Welcome.
This is Allison with Mindful Pause Center,
And I'm so glad to be with you.
Today's practice uses the metaphor of a mountain to help us imagine how we might exist in the midst of instability.
It's important to name how challenging change is for us.
Our nervous systems are wired to experience uncertainty as a threat.
We don't need to be surprised or beat ourselves up then if we find ourselves clinging to the known.
At the same time,
We do want to practice ways of being with change so that we can increase our capacity to respond to life as it is without needing it to be any one way.
The image of the mountain,
Steadfast,
Firm,
Whole,
As it experiences weather and seasonal changes,
Can help us recognize our own innate fortitude.
Let's give it a try.
Finding a posture that can support you for the next 15 minutes.
This can be standing,
Seated,
Or lying down.
I recommend if you choose to lie down to have the knees bent and propped up against one another as this can help with the image of a mountain.
Where do you feel tall in this posture?
Where do you feel a sense of uprightness?
This isn't the same thing as rigid,
Or rather a sense of energy and uplift.
Where in the posture do you feel a sense of width,
Circumference,
A sense of being established?
This quality of the base of a mountain,
Where is it in your current posture?
How do you know it?
And then tuning into gravity and noticing its gentle tug.
Where do you feel gravity,
Its weight,
Its heft connecting you to whatever it is that is supporting you?
Allowing yourself to notice gravity,
Weight.
If it feels good,
Bringing your awareness to the felt sense of the body breathing.
Where do you feel the body breathing itself?
Maybe it's at the belly,
Or the chest,
Over the lip and to the nose.
Or maybe it's the whole body breathing itself,
Allowing the breath to fill the posture inviting with the in-breath a sense of resolve,
With the out-breath a sense of being complete,
Whole.
Just in this very moment,
Your posture reflecting that sense of wholeness,
That integrity.
And perhaps you can notice the integrity is here already.
It's not something you need to do or earn or feel proud of.
It's something that you feel capable of just in this moment as we conjure the mountain.
We can know integrity,
We can know wholeness.
Letting an image form in your mind now of a majestic mountain.
Perhaps for you it will be a particular place.
Just using your imagination to bring forward a mountain,
Making it as vivid as you can.
For some of us,
We'll be able to see this like a photograph or a movie.
Others of us might need to use language to describe its qualities.
As you bring this mountain to mind,
Noticing how massive,
How solid,
How unmoving,
How present it is.
And then seeing if you can bring that mountain into your own body in this posture.
Not observing it on the horizon now,
But really bringing it into the body,
Having a felt sense,
Allowing yourself to share in the mountain's massiveness,
The stillness.
Sensing how you rise up out of your environment.
Becoming aware now of the sun,
How it travels from morning to night.
The way life on the mountain responds to the moving sun.
Sensing how night follows day.
Then day follows night.
Then night,
Day.
Then day,
Night.
And the mountain experiences this cycle,
Yet remains itself.
Becoming aware of the seasons.
Noticing the wildflowers of spring,
The new growth.
The full flourishing of summer,
And the trees and the wildlife,
The feasting,
The sound of waters.
And the dying away and brilliant color during the fall.
The quiet and the stillness that settles in with winter.
The mountain experiences these changing seasons,
Yet remains itself.
Magnificent,
Awesome,
Present.
As we meditate,
We can come to know the equanimity of the mountain.
We experience the changes every day,
Every moment in our thoughts.
So rapid.
The changes in our emotions,
The changes in our bodies.
We can observe the changes in our relationships,
Our neighborhoods,
Our communities,
Our country,
The world.
The seasons of our experiences,
The cycles of our livelihoods,
Our aspirations.
Can we sense in the midst of it all,
How we might sit,
How we might remain true to ourselves?
How we might let presence carry us through?
We can encounter the weather of our lives.
We can honor it.
We can hold it all in awareness.
And as we do,
Over time and practice,
We can come to know deeper stillness and wisdom.
The poise of equanimity.
Letting all effort go.
And resting again in the felt sense of gravity as it tugs and connects you to that which supports you.
Bringing your awareness to those points of connection.
Feeling the support on the other side of your body.
How you've been held for the length of this meditation.
In a moment,
I'll ring the bell.
And as the sound of the bell rings,
I'll ask you to sit back and relax.
And as the sound of the bell fades away,
You can begin to move your body in a way that feels good.
And as you do so,
Opening your eyes or lifting your gaze,
Taking in some features of the space you're in.
Forms,
Colors,
Quality of light,
Temperature.
Letting the nervous system know that the practice is complete.
Thank you for your practice.
Did you feel supported by this practice?
If so,
Please follow me here on Insight Timer and consider making a donation through my profile.
Until next time,
Take good care.
Bye.
