Elephant Voices: Guided Imagery Mindfulness Drawing Exercise

Draw or doodle along with me on a guided imagery exercise. You don't need to be an artist to enjoy this track, just pick up a pen and draw whatever shapes, colours, or even words that come to you as you listen to this track. This exercise has been put together for mindfulness, introspection, and relaxation.

Track image: Generated by the Headliner

Music: Open Heart (extended) by Chris Collins, Indie Music Box

Transcript

Hello beautiful soul.

Welcome into this space.

It's time to pause,

Calm your mind,

And come with me on a guided art exercise.

You don't have to be an artist to take this journey.

All you need is something to draw a line on,

And something to draw a line with.

This won't be about creating a breathtaking artwork,

But using the process of drawing and doodling to distract your mind from its flurry of thoughts.

We'll start with a few deep breaths,

Just grounding ourselves in this space and in this moment.

Then I'll tell you a little story,

Something you can use as inspiration as you draw.

Draw shapes,

Smudges of colour,

Swirling lines,

Write some words,

Whatever comes naturally to you in the moment.

Let's begin.

If it is safe to do so,

And if you're comfortable to do so,

Close your eyes.

If you prefer,

Softly focus your eyes on a neutral point,

Perhaps the wall across from you or a spot on the floor.

We'll start with three deep breaths.

In through your nose,

Fill your lungs,

Expand your chest and belly,

And slowly out and relax into this moment.

Again,

In through the nose,

Feeling that expansion of your body.

And out,

Relaxing deeper,

Feeling how gently you're held within your form.

One more breath in,

Filling your body,

And out.

Secure,

Relaxed,

And aware of yourself in this time and in this place.

As we start our journey today,

I want to take a moment and imagine your feet in the hot,

Dry,

Yellow sand of the Namib desert.

Shuffle your feet and feel the trickle of sun-heated sand around your toes as we take a deep breath of the still,

Warm air.

As we take a deep breath of the still,

Warm air.

It's late afternoon and the sun has begun its slow descent towards the lower hills in front of us.

There's a drowsy feeling in the air,

With the low hum of flies,

A deep sense of waiting.

Only the cool of evening will draw out the desert birds and animals in the hours to come.

Let's take another deep breath of this warm desert air as we open our eyes.

There isn't a great deal to be seen at first.

The sandy plain that surrounds us is pretty bare,

Except for tufts of yellow grass.

Lower hills rise up on three sides,

Their curves standing starkly in the clear,

Bright light.

There is a patch of green in this otherwise drab vista.

A small waterhole is surrounded by a few thorn trees and spiny bushes,

With a patch of startlingly green grass on its rim,

A little oasis in this dry world.

And we won't be alone for long.

Through the screen of thorny trees and bushes,

An elephant appears,

Walking quietly,

Far more quietly than you'd believe for such a large animal.

He doesn't seem to be in a hurry in this hot afternoon.

He flaps his ears to discourage the flies that try to settle on him.

The tip of his trunk curls and uncurls meditatively.

Standing here,

We're well enough away so that we do not disturb him.

And you can appreciate just how big this elephant really is.

He would tower above us if we were any closer to him.

He's so powerful,

But so peaceful.

At the waterhole,

He takes a long and probably very satisfying drink,

Using his trunk to suck in water and then spraying it into his mouth.

He repeats this process many times.

It takes a lot of water to quench an elephant's thirst,

After all.

When he is satisfied,

He lingers at the waterhole's edge.

He turns to the right and flaps his ears,

And sometimes adjusts his feet,

The large pads settling into the hot sand with,

Again,

Almost no sound.

Then suddenly his posture changes a bit.

He seems more alert.

His ears stand outwards as if straining to hear something.

He raises his trunk.

Is he trying to smell the air?

Then he makes a low,

Rumbling sound.

It's almost too deep to hear clearly,

But it's definitely there.

What is he doing?

Well,

If we wait a while longer,

We'll find out.

Because a small group of new elephants appears around the slope of a nearby low hill.

As they get closer to the waterhole and our elephant,

We can hear more rumbles and even some higher-pitched calls.

There is ear-flapping,

Too.

Elephants have a very complex way of communicating with each other.

Smell,

Touch,

And body language seem to be just as important as sound when they're close to one another.

And a lot of the sound that they use falls under the category of infrasound,

Sounds so low in pitch that humans just can't hear it.

Elephants are extraordinarily sensitive to vibrations and low sounds.

When our elephant was adjusting his feet in the desert sand and staring off towards the hills,

He was picking up on the voices of these new elephants not only as sounds carried on the wind,

But as vibrations running deep through the desert sand.

He was feeling their voices with his feet.

They,

Too,

Would have picked up his rumbles as they approached the waterhole.

Elephants can hear distant rolls of thunder in a storm.

They can hear the infrasonic rumbles made by the crash and roll of waves,

Even if they're miles from a coastline.

Watching them talk to each other across these distances is almost uncanny.

Even with our feet buried in the desert sand and standing quite close,

We cannot feel the vibrations as they do.

Each elephant generates vibrations that are so powerful that they roll out like ripples in a pond.

In the air,

These don't travel very far,

But in the sands of the desert,

Who knows how many miles they may go.

Elephants even have distinct patterns and pitches to their rumbles,

Particularly when greeting each other.

These patterns remain constant throughout their lives and let other elephants know who is coming,

Even without seeing them.

Elephants have rituals for greeting each other,

Getting to know strange elephants,

And they even seem to mourn their dead.

There is so much more to an elephant than its appearance as the stalwart,

Looming giant of the savannah.

They are uniquely interconnected,

Intelligent social beings that still defy our understanding in so many ways.

I've been truly blessed in my life to be able to have interactions with African elephants.

These are not just animals.

They are intelligent,

Deeply connected souls.

They have culture,

They have dialects,

They even have a sense of humour.

I remember once watching a young male in a nature reserve,

And we knew this male quite well.

And he was getting rather annoyed as we watched him across the plain by a line of small,

Brightly coloured cars that was trying to pass him by.

Now,

When an elephant is quite comfortable walking down the middle of the road,

Swinging a little branch that he's broken off a tree,

He's not really in a hurry to move for your car.

And given that they're rather bigger than the majority of tourist vehicles,

There's not many that will argue with them.

Usually elephants get the right of way.

But on this occasion,

There was one little blue car that was more impatient than most.

And he kept edging closer and closer to this elephant,

Trying to get it,

I suppose,

To move off the road and let him pass so he could get where he wanted to be.

And you could see the elephant getting rather annoyed.

He was swishing the branch he was holding in his trunk,

He was flapping his ears.

You can tell when elephants are annoyed.

And eventually he turned and looked at this car.

And then he took a few steps forward,

Swishing his branch.

When an elephant is looking you in the eyes,

Staring you down and walking towards you,

Your natural inclination is to reverse,

Which is what this car did.

And in turn,

The car behind him had to reverse.

And the car behind him,

And the car behind that one.

And the elephant stood watching this and took a few more steps forward.

And we watched for the next 10 or 15 minutes while this elephant reversed an entire line of brightly colored cars down the nature reserve road,

Swishing his branch and seeming very pleased with himself.

Elephants are more like us than I think we like to admit sometimes.

They have a sense of humor,

They have a temper,

And they have very specific social and cultural rituals.

And they have ways of communicating,

Not just in words or sound,

But through smell and body language.

And humans,

We do the same.

Even if you don't speak the same language as another person,

You can usually tell by the pitch of their voice,

The sound of the words they're using,

The volume that might change,

And of course the facial expression and body language,

You can tell what that person is feeling in the moment.

You don't have to be a good speaker.

You don't have to speak the same language.

And then there is what we call the sixth sense,

The vibe,

The energy that we pick up off of other people.

And however you interpret this as the subconscious interpretation of micro-expressions,

As a feeling,

What you're really picking up on is the energy of the other person.

In a way,

A bit like the elephant,

You're picking up on their vibration.

We're all these little drops in a pond that cause ripples in this universe,

And these ripples go out from us.

We don't know how far they go.

We can never know.

And where we intersect with each other's ripple patterns,

We create new patterns.

And it becomes this really complex interweaving of experience and expression that really gives a texture to the fabric of reality.

And I like to think that while we're out here adding our own texture and ripples to reality,

So are the elephants.

And so is every form of life on this planet.

It's such a rich tapestry of experience,

Of expression,

Of joy and hope and rage and hunger and fear.

And it's all part of this uniquely physical journey that we've chosen to undertake on this planet.

I'm so glad elephants share it.

I hope you've enjoyed this little story with the elephants today,

And that's inspired you in your drawing,

In your doodling,

Or just to take a moment from your daily life and relax a little.

I hope you'll join me again for another little journey.

And until then,

Beautiful soul,

Be at peace.

Reviews

I am so delighted to hear another beautiful story from you Jessica. Thank you for this time away to reset.