Arriving Home :: Meditations For Grounding
Meditations For Grounding
When you sit with me in-person, you know that we spend a lot of time "grounding" ourselves.
We ground ourselves so we can better meet our modern day lives.
We ground ourselves so we can be open to the experience of stillness of our time in meditation.
And we ground ourselves so we can find a sense of centeredness to take with us into life's daily moments.
Below are my main daily meditations for becoming grounded. You can practice these meditations at the beginning or end of your regular meditation practice, or independently as needed.
Seat of Practice Meditation
This meditation is best practiced in an upright seated posture.
To begin, close your eyes and allow a deep breath in and out of the body.
Let your breath return to its natural rhythm and start to place your mental attention in the lower half of your body.
Let your attention settle fully within your glutes, pelvic floor, the bottom of your spine and two sitting bones. Notice all of the direct sensations of your body making contact with the cushions, couch, or chair beneath you. You may sense firmness, softness, pressure from sitting, warmth or coolness.
Allow your attention and awareness to expand to the sides of your legs, ankles and feet or any part of the lower half of the body making contact with the ground and object(s) below you.
Keep your attention in your seat of practice as a main anchor point in the present moment. If thoughts arise in the mind bring your attention back to your seat of practice and to the sensations of sitting.
Practice this meditation until you sense qualities of centeredness, stability, groundedness and equanimity.
Roots Of A Tree Meditation
Start with the Seat Of Practice Meditation, and once you start sensing qualities of groundedness you can continue with the Roots Of A Tree Meditation.
From your seat of practice, begin to visualize little roots growing down into the ground and earth below you. Have these roots stem from the glutes, pelvic floor, the bottom of your spine, your two sitting bones and the sides of your legs, ankles and feet.
Continue to visualize these roots growing a few inches down into the ground and then start to spread wide to the corners of the room or environment you are in.
You can stay here with this visualization or you can choose to extend these roots beyond the current room or environment to encompass the land around you. Then allow the roots to encompass the state you are in. Then the continent you are on. And finally, the whole globe.
Practice this meditation until you sense deep qualities of centeredness, stability, groundedness and equanimity.
Grounding Anytime Anywhere Meditation
This is a meditation for immediate grounding, either when you are in meditation or in your day.
With eyes open or closed, place your attention on your feet. Sense the soles of your feet resting upon the floor or ground beneath you.
You may extend this attention to the top of your feet and the lower legs if you find that helpful, but keep your attentionmainly on the bottoms of your feet.
Practice this meditation until you sense qualities of centeredness, stability, groundedness and equanimity.
