YOL BLOG
A 12-Minute Meditation for Connecting to Your Body
Link: https://www.mindful.org/a-12-minute-meditation-for-connecting-to-your-body/
The four elements have the ability to connect us, both internally and externally, with the world around us. Jeanne Corrigal brings her Métis heritage, and her training as an insight meditation teacher, to this guided practice to connect with the four elements within our own body.
A Guided Meditation for Connecting to Your Body
- Begin by settling into a sense of your body. Whether you’re sitting on a chair or a cushion, let yourself be comfortable while remaining present to the sensations of your earth body.
- Close your eyes, if it feels comfortable. Sometimes that can let us be simpler in our attention so that we can connect more easily to the sensations. And if you want to leave your eyes open, just rest your gaze on somewhere close by so that you can simplify your attention.
- Settle into the sensations of your earth body. Feeling the sensation of hands touching the lap or eachother. The weight of the body on the chair. These physical sensations help you know that you’re here in this moment and connected to this earth.
- Sensing the fire element: Within this earth body, you may feel heat and coolness. Feel the warmth in some areas, like the torso or chest, and coolness in your hands or feet. This temperature is the fire element in our earth body with the energy coming from the sun, directly warming the earth body, or indirectly through the nourishment of food we eat.
- Sensing the water element: In this body, you may also feel pulsing. That is the water element in the body pulsing through a vast number of systems in the body. Feel it pulsing in your fingers, your feet, the heart, and in every cell of this alive body. Feeling it in the eyes as they move in the sockets, feeling the liquid in the mouth.
- Sensing the air element: In this earth body, feel the sensation of the breath. The air element coming in through the nostrils, filling the lungs and lifting the chest. With this element, feel the shift of the element moving this earth body.
- Sensing the earth element: The earth element lies in resting in this ebb and flow of the air element. Feel the air coming in and expanding the earth body before leaving and relaxing the body. Rest back and just ride the wave of this air element; realize there’s nothing you need to do.
- When you are ready, open your eyes and take this presence to whatever you do next.
About the author
Jeanne Corrigal
Jeanne Corrigal is a Guiding Teacher at Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. Jeanne teaches meditation, compassion practices, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She has studied and practiced mindfulness for over two decades, becoming certified with several of the leading meditation organizations in North America.
