Snowy Mountain

An effortless guided meditation that takes the listener on a journey to a beautiful snowy mountain. Delivered in an English/Australian accent the meditation includes a senses scan, visualisation, and simple breath awareness to provide a relaxing meditation that is suitable for all levels of experience. Helpful for relieving symptoms of anxiety and slowing down a busy mind.

Transcript

Welcome to this effortless meditation.

I acknowledge you for prioritizing your well-being and taking the time to join me.

In this session,

I will be leading you through a guided meditation,

Starting with a scan through your senses,

Then a short visualization,

And finally a few minutes for you to rest your awareness on your breath before I bring you back into your room.

Now I invite you to find a comfortable position,

Seated with your back supported or lying down if you prefer.

If you are seated,

Allowing your head to remain unsupported and placing a cushion in the center of your back can help prevent you from falling asleep.

And feeling free to use cushions,

Blankets and whatever you have available to you to make yourself comfortable.

Now settling in and closing down your eyes if you haven't already.

Taking a few nice deep breaths in through your nose,

And out through your mouth,

And again in through your nose,

Out through your mouth,

Continuing this at your own pace,

And as you do so,

Feeling the weight of your body relaxing into its supports.

Now returning your breath to its natural rhythm,

And breathing through your nose if that is comfortable for you,

And placing your awareness on the feeling of your breath in your body,

Noticing where you are feeling your breath,

Perhaps the air passing in and out of your nostrils,

Or in your throat,

Maybe in the rise and fall of your chest or somewhere else.

Simply noticing it as it is without feeling the need to change it.

Now beginning to deepen your breath again,

This time drawing it deeper down towards your belly,

And noticing your belly as it rises and falls.

Using the diaphragm,

The large muscle between your lungs and your belly,

To draw the air deep down,

And as you do so,

Feeling your belly rising and falling with each breath.

If you like,

You can place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly to give feedback on your belly breathing,

And as you breathe in,

Feeling the hand on the belly rising more than the hand on the chest,

And as you breathe out,

Feeling the belly falling.

A little bit of movement in the chest is fine,

But for the most part,

The movement should be in the belly.

Breathing in this way increases the supply of oxygen and nutrients to cells throughout the body,

And helps by relaxing muscles and relieving tension.

In effortless meditation,

We gently place our awareness onto an anchor,

Which at this present moment is the rise and fall of your belly,

And at some point,

When you notice that your awareness has wandered away from the anchor,

And when it feels right to you,

Gently and effortlessly returning your awareness to your anchor.

Remembering throughout that the practice of effortless meditation is not to hold your awareness in one place or with a singular focus,

But when you happen to notice that your awareness has drifted away from the anchor,

Perhaps onto thoughts,

Emotions,

To a sound or sensation in the body,

At that point of noticing,

Choosing whether to stay with that thought,

Emotion,

Sound or sensation,

Or if it feels right,

Gently and effortlessly returning your awareness to the anchor.

Now returning your breath to its natural rhythm and your hands back to a comfortable position.

The invitation is to scan through your senses,

Resting your awareness on the different senses as I invite you to move through them one by one,

Starting with your sense of hearing,

Opening up to all the different sounds that are coming to you,

Scanning through the sounds and noticing which are the most obvious sounds you can hear,

The music,

A part of the music,

Other sounds in your environment,

Just resting your awareness on those sounds as they reach you.

And now opening back up to all the sounds again and noticing which are the faintest sounds that you can hear,

Perhaps something way off in the distance,

Perhaps your breath,

And just resting your awareness on those faint sounds.

Now moving to your sense of smell and any sense that may be coming to you.

Are there any strong aromas?

And then are there any faint aromas?

Any you can only just detect and resting your awareness on those aromas.

Now moving to your sense of sight.

What is there to be seen behind your closed eyelids?

Which are the most obvious things you see?

Darkness,

Colours,

Shapes,

Patterns,

And what is there to be seen but only just the vaguest shapes,

Colours,

Sense of light that you can just detect.

And finally to your sense of touch.

Which are the most obvious sensations on your body?

The feeling of your clothes or blankets against your skin,

The pressure of your body against its support or something else.

And which are the lightest sensations you can feel?

Maybe a light touch of air on your face or the tiniest tingling on your skin,

Resting your awareness on those sensations.

Now I invite you to join me on a journey.

Imagine yourself standing on the side of a snowy mountain.

As you look around you see tall pine trees,

Snow sitting deeply on their branches.

The sunlight is reflecting brightly off the whiteness all around you.

Drops of melting snow falling from the branches,

Reflecting the light into tiny rainbows.

You are dressed for the cold and feel comfortable in this icy paradise.

In the distance you hear the trickling of water and if you choose walking towards the sound.

Treading slowly through the snow,

Your feet crunching through the icy surface and sinking into the softness below with each slow step.

Following the sound of the water,

You reach a mountain stream cutting its way through the snow.

Deep snowy banks on either side.

The crystal clear water flowing and spilling over the dark rocks in the stream bed.

You turn and walk upstream along the bank.

Emerging from the tree line,

You see the snow stretching ahead of you.

Unmarked by signs of any human activity.

Ahead of you is the peak of the mountain,

Its outline silhouetted against the clear blue sky.

You breathe in the majesty of this unspoiled place.

Now returning back to your breath and gently resting your awareness on it as your anchor.

Noticing wherever you feel your breath without trying to change it at all.

Accepting your breath as it is.

Fast,

Slow,

Deep or shallow.

Your awareness may wander from your breath and that is perfectly fine.

When you realise that your awareness has drifted away,

Noticing that and if you choose,

Gently and easily guiding your awareness back to your breath.

Your anchor is simply a vehicle for turning your awareness inwards.

When you notice that your awareness has moved away from your breath to a thought,

An emotion,

A sensation,

An image or something else,

Simply noticing that without any judgement.

If you choose,

Just gently and effortlessly bringing your awareness back to your breath and resting your awareness there.

All of this comes down to the adjustment of your Pitch perfection.

.

.

Your breath is always there in the background.

Thoughts and emotions will arise.

You may become aware of a sound or a sensation.

And all of this is perfectly fine.

At the point of noticing that thought,

Emotion,

Sound or sensation,

You are also aware of your breath in the background.

At that point,

Choosing whether to stay with the thought,

Emotion,

Sound or sensation or to return your awareness gently and easily to your breath.

You may be aware of the sound or the sensation.

You may be aware of the sound or the sensation.

You may be aware of the sound or the sensation.

I invite you now to gently let go of your breath as your anchor,

Releasing any awareness of your breath and allowing yourself to rest for a few minutes in your mind to wander wherever it chooses to go.

If you like,

Relaxing back and making yourself more comfortable.

You have nothing to do now but relax.

You may be aware of the sound or the sensation.

You may be aware of the sound or the sensation.

You may be aware of the sound or the sensation.

Slowly bringing your awareness back to your breath.

Deepening your breath and becoming aware of your body again.

Noticing your weight against its supports.

Then keeping your eyes closed,

Introducing gentle movements to your fingers and toes.

Then extending the movement to your hands and feet,

Your wrists and ankles,

Arms and legs.

Stretching and twisting,

Shifting and easing your body however feels best for you.

Thanking yourself for making time to introduce this meditation into your day and noticing how you are feeling,

Perhaps a bit calmer or something else and if it feels right to you,

Setting an intention to carry those feelings into your day and any interactions you may have.

Taking your own time with no rushing,

Gently opening your eyes and returning to your room.

Nette� you you you

Reviews

Hi there Alex
Thanks a million for such a great meditation .!¡