As promised last week, here is a suggested ritual for deep relaxation and powerful embodiment. I like to do this in the bath. But feel free to do it anywhere you are comfortable. Laying on the floor, in bed before sleep or when you wake up…your body, your brain, your call.
Start by closing your eyes and taking a few deep, lungs-filled breaths.
Then start with thanks to your feet. (Which you may not have conversed with for a while, seeing as they are generally so far away from your head and what you are usually paying attention to. Am I right?)
Hello feet! And thank you, for partnering with precious gravity to keep me grounded and yet moving. For taking me anywhere I want to go. Thanks for letting me feel sand and water and waves and grass.
Strong legs and joints, you have never yet let me down. You have healed from minor injuries. You carry me upward, onward and away. You allow me to bend without breaking.
Arms, hands and fingers so nimble and skilled, even though I sometimes let you get cut on a cheese grater, you are integral to my desire to give and receive gifts of love, generosity, affection, and need. I’m going to save up for some chain mail gloves to keep you safe. And you, opposable thumbs! I love you.
Root chakra, you keep me internally balanced, connected to my most delicious and primal nature. You consistently remind me of my humanity as well as my most nourishing relationship—to mother earth. Thank you.
To my belly, my reproductive organs, my pelvic bowl and center of creation and destruction, you have the capacity to create life itself, literally and metaphorically and artistically. You are space held for me, for others. Your capacity for all intimacy consistently astounds me. Thank you for teaching me to cure and to endure.
Solar plexus, you mighty, mighty moneymaker. You have worked so damned hard. It would be my greatest pleasure to offer you more trust, less management. You have given me such a gift in the ability to claim my power and carry a strong sense of self; I want reward you with the acknowledgment you deserve, to walk together towards greater faith and more ease.
Dear, dear, dearest heart. Lives we loved with aching depth have been both introduced and lost to us already in this lifetime. We are surrounded by injustice and the witnessing of humanity doing cruel, thoughtless things to itself. And yet, you remain. Small but strong, and full of hope. Beating the rhythm of a timeline that has more flexibility and collected wisdom, than the severity of the timeline I’ve been taught to live by. You truly amaze me with your vitality, audacity, tenacity and ability to heal. I am in awe that you haven’t given up after all we have seen and felt, after all the times I thought you might be shattered beyond repair. You are full of such love and joy and humanity. I bow to you in deep, unwavering gratitude. I will do everything in my power to keep you as safe as you have kept me in this rich and full life of love.
Oh, Om throat. You deliver the energy of the gods, because a lot of times these words sure aren’t coming from my brain. You say things with such skill, such eloquence. You allow me to share all that is within me. Holy holla to you.
Thank you, third eye, for your wisdom and guidance. Even when I don’t listen, even when my old stories overpower you, and I have to come back to you humbly over and over again. I trust you. Teach me to follow your divine wisdom.
Beautiful eyes that see beauty and chaos. Darkness and light. Clouds and clarity. Eyes that see the well-loved faces and smiles that light me up inside. Eyes that mirror my soul and reflect my love, Thank you. Ears that hear music and voices and nature and Netflix, I thank you.
I am struck by the boundless nature of the list of reasons I have to be grateful without even leaving this body I call home.
This practice is so valuable. It’s too easy to slip into self doubt and resentments at all of the ways being human can be too uncomfortable to bear. This practice of recognition for how held we are on this earth gives me the opportunity to rest, and to keep doing the things that are the most meaningful to me, my family and my community.
I hope you have the same experience.
