Focusing Attunement: The 5 Foundations — Standing and Walking

{4 minutes to read}  It’s my pleasure to share the second of two attunements from a dear Focusing colleague, Jocelyn Kahn. The attunement is based on her studies and work with Judith Blackstone, the creator of Embodied Meditation and the Realization Process. You will find both the audio version and transcript below.

While the first attunement was for “Foundational Grounding” from a sitting position. There are times when the transition from triggered to tranquil can seem too vast a distance to cross. When frenzied, finding one’s stable center amidst all the commotion can be inconceivable. In these instances, beginning from a place of movement can create a pathway to stillness.

Stand, with your eyes open.

Inhabit your feet. Feel that there is no separation between your feet and the floor. Experience the foundation of being in your feet. Make sure you are in the whole foundation of your feet, all the way to the back of the heels. Let yourself rest there within your feet.

Let your breath adjust to you being this far down in your body, so that your inhale does not lift you up away from this foundation. Let your vision adjust to you being this far down in your body, so that you can live there, in this foundation of yourself.

Each foundation in your body is a foundation for your whole being. Even your mental life has this foundation of your feet. In Zen Buddhism they describe this as, “no separation between heaven and earth – heaven and earth are one.” Experience your mental life resting and settled towards your feet. And your emotional life resting and settled toward your feet.

Inhabit your pelvic floor. This is the whole bottom of your torso including your sitz bones. Experience the whole rectangle of your pelvic floor. Let yourself experience the foundation of your pelvic floor. Your emotional life rests because you have this foundation, and your mental life rests. And your arms can rest.

Inhabit your diaphragm, the bottom of your chest. Again, this is a foundation for your whole being. Your emotional life rests because you have this foundation, your voice rests, your mind rests.

Inhabit the bottom of your throat, from your collar bones all the way to the back of your neck. This is an important foundation because we often lift up through the neck. The foundation at the bottom of the neck allows you to settle down through the neck, so that your voice can rest. Your mental life rests, your arms rest.

Inhabit the bottom of your eye sockets. Let your eyes rest in the sockets. Do this with your eyes open, as it will change how you look out of your eyes. Let yourself see with your whole eyes, as they rest in the sockets.

And now inhabit all five foundations: feet, pelvic floor, diaphragm, throat, and eye sockets. Walk slowly across the room, inhabiting these foundations. You are walking in this grounded state. Every time you put a foot down on the floor as you walk, experience the foundation of being within your foot.