Hi, welcome to Day One of the seven day meditation challenge entitled Come Home to Yourself. My name is Cory and I first just want to acknowledge you for being here, for taking the time and energy out of your day and your life to really learn about yourself and invest in yourself and to also seek out some support along this big, complicated human journey. As a recap, each day, you're going to receive a new video like this, and you'll also receive a corresponding meditation ranging in length from five minutes to 10 minutes to 20 minutes, all the way up to 30 minutes. And in today's session, we're going to specifically explore finding your ground. Finding your ground.

And what I mean by that is really connecting to a place within you that feels like a refuge, a place that allows you to feel a sense of stability amidst a lot of instability. And that's the interesting thing about finding your ground, which is that there's no place within your experience or outside of your experience that is inherently stable, meaning there's no thought, emotion, sensation within your body, and there's no external experience that is going to be lasting, that is going to be here forever, that we could take a permanent refuge in. It's always changing. And this is one of the inherent aspects of being alive, being human in the world. But we can find some stability by relaxing into that instability and by feeling a sense of being rooted into a long history that has come before us and even the ground beneath us that has supported people going through this journey for a very long time and getting through that journey.

So if you'd like, you could just take a moment to close your eyes. And maybe feel where you're at in your life right now. Everything moving through you, everything you're navigating - the confusion, the joy, the goodness, the pain. Recognizing that, you know, all of it will change. But there won't come a moment where experience is not in flux.

And so what's it like just to use this moment as an opportunity to relax into things as they are right now? Not necessarily endorsing it or liking it. But seeing if we can hold the truth of what we're experiencing in this moment. And see that container of awareness as a point of stability. Relaxing the jaw, the shoulders, the belly, the hands. Noticing the thoughts moving through your minds.

The soft fear that can come with being alive. And relaxing into this moment, as it is. Feeling the ground beneath your feet. And being reminded of and many people who have come before you. The long lineage of human beings who have walked this earth.

Who have gotten through hardship. And whose DNA is in you. And just take a moment to breathe in that recognition. On that exhale, relaxing again into this moment. So if your eyes are closed, you can let them open.

And so we're going to explore more of this idea of finding your ground in the meditation. But as you go about your day today, see if you can take periodic moments to connect to the ground beneath you, to feel a sense of rootedness, and to also see if you can remember that life is always changing. But one thing we can trust is relaxing into this moment as it is right now and there can be a stability in that ease in meeting, what we might call the ongoing dis-ease of life. Thank you for your practice and let's settle in for today's meditation.