful acknowledgement of where we are and what's going on for us.
Stress and anxiety might be our most unwanted house guests,
But the more we try and force them to leave,
The more we try and shut these feelings off,
Push them away from us,
Change them,
The more they dig their heels in and often intensify in severity.
So instead,
Just for this moment,
What if we were to choose acceptance?
That doesn't mean that we're not allowed to want our experience to be different in the near future.
It simply means that for right now,
We recognize that we are where we are and we feel how we feel.
And there is huge power in this acknowledgement because as we say yes,
Right now I am feeling stressed.
I am overwhelmed and anxious.
Just in that simple labeling,
We start to leech some of the power these feelings have over us because we've identified what it is that's going on inside of us rather than railing against it.
And as we say yes to this moment,
As uncomfortable as that may be,
We're also saying to ourselves,
Despite how all consuming these feelings are,
I trust that I am safe because they are just thoughts.
They are just feelings and like any other feelings and thoughts,
They will not last forever.
It is just for this moment.
From that acknowledgement and belief that you've found in yourself,
In your ability to cope,
Let out a sigh of relief that you didn't even know you were holding in,
Asking yourself,
Can I lay my worries down?
The need to always be strong,
To seem to have it all figured out,
To be in control.
Just for the next little while,
Can I let myself be nurtured,
Supported and held?
As you let that land in the body,
Noticing what that feels like,
See if you can take in a nice deep full belly breath.
Now hold the breath and let it go with a slow sighing breath out through the mouth.
Do another one like that,
Breathing in as fully as you are able to.
Hold the breath,
Breathe out through the mouth,
Imagining yourself sighing out a little bit of your worry,
Of your tension.
Do a few more like that with your breath,
Breathing in through the nose,
Holding it and slowly out through the mouth.
Do more now with your breath.
Imagining with every beautiful sighing release of the breath out,
You're starting to untangle yourself from the knots of your mind.
Without any sense of urgency,
On the next breath out through the mouth,
Just let the breath return to its soft natural cadence in and out through the nose and take your attention to your body.
Noticing how tightly you've been wound,
How much you've been holding on,
Gripping,
How much effort it takes to do that,
It's exhausting.
You're exhausted.
So can you let go just a little bit?
Can you soften?
It's okay if the body is not ready to relax completely yet.
It's only our natural protection mechanism guarding us,
But just follow along as we rotate our awareness throughout the body and invite softness in where you can.
Can you soften through the face and the head?
Feel the skull relax,
The brow smooth out,
Skin around the eyes relaxing,
Eyeballs heavy in their sockets,
Cheeks relax,
Mouth,
Tongue,
Jaw,
Unclench your jaw,
Relax the neck and the throat,
The shoulders.
Can you let the shoulders start to drop down away from the ears,
Maybe even rolling them,
Circling them up,
Back,
Down and around a couple of times if that feels good.
Notice the arms and the hands becoming heavier.
Can you unclench the hands,
Let the fingers relax?
Taking the attention back up the body,
Feel this wave of softness,
Of relaxation wash down through the torso,
Letting any tension through chest and belly start to dissipate.
How does your belly feel?
Is it all tied up in knots?
Can you let it unclench now?
Feel your back body also starting to let go into the support of whatever lies beneath or behind you.
Let yourself sink,
Relax back into that support,
Feeling held,
Nurtured.
And then let the awareness,
This sense of softening,
Of relaxation wash down into the very base of you,
Into your seat,
Pelvic bowl.
Feel yourself dropping,
Getting heavy,
Tension releasing through the glutes,
Through the hips,
Legs and feet.
The whole body is soft,
Is relaxed,
Heavy.
There's a sense that you're starting to settle back into yourself,
You're becoming more solid,
Whole again.
Now I'd like you to invite your breath and your awareness to wander back up the body and come to rest at your belly,
Inviting a few belly breaths in and out now.
Maybe even placing your hands on the belly and using that contact,
The pressure to help draw the breath downwards.
Enjoying the beautiful ballooning,
Expansive sensation of the breath in and the drawing back to center of the breath out.
And if the mind wanders and starts to go back into worrying,
Into planning and anxiety,
That's okay.
Just use the weight of the hands on the belly to bring you down out of that spiraling mind and back to the solidity of your body,
To the here and now,
The movement of your breath.
You can keep the hands at the belly if that feels comfortable or you can just let them drape down into the lap,
To the legs and see if you can encourage the breath to travel down the body a little further still now.
Come to rest at the very base of you,
The tip of your tailbone,
Imagining that you're able to breathe in and out from the very base of your body,
Noticing how grounding it is for you to do this.
Let yourself drop,
Sinking into the very base of your body.
As you continue to breathe slowly into the very base of the body,
You notice with every breath that the sense of connection of your body to the earth beneath you is getting deeper,
Is getting stronger.
It's the sense that you are being supported,
You feel safe and increasingly at peace.
As your awareness rests at the very tip of your tailbone,
I want you to imagine that you're able to feel yourself from the inside out.
Now take that sense of yourself right to the very edges of your being.
Can you notice where your tailbone ends and your clothing begins?
Imagine that you're able to almost feel,
To sense those atoms of your clothing and that your atoms,
The atoms of your being and the clothing you wear are mingling strands of pure energy,
Pure light.
Now start to imagine these strands of light energy beginning to expand outwards and downwards from the very base of you.
Feel them starting to spread and pour outwards and downwards like the roots of a tree.
Feel them pouring down into whatever lies or sits beneath you,
Down through the floor.
Feel these layers,
These strands of energy start to pour down through the building,
Down into the foundations,
Down beyond the layers of rock,
Down into rich soil,
Earth,
Pouring down effortlessly through layer upon layer of silt,
Of earth,
Feeling your energy,
Your awareness pouring down further and further and further into the very depths of this planet.
Your awareness is able to pour effortlessly right down to the very centre,
To the core of our planet.
And as you feel your energy,
Your awareness effortlessly pouring down to the very centre of our earth,
You notice that there is a vast endless well of energy at the centre of the earth.
Feel yourself connect with that.
Let your strands of energy start to mingle with this infinite vast source.
And as you begin to connect,
That sense of feeling deeply grounded,
Tethered and anchored places even more.
You let yourself rest here,
Enjoying this sense of feeling connected,
And peace.
With every breath in and out,
You come to understand that you are able to draw on this well of infinite power and strength at any time that you need to replenish,
To recharge you.
And on your next inhale,
You draw some of that energy easily back up your tree root strands of energy back into your body and feel every cell come alive.
With every exhale,
You allow yourself to shed some of your worries,
Your tension back down the strands of energy to be absorbed by the earth,
Knowing it's safe for you to do so.
Breathing in a beautiful sense of calm,
Of replenishment.
Breathing out,
You let go.
Breathing in,
You let go.
Breathing in,
You let go.
Breathing out,
You let go.
Breathing in,
You let go.
Awareness,
Energy grounded deeply to the very center of our planet,
Feeling anchored,
Increasingly safe and at peace.
Breathing in,
Calm.
Breathing out,
Let go.
Breathing up and down your tree root strands of energy for just a few more moments.
Breathing in,
Calm.
Breathing out,
Let go.
And without any sense of urgency,
On your next inhale,
Draw all of that awareness,
Those strands of energy back up into your body.
Feel that power effortlessly pour back into you and come to rest at your center,
Containing that power,
That strength within you.
Notice what that feels like.
Notice how full,
How grounded you are.
And feel free to stay here for as long as you need to,
Enjoying this sensation.
And only when you're ready to,
You can start to slowly draw yourself back and begin to resurface and reawaken.
Letting a couple of deeper breaths flood in and out of the body.
Letting some little movements return,
Wiggling fingers and toes.
Letting those small movements turn into some larger movements,
Stretching movement.
And taking your time,
Only when you're ready,
Blink open the eyes to a soft gaze.
Gardens terrace.
You
