Find yourself seated comfortably.
You want to be alert,
Yet relaxed with your back and spine straight.
Let your hands fall gently by your sides.
You can close your eyes or have a soft gaze out in front of you.
From here,
Take three deep breaths,
Inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
Start to feel into your body.
Feel the connection of your body with your cushion or chair.
Feel where your feet touch the ground.
Feel your shoulders relaxing and moving down,
Your shoulder blades moving towards each other gently.
Now start to feel the familiar tug of gravity pulling down on your body.
You might feel the weight of your arms and the heaviness of your legs.
Recognize that the earth is holding you.
The earth is both pulling down on you,
Pulling you towards the earth and equally supporting you,
Holding you.
We're going to set a visual grounding connection with the earth,
So take a deep breath and imagine tree or plant roots connecting your body to the earth.
Imagine the roots coming off of your hips and sits bones.
They easily penetrate through the floor,
Through the foundation of the building you're in,
Into the topsoil,
Down through the bedrock,
And even as deep as the molten core of the earth.
As the roots spread out gently from your body into all parts of the earth,
They divide and extend,
Tethering you,
Connecting you,
And securing you to the earth.
Just allow yourself to feel held and supported by the earth.
With each exhale,
Imagine the pull of gravity pulling down on you and pulling out any negativity,
Any physical pain or discomfort.
With each exhale,
That negativity or discomfort can leave your body effortlessly down through your sits bones,
Into the roots,
And into the earth.
The force of gravity in your exhale is doing all the work for you.
You are simply allowing the earth to remove any impurities.
The earth easily recycles and composts whatever you give.
The earth is much wiser,
Older,
And stronger than any of our human concerns.
If you want to feel even more grounded,
You can imagine the roots coming off of your body and actually attaching,
Maybe with an anchor or a carabiner or a lock,
Into a spot in the deepest center of the earth.
You are going nowhere,
My friend.
Now gently,
In your mind's eye,
I want you to travel to a lush,
Green forest.
I want you to travel to a jungle deep in the heart of the Amazon.
It's humid and hot and there are trees and shrubs and plants of every shape and size.
There's a tall canopy and there's the understory.
You're lying in a hammock in this lush rainforest.
Start to see this place.
Feel the forest.
Smell the forest.
Perhaps there's even a taste in the air.
Just allow yourself to be completely surrounded by this lush jungle.
Slowly imagine how all of the trees and the plants are exhaling beautiful,
Purifying oxygen for you to breathe in.
Let this gift from the earth flow into your body.
With your inhale,
Allow the vitality of the earth to nourish you.
Imagine that pure oxygen,
Fresh from those trees,
Coming in through your body with your inhale,
Deeply nourishing you,
Replenishing you.
With your exhale,
Continue to ground off any negativity,
Using the roots to carry away anything that's not serving you.
Enjoy this beautiful two-way connection with the earth and continue to breathe in and out,
Knowing with each breath you are held and nourished by the earth.
We'll breathe in and out with this connection to the earth for another half a minute.
Gently return your attention to the room and slowly come out of meditation.
