Somatic Meditation: Intro To The Posture Of Pure Awareness

22:29

22:29

Somatic Meditation: Intro To The Posture Of Pure Awareness

by Chris Wilson

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

4

We move through five stages of somatic meditation: finding our seat, full-body breathing, connecting down into the earth, opening the central channel, and making space for emotional experience. As always, my intention is to create a space where you can slow down so you can practice the tools and skills to develop the capacity to respond to the challenges in your life, work, and relationships in more empowering ways. This Practice Might Be Good For You If... - You spend most of your day in your head - You feel disconnected from your body - Traditional meditation feels frustrating - You want a step-by-step approach to interoception - You lead others and want a more grounded presence In This Session You Will... - Find your seat and arrive - Practice full-body breathing through your skin - Connect your lower belly down into the earth - Open the central channel from root to crown - Create space for emotional experience

Somatic Meditation Meditation Breathing Grounding Awareness Emotional Processing Posture Interoception Full Body Breathing Dantian Grounding Technique Experiential Awareness Emotional Residue Processing Posture Adjustment

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Transcript

Hello, Friends. Welcome to Leadership Embodied. My name is Chris Wilson. I'm a somatic psychology master's degree student at California Institute of Integral Studies and an integral development coach. Today's practice, Today's somatic exploration, It's going to be a brief practice in somatic meditation, Otherwise known as the practice of pure awareness or sitting. We're going to move through five distinct steps, Different forms of breathing and moving the body and bringing our energy and attention out of our heads and protective patterns and into our bodies, All with the intention of practicing these tools and skills to be able to show up or to respond to meet the demands in our life in a more empowering way. So let's begin. Let's begin first by, On your next breath, Go ahead and open to receive the next breath in your nose and out your mouth. Maybe you want to do that one more time, Just appreciating your next inhale in your nose. So much of this work is simply a willingness to allow, A willingness to open, And a willingness to show up, To practice these skills, To have that ability. And so our first step here is simply to arrive and to find our seat. And so wherever you are, Whether you were rushing before you got here or whether you're having the most beautifully attuned, Patient day, Go ahead and just pick your seat. This is a very important step to simply arrive, To be able to hold your seat, Our connection to the Earth. I am here. This is where I am. And then we're going to do something to come into the body. Sometimes we become rigid, Like we think we have to sit still. And so what I want to invite here is that when we start to inhale and to exhale, I want to invite to overextend your inhales and overextend your exhales. Allow your body to open and to close, All while being in your seat. And really listen to what does your body need. As we come into the body. And so let's begin with full body breathing. On your next inhale, Go ahead and inhale in your nose and out your mouth. And allow your inhales and your exhales to move through the pores of your skin. What's that like? What happens as you allow sensation on and in your body to turn on, Exhaling through your skin and inhaling through your skin? Now maybe you want to add some audible sighs, Some physiological sighs. Deep inhales. Extending your exhales. Exhaling through your exhales. And one more. And maybe giving your body a little wiggle, Or a stretch, Or a roll of your shoulders. Let's continue with that full body breathing, Allowing the breath to come in through the back of your head, Your shoulders, Your head, Your knees, Your elbows. And letting your body to exhale through your groin, Through your ears, Your face, Inhaling and exhaling through your skin, The entire envelope of your body. Tapping into the felt sense. What are the sensations happening on or in your body? Allowing the felt sense to become your object of awareness, Seeking sensation. What's going on in there? OK. And so we've found our seat. We picked our seat. We appreciated what it means to find our seat. And then we came into the body. And so just check in. What's that like? How has your quality of mind, Your mental landscape, Shifted or changed just up until this second step? And so now for some of you, You might want to close your eyes. And if that doesn't feel wholing to you, You can allow your gaze to find a drishti, Or a single point of focus. And just come into a soft gaze. You can even squint. This helps some of us stay centered through the practice. So now I just want you to bring your felt sense down into your lower belly. And see if you can start to feel how your body, Your lower belly, Squeezes when you exhale. And then let it go when you inhale and open. We're just starting to open up that space about the size of an egg behind your belly button, Above your groin, And above your anal sphincter muscles. This is your root, Or your dantian. It's a very special place in somatic practice. So your eyes can be open for this. I just want you to feel that space as you squeeze it softly on the exhale. And then inhale, Letting your belly go. And now we're going to start to connect the breath and your awareness down into the seat, Down into the ground, Right below that egg. See if you can breathe into it, Opening up a tube about the size of a quarter, Down into the ground, Right below where your groin touches down into the earth. So softly exhaling and then inhaling into the earth, Connecting that space in your belly down into the earth. OK. And so now let's just shake it off for a second. Let's appreciate what we're doing here. So we came into the body, And now we have this feeling, This awareness, This idea that, OK, There's a space in the body, And there's a space outside of the body. And somehow those are separate, Like I am somehow separate from the earth. This is a really funny idea, But it's not the reality. The reality is that the space inside of me is utterly connected to the space outside of me. It's actually incredibly physically, Biologically metaphysically open. There is so much space here for energy to move through in an electron. It's mostly empty space. And so the space inside my lower belly is actually connected, But we forget that. We don't have a felt relationship with the earth and the space around us. We can feel alone or separate or disconnected. And so what we're going to do is we're going to use our breath to push our awareness down and out into the ground. And we're going to drive it down an inch, Two inches, Three inches, Three feet, Six feet, A mile. And what I want you to notice is that this is actually breaking through the idea that I am disconnected. And we're driving that down like a well. And then we're going to use that on the next step. OK, So here we go. So go ahead and just exhale, Squeezing your belly every so slightly. And now inhale from that egg down into the seat. OK, On this next one, Let's go three feet, Four. On this next inhale, Let's inhale down a mile, Two more. As far as you can go. And now some, Let's just go six feet. Let's have it be like actual roots of a plant. And we're just playing with that. You can keep doing it if you want. Connecting the energy of that space, That egg-sized shape, Down into the ground. Inhaling down into the ground. And so now what we're going to do is we're going to reverse it. Exhale down into the earth. And we're going to inhale up from the earth into our lower belly for a few breaths. And as we do that, I want you to notice any tension in your body that wants to unfold. We're going to allow it to move out to the outside of our body and down into the ground. I want you to tap into the felt sense of your body as you exhale into the earth and then inhale up from the earth into the lower belly. How does your body want to take shape to receive the breath? What feels vivacious and open to you? What is life bringing? Do you notice your shoulders want to come back? Do you notice your posture, Your head wants to rise? And what I want you to tap into is the felt sense of that. And then once we build up that attention in the lower belly, Then we're going to open up a tube behind our belly button, Behind our chest, In our lungs, Behind our heart, Up into the back of our neck, And up into the bump at the back of the head. And I'm going to bring your attention to the tube. And we might focus on exhaling down into the ground. And then we might leave that behind and focus our attention on the tube. But what I want you to notice is that tube is still connected at its core down to your root and then down into the earth. Go ahead and exhale down into the earth through the egg, Squeezing your lower belly. And inhale up from the earth into your lower belly, Really allowing your awareness to exhale down into the earth and then pulling your energy and awareness up from the earth into your lower belly, Opening to receive the breath as you squeeze your belly down into the earth and then inhaling up from the earth into the lower belly. This can be soft, Really allowing that energy and vitality and awareness to come up from the earth into the lower belly. And we'll do six breaths. Six. Exhaling down into the ground, Inhaling up into the lower belly. Two. And last one, Overextending that exhale in one. And let's keep exhaling into the earth. And then start to open up that tube at your lower belly, Opening up that tube behind the belly button. Maybe your head wants to rise and your shoulders want to come back, Chest wants to come up, Releasing tension down into the ground. Exhaling down into the earth, And then inhaling up into the belly and into the base of that tube at your base of your spine. And then slowly bring it up behind your belly button, Along your back line, Behind your lungs, Slowing down to allow the breath to bring your awareness into the space, And then slow down to feel behind your chest, Releasing tension and relaxing into the posture, The upper chest, The lower neck, The lower back, And the back of the neck. Now let's pause here, And let's connect that tube down. Anywhere that feels disconnected, Allow that felt sense to connect down into the ground, Into the lower belly, The dantian, And up behind the belly button, Behind the lower belly, Behind the lungs, Behind the chest and the upper chest, Up into the back of the shoulder blades, Then into the back of the neck, Breathing your energy and attention up from the earth, All the way up and through into the bump at the back of the head. So now let's just appreciate the container, The living, Pulsing, Utterly teeming with life body. What is going on in there? Noticing the sensations from your skin to the inside of your body, And now we want to make space for your heart, For your emotional residue of your life. What's happening with your heart right now? Sometimes I like to look at this as where we did all of these steps in order to be able to contain, To be able to be with the experience of what it feels like to be who we are at this utterly important moment in our lives. And so just relax into your back line, Allowing yourself to be with that, The sequencing and the immensity of that emotional experience. What is it like? And one way of looking at this is that there are no good or bad emotions. There are only constructive or destructive reactions to emotional experience. And here you are, Practicing somatic meditation to be able to have the capacity to feel, To be with the immensity of our life experience. It's an incredible, Incredible feat of skill. And so now we're going to move into presence, Into the final step of the posture of the practice of somatic meditation. And that's to hold your seat. And as you do this, To notice what happens. This is both the end and the beginning of the practice. And we can finish with some micro adjustments. Go ahead and softly move your body forward, Tilting forward. And see how it shifts your relationship with that back line, Forward and back on your hips. Just getting a sense of what does it feel like to just come into your absolute center. And then to the left and the right. And then bringing your chin softly down, Your ears over your shoulders. And this completes our practice today. If you want to continue on your own, You may. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity this opportunity to share my practice with you. May your practice continue for the good of yourself and all things. And may you get what you're looking for.