Embodied Meditation - Your Inner Landscape And Weather

This guided meditation uses the breath and a body scan to help you arrive in the present moment, then invites you to imagine your body as a landscape and notice what kind of weather is in the sky today. You look around your inner landscape in every direction, step back to see it like a picture on the wall and imagine giving it a title, all without judging what you find. It closes with an invitation to capture the image in a journal or with crayons, and suits anyone who would like a gentle, imaginative way to check in with how they feel.
This content is educational and is not a substitute for one to one professional care. Please do not listen while driving.

Transcript

This meditation. Help us to connect with our inner landscape. And our inner weather. And to come into the present moment. And be in the here and now. However you are this evening. So we'll start with a few deep breaths. Breathing into your belly. And noticing your abdomen rising. And then as you breathe out relaxing your belly and let in just the natural rhythm of the breath. Rising and falling and using the breath as an anchor to bring you into the here and now. Maybe following the whole length. Of your breath from the beginning to the end. And being aware of the sensations of the breathing. And if your mind is wandering, Just notice what it's doing and come back to your breath. Don't try to resist the thoughts, Don't get agitated, Just notice it and come back. Come back to the stillness. To the present moment and using the breath as an anchor. And the sensation of the breath, The coolness of the air as you breathe in. And following the breath through your nostrils into your chest noticing how your chest is expanding as you breathe in the diaphragm is moving your belly is moving and as you breathe out just following the out breath on the way out and the warmth of the breath as it's leaving your nostrils and then expanding your awareness from your breath to the whole of your body. So zooming out with your attention. From just being with your breath and your chest and your belly to the whole of your body, All the way down into your feet. And all the way up to your head. And becoming aware of the sensations in your body. What are you aware of right now? What sensations are you feeling in your body? And you might want to scan your body, Starting with your head and then moving slightly down into your neck and shoulders, To your torso, To your back. Down from your chest into your abdomen and your lower back your hips and pelvis, Down into your legs. Your knees and then all the way down into your feet. What are you aware of? How is your body feeling right now? And then imagine that your body is a landscape. What kind of landscape are you today? What kind of landscape comes to mind when I invite you to imagine your bodhisattva landscape? And this landscape capturing something of what are you feeling right now in this present moment in your body? And don't try to push away whatever image arises in your mind's eye. It could be a surprise. It could be a landscape that you don't know, That is not familiar. It could be a very familiar landscape. Just allow it to arise. And then imagine that you're inside this landscape. Imagine that you're sitting or standing right in the middle of this landscape and look ahead and see what is in front of you and then turn to your right and see what is on your right side And then to your left, Would you see the left side of your body? And then turn back what is behind you. And then look at your feet at the earth underneath you. What do you see? What is the grounds? I do not feel like. . . And then finally look above, Look at the sky. What kind of weather do you have today? And if the weather is a metaphor for how you're feeling right now? What kind of weather do you have? Is it day or night? Is it sunny or cloudy or rainy? Thanks for watching! Just noticing you in the weather, Not judging it Just accepting yourself as you are. This is my inner weather right now. And then once again, I invite you to look at your landscape all the way around 360 degrees. What else do you see? Being curious about your inner landscape. And now I'd like to invite you to imagine that you can step out of your landscape. And visualize it in front of you as a picture. So taking a few steps back so that you can see the whole of your landscape in front of you, Like a picture on the wall. And to include the sky and your inner weather. What do you see from this perspective? Maybe you will be able to see something different that you didn't originally see when you were inside your landscape. So you have now a wider view or a different perspective. Maybe there is something new that arises or maybe not. Maybe it just looks exactly the same. And then contemplate for a couple of moments what does this picture say about you or your life or where you are. And present in your life. If there was a title to this picture, Or a name, What would it say? Or a description, If you were to just describe it in a couple of sentences, What would it say? And then imagine that you can take a photograph, Like a mental photograph of this image. And when you're ready, Gently opening your eyes and taking your journal or notepad and see if you can capture something of this landscape on the piece of paper. If you have crayons, You might want to use the colors. You might want to draw your weather and your landscape. Or you might want to just journal and write a couple of paragraphs about this landscape and what it says about you and where you are right now. So just taking a couple of minutes by yourself capture some of this inner experience and put it onto paper.