Mindfulness – Michelle Berry

Grounding sitting practice

Take your seat on a chair. Close your eyes and allow your attention to rest on your experience of your body in the chair.

Notice the areas of contact between your body and the chair. Notice the support the chair is offering to you right now. Become aware that the chair is supporting your body right now by carrying most of your physical weight.

Allow this to happen. Allow a comfortable sense of heaviness to spread through your body, supported and carried by the chair. Notice the rise and fall of your breath as you inhale and exhale. Notice any tension you are holding within your body, the neck, shoulders, down the arms, the weight of the head. Notice any tension in your back down the spine, into your buttocks, legs, ankles and feet. Notice any tension in your belly or chest.

Each time you notice any tightness or difficulty in these different parts of your body allow it to drain into your chair, be absorbed by your chair. Just rest in this experience of being supported by the chair for a few minutes.

Whenever you are feeling anxious, unsupported or lonely, return to this practice which helps to build a nourishing reciprocal role such as caring or supporting in relation to being cared for or supported.

You are safe. You are supported. You are cared for. You are loved.

Have a beautiful day!

With Gratitude,

Michelle

Simple way to ground yourself while standing.

This is an exercise for you to use to calm yourself in times of stress and upset. It is ideal for bringing you back to ‘the moment’ and pushing your concerns and worries away.

Remove your shoes. Stand with your bare feet firmly on the ground, legs slightly apart, and allow your feet to really feel the support of the earth underneath you.

Take a few moments to find a relaxed posture – you may find that gently swaying around your hips helps you to settle into a relaxed upright posture. Make sure that your head is resting in a relaxed way upon your shoulders, just move the head around the shoulders slowly to find a relaxed position. Allow your back to relax. Allow your in-breath and out-breath to fill your chest and abdominal area. Rest your gaze at about 45 degrees or just ahead.

Now place your attention firstly on your feet, and then on the earth beneath your feet. Just feel the earth. Imagine that your feet have invisible roots pushing down into the earth. Push these roots as far as you can go.

Imagine now that your roots are contacting the fresh green energy of the earth. Allow this fresh energy to rise up through the roots into your feet. Now allow the earth energy up through your feet into your legs, up into your pelvis and abdomen. And then allow the earth energy to flow through your chest, heart and neck and shoulder area.

You are now grounded and ready to begin your meditation exercises.

Hope this helps and was enjoyable!

Many Blessings! ~Michelle~

Meditation

At one point in time in my life Meditation was one of those things that was always elusive to me. I was a dabbler. Then when I was pregnant with my third daughter it became a staple in my life. After she was born I rooted in daily meditation even more. Then I became more structured with my meditation practices and even started practicing twice a day. Now my you get daughter is 5 and I can say that daily meditation has save my life and in times of stress and anxiety became even more important. I have tried many different times of meditation and its practices and on the solstice will release a meditation e-book.

Meditation has a long history of use for increasing calmness and physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing overall health and well-being.

There are many types of meditation, but most have four elements in common: a quiet location with as few distractions as possible; a specific, comfortable posture (sitting, lying down, walking, or in other positions); a focus of attention (a specially chosen word or set of words, an object, or the sensations of the breath); and an open attitude (letting distractions come and go naturally without judging them).

Many studies have investigated meditation for different conditions, and there’s evidence that it may reduce blood pressure as well as symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and flare-ups in people who have had ulcerative colitis. It may ease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and may help people with insomnia. I know it helps me.

Most first-time meditators find it strange to sit in silence, to sit with their innermost thoughts and feelings, to sit and do nothing — the very things that, funnily enough, the mind tends to resist. To a beginner, meditation might initially feel a little alien, perhaps even daunting, but that’s okay. People have been meditating for eons, and many have doubtless experienced the same reticence, trepidation, or wonder that first-time meditators often feel.

Maybe you want to start meditating because you want to be less reactive, feel less stressed, or be more focused. Maybe meditating is part of a wider personal development plan of some kind. Or maybe you’re looking to improve your relationships with those around you. Whatever the reason, training the mind through meditation is training in awareness, and training in awareness offers the potential to fundamentally transform your perspective on life.

Our entire existence is experienced through our minds, and our perspective on life can dramatically alter once we begin meditating. Being inspired to start meditating is very different from actually doing it, however, have only felt the benefits of meditation by beginning and maintaining a regular practice. In order to understand meditation, simply do meditation. In order to calm your mind, you need to begin by simply sitting, take a few deep breaths…… and check out my Heart Centered Meditation ebook!

Love, Michelle