Really,
To get centered,
What I'm doing right now,
And you might try this if you're sitting in a chair,
So I invite you to join me in this grounding meditation.
So first,
What we're going to do is push our feet into the ground.
Use our leg muscles to push down into the ground.
Push our feet into the ground for a moment.
And just hold that for as long as you can.
It shouldn't be too painful.
But just see if you can notice the tension in your legs,
The tightness,
And pushing down into the ground.
This is really good if you've been feeling disconnected and off-center,
Off-balanced,
And anything that has made you just feel really scattered.
So just keep holding that if you can.
And then you might move your feet around just a little bit and just see if you can,
Almost like you're massaging the floor.
And just notice where the bottom of your feet make contact with the floor beneath,
With the ground beneath.
You might wiggle your toes a minute.
And really what we're doing here,
A big thing too,
Is getting connected with our bodies and taking all the energy that's often up here,
At least this is for me,
All the mental chatter and thinking and ideas,
And we're just bringing our awareness and turning our attention,
Focusing down,
Down to the feet and bringing all of that energy down.
And it's also important as you do this to breathe in and breathe out slowly.
And see if you can relax other parts of your body.
And I'm still pressing down.
I'm still using my legs to press down into the ground as much as I can.
And then I'm going to go ahead and release,
Move around a little bit.
Now I'm just going to breathe in slowly and I'm going to breathe out through the mouth.
Some people refer to this as the candle breathing,
So it's like you're blowing out a candle.
And notice I'm trying to do my best here with my posture,
So it's upright,
It's alert,
It's also relaxed,
So I am trying to see if I can relax my shoulders.
And when I use the word trying,
I'm thinking of Yoda,
You know,
Do or do not,
There is no try.
But it's all about being,
Right?
It's all about,
It's kind of letting go of trying and just allowing the body to be and really tapping into the sensations of the body and then seeing where it is that we can relax just a little bit more.
So I'm going to go ahead and do that for a moment and you're welcome to join me.
For me,
It does help to close my eyes and you can just breathe normally.
See if you can just let your body be breathed,
Not forcing,
But you may bring awareness to your out-breath and just see if you can extend the out-breath as gently as you can and make the out-breath longer than the in-breath.
Something that I'm doing right now is just bringing awareness to my eyes.
I notice there's,
I'm trying to tighten my eyes a little bit,
My eyelids,
So I'm going to see if I can just loosen my eyelids,
Loosen the brow,
And see if I can relax other facial muscles,
Relax the tongue.
Notice if there's any tightness in the back of your neck or shoulders and see if you can loosen that up just a little bit more,
Just letting the breath be natural.
So right now what I'm doing is seeing if I can bring my awareness down through the body,
Through the belly,
Through the legs,
Just noticing the different sensations in the different areas of my body,
The back,
The lower back,
And seeing if I can release any tension and tightness all the way down through the legs,
Bringing awareness to my feet,
My toes.
Also bringing awareness to where my body makes contact with the seat,
The chair I'm on,
And also the floor beneath me.
Also making or bringing awareness to where my clothes make contact with my skin,
Just noticing those sensations and the texture of the clothing.
This is a really important space to be in right now if you're able to relax enough to be quieter and start to pay more attention to the sensations of the body.
This is where there are a couple of pathways that our nervous system might want to go down and our body might want to go down and our brains.
One pathway is kind of going into shutdown and wanting to sleep,
Feeling tired.
Right now I'm doing this in,
I think it's like,
I don't know what time it is,
But it's somewhere around morning time,
Maybe 10,
30,
11,
Doesn't matter.
Just letting that go.
I don't have to know what time it is right now.
But I notice that I'm more alert and I'm not wanting to fall asleep.
So that's about one pathway,
Potentially,
As we tap in like this and we get to this point where I am in the meditation,
Depending on the time of day or how I'm feeling,
There might be a default or a tendency to go into a shutdown,
A closing up,
Almost essentially falling asleep type thing.
Sometimes that's needed and I think we need to give ourselves grace for that.
But ideally we make connection to our inner resource and feel connected and that we don't go into shutdown,
That we actually stay present with the sensations in the body,
Stay present in this moment and bring curiosity and awareness to different thoughts and emotions that might come up and not resist them,
But also not hold onto them.
So letting them pass,
Letting them go.
And that's a really good space to be in where we feel connected to our body,
Not detached from our body,
Aware and present of the different thoughts and emotions and sensations that are coming through,
Not getting attached to them,
Also not resisting them,
Noticing where there might be resistance and letting go of that resistance.
Notice where there might be efforting or trying too hard,
Trying to meditate.
You can't try to meditate,
Just letting that go and just being present with it,
All the different sensations and not shutting down,
Not closing off,
Not falling asleep,
But staying alert,
Staying present and also staying relaxed and at ease.
With this too,
I'll mention the other pathway that we sometimes might go down or up,
As it were,
Is into mobilization.
So as we take these steps to tap into the body and relax and ease into things a little bit,
Ease into the present moment,
There might be a tendency for some of us to want to go into hyper-thinking,
Hyper-arousal,
When we're really,
We feel like it actually makes us more nervous and anxious to be slowing down,
If that makes sense.
So it's really hard to be at ease because there's just a lot of energy happening in the body or in the mind and that's fine too.
And so sometimes if that's the case,
What helps me are actually other types of meditations where I'm walking.
So I actually just wanted to walk before I came and sat down to do this recording and that actually really helped,
I feel like.
So in some situations,
It might be more beneficial to do some type of movement first.
And even if you want to stay here,
You feel like staying here,
But there's some agitation,
There's some energy that's churning and you're having a hard time just being at ease,
Being in the body.
You might do some things like we did a minute ago where you're pushing your feet down into the floor or you might do some things where you're shaking your arms or shaking your body just a little bit,
Moving up and down,
Just some shaking,
Some movement,
And then breathing,
Breathing out through the mouth and then seeing if you can again,
Come back to that state of being relaxed and at ease and just going back and forth as much as you need and not judging it.
So just noticing,
Being aware.
I think that really the main thing is being aware of the needs of the nervous system,
The needs of the body essentially,
Right?
So noticing if there's just a lot of energy that needs to just get out and maybe it is getting up,
Walking around,
Dancing,
Or maybe it's just some quick movements here in the chair or in the bed or wherever you are as you're doing this.
Just some quick shaking movements,
Moving your hands back and forth or stretching,
Subtle movements can also work.
So just notice,
Just tap into,
Remember there's no right or wrong way to do this and there's no precise technique that you need to be doing.
Just notice where the body is and notice how it wants to be and what energy needs to flow out a little bit.
Because really resisting that energy,
What we're trying to do here is,
Or allowing I should say,
Is the energy to become settled.
And I think holding on the resistance takes a ton of effort and so that is wasting energy,
That's draining energy.
And so we don't want to do that either.
So just noticing where there might be resistance,
Even if it's resistance in calming down or going through this step-by-step breathing process and everything that I did earlier.
If that's hard,
If there's a lot of resistance to doing that,
Just see if you can bring that resistance into awareness and allow that resistance to be here.
So you actually turn your attention to the resistance,
Not trying to fix it or figure it out,
But just accepting that there's resistance.
And seeing if you can breathe and tapping in again to the body and seeing if it's comfortable.
Where is it comfortable in the body?
Where can you find just a little glimmer of a sense of safety,
A sense of hope,
A sense of calm,
A sense of excitement even,
And noticing just what can be relaxed,
What wants to also,
If there's pain or discomfort,
What wants to be seen.
And so instead of resisting or trying so hard to get into a certain meditative state and not being able to because there's a discomfort in the body,
Your pathway then is to bring awareness to that discomfort in the body.
So right now I'm noticing my shoulders are tight and I don't want them to be.
And so I can tell I definitely need to do some more movement and more stretching and things like that.
So really tuning in.
So you might take a moment just to tune into the body.
Notice if there's anything that's really speaking loudly.
And it will speak loud.
You'll know.
You'll know what's speaking loudly.
It will tell you.
And this is often the case when we attempt to get quiet and slow the mind down and bring awareness to the body.
The body's like,
Oh,
Hey,
Paying attention here.
Cool.
But the lower back,
The arm,
The whatever,
The joints,
Pay attention here.
You're paying attention.
Great.
Listen,
We've got this issue in the elbow.
So just see if you can bring awareness to those different things in the body without judgment and just listening.
Just listen to what it has to say and be with it and send it love.
Send it kindness.
Send it compassion.
So just go ahead and do that for a moment if that's something for you.
Or you can just sit here for a moment.
That's really good.
Not to get caught up in stories or if there's a lot of thoughts flowing through,
Just bring your awareness back to the sensations,
Back to the present moment,
Back to the breath.
And if there are some areas in the body that are needing extra attention,
You might just Send love.
Let it know that it's seen.
You're paying attention.
You're sending love.
I hear you.
And just when you're ready,
You can just slowly open your eyes.
And this is in the moment,
What I'm doing now is really staying present in the body.
And now that my eyes are open,
Just bringing awareness to this moment or bringing in this new sensation of sight,
Which I'm very grateful for,
And just taking it real slow.
So keeping the eyes at a gentle gaze,
Just really being present with my surroundings,
Taking a few more deep breaths and moving around a little bit.
So I feel a little bit more connected,
A little bit more grounded right now.
And I think this is really a good way to start any type of project that you might be working on that requires attention or a skill set or really a heart set.
It's good to get connected like this and then move forward.
And again,
I feel lucky today.
I feel blessed because I feel like I can move forward in doing this project that I'm going to be working on here today.
There are some times after I do this,
Honestly,
Where I just want to fall asleep and I just want to go to sleep.
And so that's an indication that maybe I do need more rest.
And so you kind of have to decide what is the best,
Most compassionate next step,
Right?
Because maybe it is taking a nap and resting,
Or maybe it's going for a walk.
I think there's always a need to really listen and to tune into the body and just notice what's needed,
Right?
And so really pay attention to that.
