Welcome.
In today's healing session,
We are going to spend the night stargazing in the Sahara Desert of Morocco.
So before you take a journey into your mind and body,
Take a moment to find a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down.
Place your arms gently by your sides or rest them in your lap.
When you are ready,
Close your eyes.
Begin to notice the weight of your body against the surface that you are on.
Feel gravity pull you down.
Allow your body to just go with it.
Now imagine a string coming from the top of your head,
Reaching the sky.
As the string pulls,
Allow your body to be pulled into alignment with it.
Feel your spine lengthen,
Your shoulders drop,
And your chin tuck slightly towards your chest.
As you practice finding alignment in your posture,
You will notice that the better it becomes,
The more at ease you feel in your body and in your mind.
Gently release that image now and turn your attention to your breath.
Take a couple of deep,
Full breaths to the count of four,
Releasing them with an audible sigh.
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And exhale,
Let it out with a long sigh.
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And exhale,
Sigh out the breath.
Allow the day's tensions,
Worries,
And stresses to flow out with it.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Continue with this deep breathing on your own for a few moments.
Remember to give your body permission to melt with each exhale.
And if you find emotions bubbling under the surface,
Perhaps they feel like they want to burst,
But that's okay.
Notice them without getting caught up in them.
Keep your attention on your breath,
In and out.
As you sigh out your last breath,
Drop the attention away and allow your breath to fall into a natural pattern for now.
Do not worry if you find your breath is still shallow or quick.
What's important is that you do not try to force a particular way of breathing,
Because it can lead to tension as you go against what your body needs right now.
Go ahead now and bring your awareness to the top of your head and scan down your body.
Notice any points of tension.
Sometimes we have a habit of tightening different parts of our body when we try to suppress emotions,
Or maybe from long days of being in front of screens or doing manual work.
Take this time for yourself,
Imagining each point melting away as you scan down your body.
Let's start with your face.
Sense your face and feel the muscles soften.
Scan down through your jaw,
Down into your neck.
Sense your shoulders and travel down your arms,
Through your elbows,
Wrists and fingertips.
Allow your attention to travel to your chest.
Remind yourself to breathe.
Slowly make your way through your upper torso,
Down to your hips.
Sense your muscles soften as you pass them.
Gently pull your awareness into your pelvis.
Feel the spaces between the bones open up.
Sense your legs,
Knees,
Shins and calves.
Soften your ankles as you move into your feet and finally into your toes.
Take a moment to appreciate this new state of being.
Placing your attention on your body pulls the tension away from your head where all the thinking occurs.
When you find yourself trapped in your thoughts,
Scanning your body like this is a very useful technique to remove you from that spiral.
For now,
Let go of all of that and take a moment to just breathe.
Right now,
Feel the world around you starting to transform while your eyes remain closed.
Beneath you,
Cool sand caresses your body as you lie on it.
You can feel its texture pressing against you with every breath.
Gentle winds stream by you.
Their low humming fills the night and carries the music of insects and small desert animals.
As you sit or lay on that beautiful sand,
Know that you are safe here.
Everything else exists in its own balance.
You are an observer.
The night is lit by stars like fireflies hanging in the sky,
Flickering in the soft clouds of the Milky Way,
And the moon like a crystal giving the sand a tint of light.
The heavens above you stand like a large painting of vast space opening up while the earth below you stretches out into an equally vast sea of sand,
Stretching out into the night.
The silence is so surprising that you can hear your heartbeat as it goes through your veins.
You know you have arrived at the perfect place for an inner retreat.
Stepping foot here in the golden dunes of the Sahara Desert,
You feel as if you have transported to another world,
Another time.
Feel the sand enveloping your feet as you stand up in the desert.
The tiny particles fill the gaps between your toes and gently massage your skin.
There is a coolness to them just below the surface,
Touching the soles of your feet.
And as you walk,
You can feel them shift beneath you.
Dark blue sand dunes fill your vision,
Peaks and valleys lit by the stars and moon-stretched to the horizon.
And right where the sand meets the sky,
A thread of light appears across the land.
Slowly,
The darkness merges with the rays of light.
Notice this world transform.
After some time,
The light spreads across the sky like a fire burning away the night.
And the night evaporates slowly as the world around you is in complete stillness,
Complete balance.
When the light begins to reach you,
Notice the feeling as if it enters and burns away any tension inside you,
Any feelings of darkness,
Anything holding you back.
And as the day rises,
You too begin to come to the present in your body.
Remind yourself to breathe.
Imagine the pure,
Cool air of the desert filling you up inside.
Each breath dwells deeper into your body till you can picture the air flow into each fingertip.
The sound of insects,
Small animals,
Of life bustle around you just in the near distant.
A small oasis of date palms nestling amid the tunes.
And a handful of peaceful nomadic Berber people going about their business.
They are here too.
You observe their slow-paced,
Low-impact life that has not changed for centuries.
You're immediately engulfed in peace.
Feel a sand shift constantly in the wind.
Allow the wind permission to cool your body down with the sand.
Feel it move around you,
Almost like it is going through you,
Filling your breath even more.
It is still twilight,
A magical moment in the sky.
So stay here and just enjoy for a little bit.
Take in the sights.
Just breathe,
Sensing the still,
Cool night air just before the break of dawn.
Slowly and gently now,
Starting to deepen your breathing.
With each new breath,
Start to bring yourself back from the desert to where you are.
Allow your body to continue breathing as it needs to,
Without pushing,
Without judgment.
Notice the sand replaced by the surface you are on.
The desert air with the atmosphere and the area you find yourself in.
The desert insects and small animals replaced with the light traffic or the sounds of people going about their lives.
Everything in its own unique balance.
Give yourself a few moments to sink in with the present world.
And when you are ready,
Gently open your eyes.
Enjoy as you go about the rest of your day with a new sense of ease.
