I originally wrote this practice for a client and it’s now become a community favourite. I practice it, friends practice it, more clients practice it still.
‘Client’ was driving her business forward with steadfast determination. She was stepping up, stepping in and facing a lot of ‘I hope this works.’ Not new to spiritual practice, she meditated regularly and believed that there was something greater than all of us that she trusted. Intellectually.
While her mind told her that it wasn’t all up to her, that she could trust in the Universe or Cosmos or her higher Self or God, in the midst of the uncertain growth she was in, she couldn’t feel it beyond a concept. She felt an underlying anxiety that she had to get it all right and that she was on her own.
This Body Based Meditation meets Visualization helps to connect you directly with a sense of being able to trust what’s holding you. Try it daily. 10-20 minutes is a great start, especially if you don’t have a regular sitting practice.
Start by setting a timer so that you don’t have to keep track of the time. Find a quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed and can sit comfortably on a chair with your spine straight, but not stiff, and your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Begin by bringing your attention to the sensation in your rear end, right where the chair is holding the weight of you. Deeply feel this holding, feel how you can trust this chair to hold you. As you breathe, see if you can feel yourself relax into the feeling of the chair holding you in this way.
After a few breaths, bring your attention to the sensation in your feet and your awareness of the ground holding your chair and you. Deeply feel the support and holding you are receiving from the floor. Feel how you can trust this holding of the chair and the ground. While having your attention on the holding of the floor, also hold awareness of the sensations in your body as you are being held and supported.
Next, bring your awareness to the foundation of your home and how it’s holding the floor, the chair and you. Feeling deeply into your body and where you are in physical space, feel how you are held and supported, how you can physically trust that.
Now bring your awareness further, to the Earth beneath your home. Here, while keeping part of your awareness on your physical body, feel into the Earth and all that she is holding and supporting. Allow that to press into you, hold you. Feel yourself in that deep, trustworthy holding.
Next, while still breathing deeply and steadily, please bring you awareness even further out to what is holding and carrying the Earth. Still inhabiting your body, aware of the sensations in it, feel into the great mystery that holds and supports you. Breathe deeply here, stay alert and relax.
Maintain being aware, scanning from the very sensation of your seat on the chair, right out to what is mysteriously holding all of it.