Dear Friends,
Today we bring our exploration of the earth element into direct practice.
Over the past few days, we have been reflecting on the earth element as solidity, stability, and support, and noticing how these qualities flow through the body as part of the natural world. The practice suggested offers a way to experience this directly, through embodied awareness.
For today’s practice, I invite you to listen to Bonnie Duran’s “Four Elements Instructions: Mindfulness of Earth Element” meditation. (28 minutes)
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/78410/
This guided practice uses a gentle, accepting body scan to explore the earth element as it is felt in the body – qualities such as hardness, density, and structure. Moving gradually from head to feet, Bonnie invites awareness of areas like the bones, teeth, and spine, encouraging a simple noticing of whatever sensations are present. There is no need to feel anything in particular, and no experience is considered better than another.
Throughout the meditation, we are gently reminded to return to the body whenever the mind wanders, and to meet discomfort, if it arises, with care rather than force. The practice closes with a gratitude-based body scan, offering appreciation to different parts of the body for their ongoing support.
You are welcome to engage with the practice in a way that feels steady and easeful for you.
As you listen, you might notice:
- Where solidity or support feels most present
- How the body responds when it is allowed to rest into contact
- What it is like to experience the body as earth, rather than as something to manage or fix
I invite you to share a brief reflection after practicing – you can reply to the email or comment below. Reflections often inspire others and help us stay gently engaged as we practice together.
Tomorrow, we will pause from the elements to cultivate loving-kindness, offering warmth and care to support this month of exploration.
With good wishes,
Andrea
P.S. Bonnie Duran will be one of the teachers of SIMC’s upcoming hybrid daylong retreat, Indigenous Presence: Wisdom Teachings from the Indigenous and Insight Meditation Traditions, on January 24, 2026. For more details, please visit the SIMC website:
https://saskatooninsight.com/wp/events/2026-events/indigenous-presence-daylong/
What a great practice for today. Touching base with my skeletal earth elements has given me a feeling of inner strength and peace. A feeling of gratitude for all the support provided by this strong core.
Hi Twyla, Thank you so much for sharing this. I love how you named the skeletal system as a source of inner strength and peace. Sensing that steady support beneath everything else can be so grounding, and gratitude often seems to arise naturally when we really feel how much is being held for us. I am glad the practice offered that sense of strong, supportive core today.
Great guided meditation. I felt ( or saw, or visualized or…) the bones as I never have before. All there. All solid. All anchoring the rest of the muscles and tendons and organ etc. This was all in place and solid, working together. Steady support, like Twyla said. I especially appreciated the head ’cause the head is so often mind and brain and thoughts and thinking and somewhat divorced from the body but the skull and the jaw and the teeth were there solidly and brought my head back to the body. It was fun. Thanks.
Hi Jim, Thank you for this lovely reflection. I especially appreciated what you shared about the skull and jaw – how feeling their solidity brought the head back into the body. That sense of steady, quiet support is exactly what this earth practice points toward. I am so glad it was enjoyable and meaningful for you. Thanks for letting us know how it landed.