This is Janine and welcome into this practice.
Today we'll have an opportunity to utilize time to cultivate inner stability.
And stability is something that really is an inward resource that's always here,
Always in the here and now.
What happens is we just forget we lose connection to this awareness when we get caught up in external conditions and circumstances that pull us away from spacious presence.
So we're going to come back to this more vertical anchoring orientation of our attention to reframe and reset and nourish our system.
So let's begin.
Allow yourself to make any adjustments to the seat in which you're in.
Whether that's upright or lying down.
It's important to allow the body to really connect into this incredible ground of support that's always here right now,
The ground underneath.
So noticing the points of contact between your body and this incredibly vast stable element of earth.
Feeling the weightiness or density of the body.
You might notice other aspects of the body that feel maybe qualities of energy or space or different kinds of sensations that we can notice when we draw our attention inward in this way.
Gently allowing your attention to rest where you feel most grounded in the body.
And it might be those points of contact.
It could also be some other areas that just feel more easier for you to dwell in.
And we create this incredible opportunity for the attention to land again and again,
Where the body is.
We get to ease away from the busyness or sometimes the more discursive nature of mind,
Or perhaps even overly cognizing or intellectualizing practice.
And instead feeling into here and now.
And where is it feeling most grounding for you?
And there's no one place the attention has to land,
Which I always find so supportive in this practice.
It's whatever feels right for you.
Maybe noticing also where the body feels more spacious.
It might be areas that are near where you're more grounding into the earth.
There could be other aspects of the body that are in different locations.
Maybe even noticing around the nasal passages,
The lungs,
The belly.
The aspects of the body often we feel a little bit more into when we're noticing breathing,
Which will be this next more vertical anchoring point of stability.
Noticing the breathing body,
Where you're noticing the temperature of the air or the movement or the felt sense of your body breathing here and now.
There might be a lightness or a heaviness to breath and breathing.
And just as the body can only be here in this moment,
So too is the breath,
Giving us an opportunity again and again to feel more tethered to here.
Where is the breath feeling most grounding for you in your body right now?
And perhaps exploring that with your attention to the upper half or the lower half of the body.
Maybe it's just a general feeling.
Where is your breath feeling grounding here?
And if it's hard to discern,
Then just noticing the inhale and the exhale as the act of the body breathing,
Which in itself can have the same impact on this feeling of internal ground.
Now noticing where the breath feels most spacious in the body and allowing your attention to explore that.
And it could be dancing around into different locations or more focused in one area that's just feeling really naturally connecting for you.
Where's the breath feeling most spacious?
Maybe it's the inhale,
Or maybe it's the exhale.
Now we'll just add on one more layer of grounding to this practice,
Which is to invite in three words that we can use to help keep the mind here where breath and body are.
So as you inhale in,
You can say to yourself,
Here I am.
And as allowing the body to hear these words.
As even if we think something internally,
The body responds,
It calls us back gently to here and now.
Which is a real generous way of relating to ourselves.
Here I am.
I am here.
And perhaps repeating that phrase three more times.
As you do so noticing the movement of breath,
The groundedness of the body really rooting into here now.
Being held by the ground underneath.
And then after that third time,
The phrase has been said just gently allow that to kind of wash away with the out breath and take a more substantial inhale in maybe pausing at the top of the inhale.
Sighing and out through the exhale,
Loosening the jaw,
Softening the root of the tongue.
And either opening the eyes or lifting the gaze,
Allowing yourself back into the sort of larger sense of space that you're in right now.
Noticing how you're feeling and there's no one way to feel to at the end of the practice.
That's what's also so beautifully grounding.
I hope this has been a benefit.
Thank you so much for practicing with me here.
Take care
