Grounding is a process which helps your physical body to connect to life sustaining earth energies via its root chakra. Because we are first and foremost spiritual beings the physical body sometimes is ignored or gets neglected. It is important to respect and care for your body, you only have one! Grounding exercises help tremendously with maintaining a balance of our physical and spiritual bodies. Diagnostic in nature, this body scan will help you become more fully aware of both subtle and not-so-subtle sensations of your physical body. This is an excellent process for identifying all physical stresses and upsets, especially any underlying imbalances you may have not been aware of. AWARENESS
The body scan is an exercise in assembling the larger hurts alongside the minute details of stresses which you may have overlooked within your body. It is helpful to bring our awareness to the less obvious. Pain can be so overwhelming in one part of the body that the imbalances in other areas of the body are overshadowed. In addition to the apparent grounding benefits of this exercise, sometimes the most painful hurts are miraculously lifted from the physical during the body scan process. You might be amazed by the discoveries that you will make about your body during this meditation. Throughout the body scan process remind yourself not to rush. Allow twenty minutes to an hour for this grounding process. Don't rush this process. Take your time moving upwards to each part of your body. Do not touch yourself. Instead, allow your mind to switch focus from wherever it is and mentally consider your body's sensations. Doing this body scan at bedtime will work well for anyone who has difficulty falling asleep, but for anyone who tends to fall asleep quickly upon lying down, sitting upright in a chair or supported on the floor may be more appropriate.
PRACTICE
Laying on your back on your bed, couch or floor, position your arms and hands comfortably by the sides of the body. Place a pillow or rolled towel under your knees if your lower back feels uncomfortable.
Begin your body scan by diverting your thoughts away from any mental chatter, switch gears by first focusing on your feet. Do not rush. During the process you will slowly change your focus from one part of your body to the next. Allow your mind to switch focus from wherever it is. Begin with your feet and move upwards. Notice the soles of your feet, your toes, in-between your toes, the top of your feet, ankles, and heel. Do they feel hot or cold? Do they hurt? Are they numb or swollen? Can you feel the blood circulating through them? Are they feeling tired? Don't judge why they might feel this, simply notice how they feel. Wiggle your toes. How does that feel? Once you have a made a strong connection with your feet move your attention upwards past your ankle, switching all your focus from your feet to the lower legs, then move onto your knee caps, behind your knees, your thighs, and so on. Allow yourself to breathe evenly throughout the scanning process. If you come upon any areas of discomfort (tension or resistance in muscles, etc.) or find a spot that feels like there may be stuck energy take two or three deep cleansing breaths to ease and soften the body. Once you have moved your attention through your torso and up to your neck, drop your focus at your fingertips. Move up your attention through the length of the fingers and into the hands (notice the tops of hands as well as the palms).
Continue your body scan up your arms and at the shoulders, returning your attention once again to your neck. Soften through the collarbones and chest, noticing the rise and fall of the chest as you breathe in and out. Every exhalation you soften the weight of the body down towards the mat, the ground and the earth.
Allow your body to surrender and with it any stress, anxiety or discomfort can follow. As if you allow the earth to nourish and process your emotions, rather than releasing negative energy and pushing it away we take time to sit within it and understand. We settle and soften.
Relaxing the features of the face. Soften the shoulders and relax the weight of the hands and feet. Notice the heaviness of your body on the ground. Rest here for as long as you like. Don't rush.
As you slowly start to end the practice, continue to lay where you are. Create movement through the hands and the feet. Sway the hips and gently bend the knees.
Breathe into the back of the body for 10 long deep breaths.
Take your time to come up to a seated position and honour your space and time, find stability within your body and mind. Whenever you need a moment to ground yourself, just take time to do nothing, to sit or lie down and explore your body scan.
You will come out feeling calmer, clarity within the mind and you can rest within yourself knowing you are grounded and in control.
All my love,
V x
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