Welcome to today's grounding meditation practice.
In today's practice we will visualize ourselves as a mountain,
Allowing ourselves to feel grounded,
Supported,
And stable.
This is a great meditation for when you feel overwhelmed,
When the mind is busy with racing thoughts,
And when you'd like to return home to your strength,
Your resilience,
Home to your body.
Take a moment now to set yourself up for practice,
Doing this either seated or lying down.
Feel the length along your spine as you relax the shoulders,
Release and unclench the jaw,
Relax all the muscles around the eyes,
Choosing to either keep your eyes open and soft or closed with a focus inward.
Letting go of any expectations for your practice and being open to the experience ahead.
As you breathe in,
Feel your belly rise.
As you breathe out,
Feel your belly fall.
Breathing in and out,
Belly rises and fall.
Start to imagine the base of the mountain as your feet and your legs,
The part of the mountain that are directly connected to the earth underneath you.
Recognizing this connection,
You start to feel grounded.
The body relaxes just a little bit more.
Going up the sides of the mountain now are your arms,
With the tip of the mountain being the top of the head,
Your crown.
Really seeing,
Picturing yourself as a strong,
Grounded mountain.
You may want to gently and silently repeat to yourself.
Breathing in,
I see myself as a mountain.
Breathing out,
I feel solid,
Stable.
In,
See myself as a mountain.
Out,
Feel solid,
Feel stable.
Now on your mountain,
Start to picture a tree.
A tree with a large supportive trunk that grows down into the soil of the mountain.
This tree starts to grow many branches.
These branches start to grow leaves,
Vibrant and green in color.
There's a warm breeze on the surface of the skin.
We start to see ourselves as a summer mountain.
As you continue to breathe,
You still feel grounded and calm.
The leaves you see on the tree start to change color,
Shifting and transforming to all colors of gold,
Brown,
And red.
These leaves start to slowly fall away from the branches down onto the earth's floor.
You start to transform into a fall or autumn mountain.
Embracing this change with resiliency,
With flexibility.
As a tree starts to become bare,
Snow starts to fall from the sky,
Covering its branches,
Covering the surface of the mountain.
You start to feel cool breeze on the surface of the skin.
Breathe in deeply,
Breathe out slowly.
Now imagine the snow starting to melt off the surface of this mountain and leaves start to grow and bloom back onto the branches of the tree.
The weather becomes warmer as we move into spring.
And as we embrace this new season,
The leaves start to become vibrant and green in color again,
Like at the beginning of our practice.
Throughout this change of seasons,
Our mountain,
We ourselves have remained grounded.
We take this time to remind ourselves of our strength,
Our ability to return to a state of calm and ease.
Just like a mountain,
As things change and challenge us,
We can remain present.
We can remain calm.
We have the tools to navigate this time.
Enjoy a deep grounding breath in and a full grounding breath out.
Letting go of any visualization or picture now.
When you are ready,
I'll invite you to mindfully open your eyes.
Enjoy a nice slow stretch,
Carrying this calmness,
This groundedness with you into the rest of your day.
Thank you for practicing today.
