Welcome.
Today we visit the Colca Canyon,
A river canyon in southern Peru,
Where you can see pre-Inca agricultural terraces still being used by local farmers who practice the same lifestyle as their ancestors.
Along the canyon,
Magnificent colonial Spanish churches and cities are still standing while farmers sell their products on the streets and roads.
People have been living deep in the canyon since they arrived in the Andes.
They left ruins of storage houses along the walls of the canyon where they stored food,
And these early settlers also left paintings,
Tools,
And utensils.
The native population that inhabit the area are the descendants of the Colagua Indians who have been living in the region for thousands of years and keeping the same lifestyle as their ancestors.
They live along the edge of the canyon and rely on the river for water.
Their traditions and clothing are unique as they have not been affected by modern civilization.
Their diet and crops are the same since thousands of years ago,
Basically native crops such as potatoes,
Quinoa,
Which I love,
Corn,
And meat from the llama or the guinea pigs.
So find a place and position that is comfortable for you and gently close your eyes.
As you bring awareness to your breath,
Give your body a little shake,
Just gently.
Allow the tension from the day to melt away.
Now extend gratitude towards yourself for taking time out of your day to look after yourself.
When life gets a little busy,
We can often neglect our needs and slowly snowball our stress and inner tension.
To begin,
Lift your shoulders slowly to your ears,
Tense the muscles as you reach for your ears,
And release,
Relax,
Feel all tension slip away.
And again,
Lift up,
Reaching,
Reaching,
Reaching,
And release,
Relax,
Ahh.
Repeat that a few more times on your own with a nice audible sigh at the end,
Completely letting it out.
Allow your attention to fall back to your breath.
Notice how it feels in your body,
Whether fast or slow,
Relaxed or tight,
Deep or shallow.
Do not worry if it's not as deep as it can be or if you notice you are breathing faster than you usually do.
Pay attention without judgment.
As you practice awareness,
You will find that by simply noticing the breath,
You give it space to unwind and soften all by itself.
Sometimes in life,
You may get caught up in problems and find it really hard to see a way out.
They become so big you can lose perspective of what is happening around you.
One way of gaining a little perspective on our concerns is by taking a step back.
You gently detach from the cycle of thinking by taking your attention away from your thoughts and feelings and placing it on the world around you.
By noticing the world,
And the natural world especially,
Which I love to do,
Which is what this series is about,
You can totally allow yourself to surrender and let go of control.
Gently let go of that awareness and take a couple of deep,
Full breaths.
Feel the cool air brush past your nostrils,
The back of your throat,
And down into your belly.
Release the breath out with that audible sigh.
Make it feel really good.
As you breathe in again,
Imagine the air flow down deeper into your body.
Picture it pouring into your limbs and release the breath out with that audible sigh again.
On your next in-breath,
Allow the air to pass through to your hands and fingertips,
Feet,
And toes.
Feel it cool.
Cool your body from the inside.
Give your body permission to let go of any tension you may find.
Continue in your own time,
Allowing the air to flow past your whole body on every inhale and exhaling with a sigh,
Releasing all the worries,
Tensions,
And stresses of your day.
Release your awareness from your breath now and return to a comfortable pattern of breathing.
Notice any change in your breathing since you started this practice.
Maybe it feels easier to breathe.
Maybe you feel your breath traveling deeper and slower.
Or maybe it hasn't changed much.
That's okay.
In your own time now,
Gently shift your mind to a warm place.
Notice the feeling of coarse stones beneath your body,
Rough against your palms.
The warmth is trapped by the heat of the sun radiating from their surface.
Your fingertips scrape it ever so gently.
Allow the color of warm reds,
Oranges,
And browns to penetrate your vision and warm you up inside as they begin to take shape.
Large towering rock faces the color of sunsets.
As you look around,
You find yourself in a canyon with cliff sides reaching towards the sky.
Orange streaks of different shades run across the faces of the rocks,
Showing their unimaginable age.
It is truly an awesome sight.
As you take in your surroundings,
Remind yourself to breathe,
Allowing the purity of this air to completely fill your lungs.
Satisfy your urge to breathe fully and completely.
This air is intoxicating.
It's invigorating.
It is uplifting.
In your own time,
Stand up in the canyon and take yourself in any direction you want to.
Feel the shaded stones beneath you as the sun passes above you slowly.
If you look up,
You can see it edging past the wide canal the sky formed by the sides of the cliffs.
The silence is a gentle blanket around you,
Although if you pay attention you can hear the river ever so faintly just right in the distance.
Notice the moments between the silence.
Allow your body to be fully present,
Not clinging on to the past or rushing towards a future that comes in its own time.
As you continue to walk,
Take in the enormity of these stone structures around you.
You are a small piece of creation in the midst of larger-than-life walls formed over millions of years.
Notice their firm stillness,
Which no human can budge.
Remind yourself to breathe gently.
Fill yourself with pure air and bring your attention to the bottom of your feet.
What sensations are you noticing?
How do the stones feel beneath you?
And can you feel the loose gravel in some places?
The warm dry air still against your skin?
Allow the feeling to penetrate you,
Softening your exterior and interior.
Breathe the warmth in deeply.
Allow it to melt all the tension away.
Making your way through the valleys,
You can see the path twisting around a corner up ahead.
The walls close in and the path becomes more and more narrow.
You make your way into the red passage,
Feeling the dust and stones beneath you crunching at every step.
As you approach the turn,
The air silence fills with the sound of a river.
It's getting louder and louder.
The shadows rise higher against the walls as the sun passes over the cliffside.
Just out of your view,
The air cools slightly as you follow the path to a small opening,
Like a doorway.
And on the other side,
The canyon walls open up to a large expanse.
A blue river twisting and turning through the valley below you.
The canyon walls open outwards like flower petals,
With the river at its center like a seed.
And the sounds of flowing water over the rocks fills the air.
Sometimes your problems seem like mountains,
Impossible to overcome or go through.
But it is hard to see the whole picture when we keep our faces too close to the painting.
And sometimes it takes just a little shift in perspective to change how we see the negatives in our life.
Maybe in them you can find some positive.
Or maybe they are not as bad as you thought so at first.
Allow your breath to flow easily,
A smooth,
Harmonious pattern.
Give yourself the permission to breathe as you need to.
Picture the warm air entering your body and melting your insides.
All the tension dissolving and releasing its hold on you.
Let it all out.
It doesn't belong here anymore.
Just breathing.
Just enjoying.
Just being.
Slowly let go of those images.
Saying goodbye to the river,
The canyon walls and the rocks.
Begin to come back to the present moment.
Back to your environment.
Taking in any sounds around you.
Notice any sensations.
Stretch your body gently.
And when you are ready,
Open your eyes.
