Hi,
I'm Whitney Corman.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
We've got a somatic grounding practice to practice together.
We'll be sitting on our seats the whole time.
So you might grab a couple of blankets to sit on.
This might work a little bit better than a traditional meditation cushion.
So we'll start off by moving just a little bit on our seats and then eventually we'll get still.
But just to start with,
We'll be in a cross-legged position.
Your feet could be out a little bit more.
You could have some cushions underneath your knees.
And just a reminder that.
Go at your own pace.
Somatic practices are all about listening to your body.
They're embodied practices.
So it's a beautiful way to really practice listening to your intuition.
So we'll just start by placing the hands on the knees.
And just to start to get us into our seats,
Into our root chakra,
We're going to walk our hips from side to side.
So I like to think about it as kind of walking on the sits bones.
Your eyes could be closed or open.
Just start to relax your belly,
Relax your hips.
Notice the contact that your seat is starting to make with the earth.
And if you could imagine the outline of your body.
Imagine the outline of your body.
See it moving in space and time.
Ah.
Just starting to take some deeper breaths.
You could take an audible exhale like I just did.
See what your body needs.
Ah.
And then just bit by bit start to slow it down.
See how small you can start to make the movement.
Until the movement is maybe so small that Somebody else could barely even see it.
And then find some stillness,
Take a deeper breath in.
Exhale it out.
And as you do,
Take the tips of your pointer fingers to the tips of your thumbs and press in.
Notice if you can gather your energy towards the central channel of your body.
All right,
You can open your eyes a little or a lot if you like.
And we're just going to start to rock forward.
So I do like to scooch my feet out a little bit.
So this is called rock and roll,
And we're going to breathe with this.
So as you start to move forward,
You inhale.
And then as you exhale,
You roll back.
And I noticed that I was already starting to try to go a little faster.
But slow it down.
See if you can come behind your edge.
Maybe,
I like to say 70%.
And as you come forward,
Just kind of watching your neck.
Just be easy on your neck.
And as you go slow,
See if you can notice.
Sensation in your body more.
Than if you were going faster.
And as you're rocking in this way,
Draw your attention to your seat again.
Where our root chakra lies,
This center for.
.
.
Safety for belonging.
For grounding.
For connection to our home.
And you can keep going forward and backward.
Or if you want to,
You could start to make a circular motion here.
So you're still going to breathe in as you come forward.
And then breathe out as you move backward.
And as you're moving,
In whatever way you're moving,
See if you can envision your spine.
The central part of your body that connects.
The lower half of your body all the way to the upper half of your body.
So from your neck,
Of course,
All the way to your tailbone.
Go ahead and switch direction if you haven't already.
And again,
Eyes are open or closed.
Even somewhere in the middle is quite nice.
You do want to maintain a softer gaze.
Because this does alert the nervous system that everything's okay.
And now as we did before,
Start to make your movements slower and smaller,
But a little bit at a time.
And now even smaller.
Still envisioning the whole length of your spine.
Your seat.
And now you slowly,
Slowly,
Slowly come back to our beginning position Tips of pointer fingers to tips of thumbs.
Draw on your energy.
Take a deep breath in.
And a deep breath out.
Relax your seat.
Relax your belly.
Relax your shoulders and your jaw.
Now can you feel your whole body in the space that you're in?
Just as it is with whatever you came to your mat with today.
There's complete gratitude and compassion.
For this body that walks through life with you,
That carries you from place to place.
That experiences all the big and small emotions that you experience.
And for this last part,
Please.
One palm on your forehead.
Place the other palm at the back of your neck.
This is really beautiful for nervous system regulation.
Just feel the temperature of your hands on your skin.
Notice if this feels comforting or settling.
Maybe even strange if you haven't done this before.
Does it feel supportive?
Maybe give it a couple of breaths just to get used to it.
And now.
Take the hand that's on your forehead and place it on that side of the cheek.
And take the hand that's on your neck and place it on your heart.
And we'll pause here.
Feel your body breathing you.
Maybe you envision someone that is really supportive.
Placing their hand on your face.
And then take the hand that's on your face and place that on your belly.
Can you send your breath into your belly?
And feel your heart lift as you expand the breath more.
And then as you exhale,
Feel your heart soften and your belly soften.
Again breathing into your belly.
Your heart center.
Exhale from your heart center and then feel your belly draw in.
Again.
Take a deeper slow intentional breath into your belly into your heart.
Feel your heart soften.
Feel your belly soften.
One more like that.
This is called diaphragmatic breathing.
Really soothing for our systems.
And exhale.
You might bring the hand that's on your belly and cover the other hand on your heart center,
Maybe a little pressure inward and bow your head.
We'll take a moment to close our practice together.
Maybe letting this practice be a reminder.
To appreciate your body.
To know that your body is intuitive.
To know that your body can actually bring you back to.
A state of calm,
Even with all the aches,
The big emotions.
Thank you for joining me today.
I hope you feel more grounded and soothed.
Namaste.
