Hi,
And welcome to Pressing Pause.
I'm your host,
Ray Louise,
And today's session will be a short embodiment meditation to help us focus on returning to a sense of groundedness and to a feeling of connection with our authentic self.
So today's practice we're going to do standing up,
And I want to invite you to just take a little bit of time to establish a really wide base for yourself here so you can feel quite secure standing,
Especially if you choose to do this meditation together today with your eyes closed.
So we want to set the feet parallel and just a little wider than your hip width apart so you feel quite secure in your standing.
And if there's any feeling of unsteadiness at all or you need a little bit of help with your standing today,
You can always place fingertips or a hand on a wall near you.
You might choose to leave your eyes open today,
Focused on something that is just neutral or pleasant in the space around you.
Or you might close your eyes so that you can allow your mind's eye to focus on or even visualize the sensations that we're going to be drawing our attention to.
So when you're ready,
Just taking your attention down into the soles of your feet.
You need to take a moment to lift your toes,
To spread them as wide as you can,
And then to just relax them back into the ground.
Start to move your weight,
And it might be really,
Really subtle.
It doesn't have to be big or noticeable to anyone but you,
But just shifting your weight slightly forward toward the tips of your toes,
And then back a little more into your heels.
And I want you to take this rock just a couple more times if you can.
Back and forth,
Just feeling the weight shift from the pads of your toes into your heels and back again.
And on your next sway,
Just finding your way back to center and shifting this way from right to left.
So just feeling very gently without lifting your heel or your toes off the floor,
Feeling the weight shift from your right foot towards your left foot.
Just feeling the outer edges of your feet,
Making contact with the ground as you do that.
And then again,
Just finding your way back to center.
And as you feel down into the soles of your feet,
Making contact with the floor,
Just really feeling your weight there,
Feeling the ground rising up to meet your body.
And out of the soles of your feet,
Know that you are standing here by the power of your legs,
Feeling your legs sturdy underneath your body,
Holding you,
Connecting you like roots through the feet and into the ground.
Just noticing the sensations in your legs,
You might even just for a moment tense or firm the muscles of your legs and release.
Just feeling the sensations,
The realness,
The aliveness of your legs holding you up.
And on top of the legs,
Just beginning to notice or become aware of the pelvis.
You might let the pelvis shift or sway,
Circle,
Finding a feeling of balance or center in your pelvis,
Letting the tailbone relax downward slightly toward the floor.
And just noticing the pelvis,
The lower back,
The belly.
And in particular,
As you notice your abdomen,
Just seeing if there's any bracing or tension there that could be softened.
So that standing here right now doesn't feel like the effort to pull yourself up and away,
But to actually allow yourself to settle and root down into the ground.
And as you let your belly soften,
Feel your breathing drop down.
Feel your body settle down into the ground underneath you.
As you soften your breath,
Your belly relaxes,
And you root down through your pelvis,
Through your legs,
Through your feet.
From that groundedness,
Starting to feel that there's the anchor from which to lift,
To lengthen,
And to radiate outward.
Feeling the spine encouraged to sit up a little taller.
Noticing the collarbones and just seeing if you could lift and widen the collarbones,
The chest,
The shoulders.
And as you do that,
You might notice there's a natural inclination to maybe take a slightly deeper breath,
And you can let that happen.
Breathing in through the nose,
Out through the nose or mouth.
And just feeling that as you stand a little taller,
And you open a little wider,
There is a spaciousness that can open up inside this body.
Room to breathe,
Room to feel,
Room to be.
You might choose here to take a hand to the abdomen and a hand to the chest,
To just abide with the feeling of breathing and standing tall here.
And you might remind yourself over the next breath,
Or two,
Or three,
That you can come back to this practice,
To this feeling of being in your body,
Grounded,
Spacious,
Rooted and open at any moment throughout your day.
Thank you for joining me today and for taking this time to really show up for yourself.
