Grounding Meditation - To Restore Balance In Your Life

As a coach and a yoga teacher,

I often find clients who are out of balance with themselves.

It's very normal and it's very natural.

We live complex lives with many different competing priorities and there will always be people,

There will always be situations,

There will always be factors that will make us feel as though our life is out of balance.

Achieving what is a healthy balance for you means reconnecting with yourself and it means understanding what is it that you need and to find how you can take control of situations.

There will always be external factors that you have no control over and for this meditation,

We want to take time out of our days to reconnect with ourselves in order to be able to find that balance.

This is a grounding meditation.

It is designed for people who are feeling stressed,

Overstretched and maybe overwhelmed.

To participate in this grounding exercise,

You will need to be in a standing position with your shoes off,

With your socks off and preferably in a quiet place.

You may pause this meditation now if you would like to set yourself up.

When you are ready,

Begin in a standing position.

Your shoes are off,

Your socks are off.

Your feet are hip distance apart and we are going to begin by taking one long deep inhale through the nose and one long exhale out of the mouth.

We'll do that one more time.

Take a deep inhale and with a deep exhale,

You can lower your shoulders,

Soften the body,

Maybe allowing your gaze to soften,

Falling towards the floor in front of you or perhaps you can close your eyes if that is something you feel comfortable doing in this moment.

Begin by bringing awareness to your feet.

Become aware of the physical sensations of your feet against the floor beneath you.

As you inhale and exhale,

Imagine your breath is coming all the way down to your toes.

On your inhales and on your exhale,

The energy is coming all the way up through the body and out of the mouth.

Continue bringing this awareness to your feet.

From here you can begin to wiggle your toes,

Softly bringing gentle movements to your toes.

The rest of your foot remains grounded on the mat which you can raise your toes,

Wiggle them and release them to the mat.

Perhaps taking movements with breath if that is available to you.

So on an inhale you can raise your toes and on an exhale you can release your toes back to the mat and we can continue this movement bringing that awareness to your toes.

On those inhales your toes lift,

Wiggle them and on your exhales your toes can begin to ground into the earth beneath you.

On your next exhale allow your toes to come back to the mat and take a moment here to press your toes into your mat,

Into the earth,

Into the floor,

To whatever you are standing on.

Really place a little bit of pressure on those toes as you stand.

From here you can come on to the balls of your feet.

On the balls of your feet perhaps your toes are a little bit lifted and your heel is a little bit lifted.

Then you may lower down again.

Taking gentle movements,

You don't need to take intense movements here,

You don't need to move at a pace that loses your balance.

So gentle movements,

Toes come up,

Heels come up and you're on the balls of your feet.

And release and coming back down to the earth.

And again here on an inhale our toes can lift with the heels and on an exhale everything can come back down to the earth.

Continue this movement at a pace that feels comfortable to you.

And on your next exhale bring your heels and toes back to the earth and bringing some awareness to the balls of your feet.

Gently press those into the earth on both feet,

Feeling your feet grounding into the earth beneath you.

And from here you can begin to come up onto your tippy toes.

Gently coming up onto your toes,

Lifting the heels of your feet.

So your heels are gently lifting on an inhale and then coming back to the earth on that exhale.

And as you inhale and your heel lifts,

And as you exhale and your heel comes back to the earth,

Take a moment to bring some awareness to the sensations in your feet.

So continuing those gentle movements heel comes up and heel comes down.

And just noticing any physical sensations in your heels and your toes and your feet.

And on your next exhale you can lower your heels back to the mat and again gently press those heels into your mat,

Into the floor,

Into the earth,

To whichever surface you are standing on.

And gently apply a little bit of pressure as your heels are grounding in to the earth.

And from here you can begin to distribute the weight of your body across your feet.

So making sure you're balancing the weight of your body across your toes,

Your heels and the balls of your feet.

And from this position really bring an awareness to your feet.

Feel those feet grounding into the earth.

We'll take one deep inhale and exhale relax your shoulders.

Take another deep inhale and exhale.

Bring a gentle bend to your knee,

Very very gentle bend and feel all the energy falling from your body down to your feet.

Almost as if your body is what a sand that is making its way down your body,

Through your chest,

Through your torso,

Through your hips,

Down your feet and landing on the earth.

You can take another inhale and on an exhale again,

Feeling all that energy,

Tension releasing from the upper body and moving down your body towards your feet.

And from your feet imagine that there are roots coming out of your feet into the earth beneath you.

Almost like a tree with its roots in the soil,

So are the roots of the earth.

Slowly envision and imagine this process of the roots coming out of your feet and into the earth.

And from your feet imagine that there are roots coming out of your feet into the earth,

Almost like a tree with its roots in the soil,

With the roots coming out of your feet and into the earth.

I'm taking another deep inhale and on this exhale imagine all that tension and energy in your feet is being released out of those roots into the earth.

You can take a deep inhale and with each exhale imagine that energy,

That tension is coming out of the body and into the earth.

The earth is taking it back,

You're releasing it into the universe,

That tension is no longer in your body but you release it out.

And continue here taking deep inhales and on each exhale feeling that energy,

That tension leaving the body through your feet into the earth.

So now and from this position consider what is it that you need today.

Thinking about what is it that your body needs.

Perhaps it is empathy,

Understanding,

Is it patience,

Is it time to itself,

Is it friends,

Is it families,

Is it socializing,

Is it Netflix,

Is it yoga,

Is it relaxing.

Taking a moment to think about what is it that you need today.

And from here imagine that through those roots connecting you to the earth that whatever it is that you require today is coming in through the roots and into your feet.

So whatever it is that you feel you need today feel that energy coming in from the earth,

Coming in through the soil,

In through the roots and connecting to your feet.

And whether that's empathy,

Understanding,

Time for relaxation,

Socializing,

Whatever it is that you need today,

Imagine it is coming into your feet and it is slowly being distributed up through the body.

And if for example you feel you need to set better boundaries to be able to say no to the right people,

To be able to say yes to the right people,

In order to restore balance in your life in order to restore balance in your life,

Think about what is it that you need,

What is it that your body needs,

What is it that you need in life to be able to set those boundaries.

Is it confidence in yourself,

Is it releasing the ego,

Whatever it could be that you need to feel secure,

To feel confident,

In order to be able to set those boundaries,

Imagine it coming into your feet,

Stored in those feet,

Take a deep inhale and take a deep exhale.

As your next inhale,

Feel that coming all the way up through the body whatever it is that you need,

It is making its way all the way up until it finds its way to your heart centre,

It's coming up those calf muscles,

Around those kneecaps,

Up the thighs and the hamstrings,

Around the sit bones,

Through the hips,

Up through the belly,

Around the spine and it ends at your heart centre.

And just feel that warmth in your heart centre,

That energy,

The factors,

Whatever it is that you need in this day,

In this moment,

To feel balance restored is coming into your life and feel that warmth at your heart centre.

And take a moment here to reconnect with yourself.

Remembering where you are today and all that you have done to get here.

You have overcome setbacks and challenges,

You are resilient,

You have persevered and everything that you have overcome to get to today is a reminder that whatever challenges you face today you will also overcome.

And finally think about what balance means for you.

Thinking about what does a healthy balance look like,

What does a healthy balance feel like,

Remembering what can you do to help you achieve balance in your life,

Knowing what you have control over,

When there are situations,

When there are people that you have no control over,

How can you reclaim your balance and set your boundaries.

As we slowly come out of this practice,

We will be able to take a moment to take a deep inhale and a deep exhale.

You can begin to wiggle your toes,

Maybe slowly lift your heels off of the mat,

Preparing your body to exit this meditation.

You are no longer rooted into this meditation,

You are no longer in this meditation,

You are no longer in this meditation,

You are no longer rooted into the earth.

Maybe lift your right foot,

Maybe lift your left foot,

One at a time.

Coming back into the room that you are in,

You can take one long inhale and exhale,

Allow your body to soften.

And finally you can take one deep inhale again,

Stretching your hands overhead and on a deep exhale,

Bringing your hands down to the side of your body,

Maybe moving your shoulders,

Maybe moving your neck,

Allowing your whole body to soften.

Our meditation has now ended.