This is a guided exploration of your embodied ground,
An invitation to connect to the center of your being and the earth beneath you,
And in doing so,
Become a still point inside moments of upset,
Instability,
Uncertainty,
And change.
I invite you to enter this practice and take a seat that feels comfortable.
You can come to the floor,
A chair,
Or lie down if that feels best for your body today.
Once you've made your way to your seat,
Take a moment and bring a little bit of movement into the body,
Rocking forward and back or side to side.
It can be just a millimeter in all directions,
Moving around the spine or tailbone and exploring the place that feels like true center,
A place that gives you a sense of evenness and balance and naturally creates a feeling of settling,
A softening,
A deepening of the breath.
Begin to feel the weight of your body,
The weight of your bones and tissues as you let gravity fully drop you into the weight of your being,
Connecting to a felt sense of heaviness,
And as you embrace that heaviness,
Allow it to guide you to the place that your body is contacting the earth beneath you,
And you can feel the earth rising up to meet you.
As you deepen into the weight and soften your body,
You might naturally feel the way that the earth holds you.
The heavier your body becomes,
The more you can feel the way that you are held.
Explore that relationship of being held.
Can you soften and allow the full weight of your being to meet the ground?
Can you trust the vast ground beneath you?
And as you do so,
You might meet places in your body that have been holding yourself upright,
And as you find those places that have been holding themselves as if separate,
Simply bring your presence and awareness towards those spaces and patiently allow them to open and soften.
And as you soften,
You might find that your inner space naturally expands and invites deeper breath.
And as you're here breathing in your own rhythm,
Can you invite the breath to move down towards the belly,
Towards the base of the tailbone,
Towards the back body and side ribs,
Fully filling you with new energy.
And as you exhale,
Feel or imagine that breath leaving,
Down towards the ground,
Deepening your connection with the earth beneath you.
And as you sit here breathing,
You might feel or imagine each breath tracing a line from the crown of your head down to the tailbone and back up with each breath.
Bringing you into a closer intimacy with the beautiful center line of your body,
Your physical spine,
And the energetic column that surrounds your spine.
Tracing your breath and awareness up and down the central line of your body.
And as you're in conversation with this place,
Notice the quality of that center,
That midline,
As you feel into the subtlety of that space.
And letting go of that sweeping,
Draw your awareness into the center of that midline,
The heart space.
And notice the quality of your center.
You might notice that it has the quality of breathing in and out like a tide.
And having met this center more intimately,
I want to invite you to extend your awareness from this center down towards the earth.
Feeling a beautiful column of energy extending down into the earth like roots.
Feeling or visualizing those roots descending.
Descending and connecting into the beautiful web of intelligence and energy,
A mycelial matrix that runs through the whole earth.
And as those roots extend down,
Can you simultaneously feel your own center and the center of the earth?
Can you hold both inside your awareness?
Feeling the magnetism between you and the body of the earth.
And be in that conversation.
If today you feel like your cup is in need of some replenishment,
You can draw upon the vast reserves of vitality that the earth offers.
And feel or imagine drawing energy up through those roots back into the center line of your being and flowing out through the heart center into the whole of you.
And as your cup fills,
You can even extend that energy out beyond yourself.
Out through your heart,
Flowing beyond the edges of your being,
Expanding you and pouring out into the environment you find yourself in today.
And spend some time being in this conversation,
Noticing what happens as you naturally make contact with your center,
With the ground,
Feeling the flow of energy.
And as that energy circulates,
Can you also feel a still point within your being?
A place around which everything moves.
Perhaps for you,
It's that beautiful midline and the heart space.
Or maybe it's the base of your being,
The place that you contact the ground.
Wherever that place is,
Can you hold in your awareness both the stillness and the movement,
The subtle movement?
If the movement of energy generates sensations,
Emotions,
Or physical signatures that start to feel loud,
Deepen your connection to that still point.
Deepen your connection to the ground,
Being with both the changing and unchanging experience within you.
Staying connected to all the layers of your experience,
And getting curious about the aspect of you and your awareness that allows you to be with all of it.
A unified presence that has space for the multiplicity of your experience.
Staying connected to this presence,
Begin to deepen your breath.
As you begin to bring your awareness back into the space of interbeing,
Noticing sounds,
Inviting in some gentle movement,
Can you remain connected to your center,
Your ground,
And that inner still point?
As you also layer in an awareness of what is happening in the environment around you,
Taking a moment to acknowledge the beautiful energy and vitality that you've generated through the connection between your body and the earth,
Through your seat,
Through your feet,
Through the back body,
And as you begin to shift towards what comes next in your life,
Can you stay connected to this place between your body and the earth?
Let's take a few final inhales and exhales.
And as you do this,
If you're sitting up,
You can begin to drop the chin.
And if you're lying down,
You can begin to roll to one side.
And if your eyes have been closed,
Very gently begin to let a little bit of light in,
Taking in your environment visually as you stay connected to your embodied ground.
And as you move into your day,
May you stay centered,
May you stay grounded,
May you feel your inner still point,
May you stay soft,
And may you remain open.
