This week I returned to teaching classes at my university again for the first time in a year and a half, after a luxurious sabbatical pause. I walked into my first class and kicked off, as I usually do, with a somatic meditation. There’s always a bit of initial resistance, but ultimately I think everyone, even my college students, welcomes the opportunity to slow down and feel themselves, even if they don’t know why. While doing embodied practices at universities is getting to be, if not common, at least perceived as less crazy in general, I’m still acutely aware of how much responsibility and energy it takes to lead people in this way, and how little perception there is on the part of big institutions about what those of us who do this work are silently contributing.
Still, for me it’s a necessity, and no longer a choice, to stay in a place of embodied sensitivity as I do whatever it is I’m doing. All of us lead others in some capacity in our lives, whether in the workplace, family, or in friendships. I want to share with you a recording of a simple somatic meditation that I have used in my classes for a decade. Feel free to use it yourself to slow down in the midst of your day, or use it to drop into resonance with others in the meetings or classes that you lead.
