Hello and welcome to this meditation.
In this practice,
We'll be focusing on allowing things to settle in order to experience peace and stillness.
In this meditation,
Rather than actively try to accomplish something,
Such as a calm mind or removing thoughts,
Instead we will allow our thoughts,
Our emotions,
And various memories that may come up to simply just settle.
A helpful analogy to think about is to think of a snow globe,
Which is a popular home decor and souvenir that you can often get at gift shops.
When you shake this snow globe,
You'll notice that the white particles inside begin to swirl,
Giving an appearance that it's snowing.
And these particles are much like your thoughts and emotions,
Memories,
And impressions in your mind that begin to swirl around,
Causing you to feel agitated and restless.
Now,
If you were able to keep the snow globe very still,
Then what you'll notice is that everything will start to settle down to the bottom.
And there's no effort needed to do this,
Rather you're just placing the snow globe down and keeping it still,
And gravity will eventually bring things to settle down into stillness.
Likewise,
In your meditation,
It can be very helpful to apply this type of analogy to our practice.
It can be helpful to plant your feet onto the floor if you're sitting in a chair,
Or come into contact with the lower extremities of your body which are touching the floor,
Such as your feet,
Or your knees,
Or ankles if you're sitting cross-legged.
And our focus to these areas will be our anchor point in our practice.
So rather than bringing your attention to your head,
Such as the third eye area,
Or watching the breath at the nostrils,
We'll instead direct our attention to our feet,
And watch everything start to settle down.
Begin by finding a comfortable seat.
Start to press either your feet,
Or knees,
Or ankles into the ground,
Feeling the contact with the floor beneath you.
As you keep your attention rested here,
Begin to observe your thoughts briefly,
And notice the current state of your mind.
Observe how fast or slow your thoughts may be moving in your mind,
And what appears.
Then begin to relax any tension that may appear in the forehead area,
Or in the head.
And as you continue to watch your thoughts,
Bring more attention now to the lower parts of your body,
Such as the feet,
The knees,
Or the ankles.
And if you see any thoughts start to rise,
Notice it start to fade away and melt down into your feet.
You can either visualize your thoughts starting to sink down into your feet,
Or simply just feel your feet more,
And notice any tension start to break away from the upper parts of your body,
And feel a more grounded sense of being.
If your attention starts to pop back up,
Simply just observe without any judgment,
And start to once again bring more of your focus down to your legs,
Imagining that gravity is slowly pulling all your thoughts down.
Once your attention starts to become more stable to the lower parts of your body,
Imagine that all the accumulated energy,
Your thoughts and your emotions,
And the different impressions that are occurring in your mind,
Are now starting to leave your body through your feet.
So you can feel or imagine the thoughts disappearing and entering into the air or the floor beneath you.
And start to bring your attention back.
Simply noticing the overall stillness of your body.
Continue to bring your focus to the feet,
Or to the knees or ankles,
While keeping the body as still as possible.
You'll find that as you keep your body still,
The mind will soon follow.
The extra attention to the lower parts of your body will also help ground you,
Making you feel still,
Peaceful and calm.
And as we end today's meditation,
Just note that throughout your day,
If you find your mind starting to race,
You can immediately start to settle it down by drawing your attention down to your feet.
And simply just allow things to settle.
Thank you for practicing.
