Hello and welcome to this practice connecting with earth,
Breath,
Body and stillness with me,
Claire Snowden.
So inviting you to take just a moment to get comfortable.
You might like to be seated,
Standing or lying down,
But it can be helpful if your feet are in contact with the floor in some way.
Just taking a moment here to cultivate a sense of arriving in this place,
At this time,
Exactly where you belong right now.
Occupying this body,
This space within your surroundings,
Planting yourself on this surface,
In this place on the earth that is uniquely there for you right now.
And just noticing how is your experience of being in this moment.
Let's just check in with ourselves.
So just noticing what you're carrying into this moment.
Perhaps we can first check in very briefly with our bodies.
What's your physical experience in this moment?
Just noticing this and perhaps offering a compassionate acceptance of whatever you find here in your body or choosing to make an adjustment in your posture,
Your position,
Or giving a little stretch,
Whatever's needed right now.
And then moving your focus to the mental weather,
Just acknowledging any thoughts or thought patterns that are showing up and perhaps just allowing them to move to the back of your awareness,
Like clouds crossing the sky above you.
And next,
Inviting you to check in with your emotional weather,
Not getting too caught up here or seeking too hard,
Just getting a sense of general feelings.
Are you able to think of these feelings as a weather pattern and something that comes and goes?
And whatever's here today is exactly as it should be.
Just in this moment,
There's nothing to do or change.
Whether your mind is restless or still,
Your heart is heavy or expansive,
Your body tense or relaxed,
Are you able to trust and accept that this is just right for your practice today?
It's a perfect opportunity to befriend your experience.
Even if you only feel able to open the door a tiniest crack to it today,
Just the slightest,
Briefest hint of acceptance.
Repeat it as many times as you remember to soften to what is.
That's all that's needed.
Just try that now.
So now,
Inviting you to drop your attention down to your physical connection with the earth.
Just noticing those points of contact,
Perhaps your feet with the floor or elsewhere in your body,
Maybe with the surface that you're resting on.
What does this contact feel like through the physical sensations in your body?
You might also be aware of the physical sensation of gravity,
This invisible but ever-present connection between you and the earth,
Pulling ourselves to one another.
Just taking a moment here to explore your physical connection with our planet and perhaps reflecting that there's a whole planet supporting you right now.
There's nothing you need to do or change.
Can you just allow yourself to be held and supported by the earth?
Perhaps even giving a little more of your weight over to the earth,
Just noticing how this feels,
How it feels to be held and supported in this way.
Let's just spend a few moments here cultivating our connection with our earth,
Almost like a conversation between the two of you.
You can come back to this connection,
This conversation at any time and know that this support and connection is there for you in every moment.
You can choose to bring your awareness to it whenever you wish,
But perhaps as you're connecting in this way,
You might start to notice your body breathing,
Gentle ebb and flow,
The breath flowing into and out of your body.
Here you are,
This perfect creation of nature,
Experiencing a process of nature that has nourished almost every cell of your body from the moment you took your first breath.
And here we all are,
All the animals and plants sharing the same air,
This gentle blanket around our earth that protects us from the harsher rays from the sun,
Keeps us warm.
And each breath in is a gift of oxygen from the trees and the land plants,
And all the grasses and algae in the oceans.
This wonderful gas which has been supporting increasingly complex life since those early bacteria started filling our atmosphere with oxygen.
And then with each breath,
We gift them back the carbon dioxide that they need to make their food.
So in this way,
We're connected with the rest of nature in this moment,
And also going back through billions of years and into the future too.
So this may be a moment just to offer appreciation to the air and to all these wonderful processes of nature,
To the trees and plants,
And the sun,
Which makes all this possible.
I'm just inviting you to notice the physical sensations of the breath,
Wherever that feels most present for you in your body right now,
Perhaps at the nostrils,
Or in the abdomen,
The rise and fall of the chest.
And as you do this,
Perhaps experiencing this as your connection with the rest of nature,
Or experiencing yourself as nature.
Here we are,
Not a separate observer,
But actively part of life on earth and the earth's great systems.
Just noticing how that feels,
Spending a few moments here,
Experiencing this special connection with ourselves and with wider nature.
And as you breathe,
Perhaps there's a sense of the whole body breathing.
Maybe you can imagine the oxygen flowing to wherever it's needed,
Or perhaps there's a sense of breathing into any areas that need a little care,
A little extra softness and nurturing.
And if you like,
You can shift your awareness to notice any sense of aliveness in your body.
Maybe this is the movement as you breathe,
Perhaps a warmth or tingling,
Maybe noticing your hands or your feet,
Or it could be your pulse or other bodily processes.
Just noticing what it feels like to be a living organism.
You might even have a sense of yourself as an animal,
Just like our animal family.
Or maybe you even get a sense of a particular animal,
Or of yourself as a human animal.
Just exploring your embodied presence as life on earth in this moment.
Just taking a few moments here with this.
And again,
You can come back to the breath and the body whenever you choose to.
They're available to us in any moment as an anchor or a focus or somewhere to bring our playful curiosity.
And they're also a way for us to experience ourselves as nature and to explore our connection with all of the rest of life.
But for now,
Inviting you to turn your focus to anywhere that you might notice stillness.
And this might be stillness in your feet as they rest on the floor,
Or it could be in the pause between the in-breath and the out-breath.
It might be the silence between sounds,
Or the stillness that everything arises out of.
And taking this further,
Can you get a sense of your inner stillness behind all the thoughts,
Sounds and experiences?
Is there perhaps a sense of a silent observer,
A witness to all these experiences,
And a place of perfect inner stillness?
Just watching it all unfold,
Life happening,
Thoughts bubbling,
And all the time that stillness remains.
And don't worry too much if this inner stillness isn't accessible to you right now.
It's enough to know that it's there,
Just like the blue sky above the clouds.
So why not offer yourself the gift of a few moments just to feel into stillness wherever it's present for you.
It's physical stillness,
Or stillness noticing movement or sound,
Seeing how you experience this in this moment.
And it could be that it's not all that comfortable to be with stillness.
And that's okay,
It's a chance to exercise your stillness muscle,
Even if it's only for the briefest of moments,
Perhaps your attention wants to dance about.
And if so,
Can you allow yourself to smile at the dance?
And at this part of the practice,
There might be a sense of drawing right back to a complete pause,
Even of coming home to yourself,
Silent observer experiencing embodied life and all your connections with life,
Planet Earth,
The wider universe even.
And from this pause,
There's the possibility of stepping into the next moment in a really empowered and intentional way.
What qualities do you want to carry with you?
How do you want to show up in the next moment?
In this moment,
In the now is where you have agency.
Now what do you choose to offer this present moment?
And then before moving from this practice,
Inviting you to reconnect with the Earth,
Feeling your feet on the floor,
Perhaps taking a deep breath and then stepping forward intentionally into the next moment and sending you deep gratitude for sharing this time together and connecting today.
