Start with your eyes open,
Taking in your surroundings,
Taking in all the beauty of the world.
If at any time your eyes feel they want to close,
Just let them,
Or you can keep them open.
Keep a sense of informality and naturalness with yourself.
Welcome this time to yourself,
That you have this time.
It isn't more time than you can spare,
But it will have a deep,
Lasting,
Meaningful impact on the beauty of your day.
Take some breaths for yourself.
As you settle in,
Feel yourself welcomed where you're sitting.
Have a sense of your surroundings,
That you are in communion with your surroundings.
The sense that all of nature welcomes you and that you,
In return,
Welcome all of nature,
That you and the sky and the earth are allied souls,
Old souls,
Who inhabit the same atmosphere and regenerate and thrive from the same sources of nourishment and vitality.
As you drink in your surroundings with your senses and drink in the air with your breath,
Feel yourself drinking in the millions of atoms and molecules of nourishment and vitality that pulse through the atmosphere.
And now,
Sense your connection to the earth,
Where you are sitting,
Where you are surrendering all your weight and giving yourself down,
Downwards to the earth.
And that your body is wired by the miracle of gravity to feel its connection to the center of the world,
To always stay connected to the earth,
To nature,
To be held.
This is your belonging to life,
Your belonging to the wider world.
This ancient planet,
This miraculous abundance of self-renewing nature,
The natural world that you yourself are a part of,
That your being has been wired,
Inspired,
Guided from within,
With all its connections,
To experience gravity,
To experience the ground beneath you.
Feel your groundedness and your belonging,
The embrace of the sturdy,
Stable earth.
It's a note to you,
Always to remember that you are welcome here.
You are embraced.
You are welcome.
Not only as someone who moves within nature,
But as a natural spirit yourself,
A thing of nature,
That your natural being is welcome here,
And that your body,
Feel your body,
Can experience this welcome in every moment,
That with your eyes,
You can see the vitality and vibrancy around you.
Every blade of grass,
Every leaf,
The solid,
Firm trunks of the trees,
The ground,
The sky above,
The drifting clouds,
And with your hearing,
Calls of the birds and other aspects of nature,
Beings and creatures,
The whispers of the wind,
The splashing of the rain,
The trickle of the stream,
The gushing of the waterfall,
The roar of the ocean,
That your body has all these subtle levels of sensing to tune into all the layers,
The rhythms,
The textures of life,
Reaching out into the world to be able to feed from,
Literally feed from through hearing,
Through taste,
Through smell,
Through touch,
And so much more,
Every flavor of this wonderful smorgasbord of life.
And like all nature,
Your body has a creative,
Growing,
Blossoming,
Flourishing state,
And also a resting,
Renewing,
Healing,
Quietly regenerating one.
The two are at play within you all the time,
Keeping you whole,
The rise and the fall of the sun happens within you,
That when you are weary,
You can rest and regenerate,
That when you are rested,
You can begin a new day,
A new creation,
A new experience of life.
The natural flow of life exists within you,
Welcome that and feel it's welcome.
Now welcome your breath,
Your awareness of your breathing,
And of life gifting you this breath of oxygen in every moment.
And from the first moment that you were born,
Life welcomed you by gifting you its breath.
And feel how you take that into the inside of you,
Deeply,
How your breath moves inside of you,
And taking a big breath,
Stretching your heart open.
And there's a fullness there,
Your heart loving being awakened each moment by these breaths,
Loving this gift of life,
Loving receiving all these atoms and molecules of vibrancy from the outside,
Filling up,
Lighting up,
Expanding,
Taking up more space,
Your heart taking up more space,
Leaping up with joy.
And then the richness is that air,
That breath energizes you,
Reaches into every organ,
And your cells and your muscles and your nerves and your blood,
Charging you with everything you need,
Charging you with vitality,
Filling you with life,
Breathing.
You know life fully supports you,
And check into that inner vibrancy,
And all that space on the inside of you,
And all that freedom of air.
And then how when you breathe out,
You're breathing out carbon dioxide back into nature,
Back into the earth,
Which needs it,
Which is nourished by it,
Which welcomes it,
So that everything can grow and flourish.
And you are gifting life to the earth,
Just as life gifts life to you with every breath.
Enjoy that rhythm of this giving and receiving energy,
Breathing in,
You take in life,
Breathing out,
You give to life,
Breathing in,
I am life,
Breathing out,
I give life,
Breathing in,
I have life,
Breathing out,
I create life.
A couple more times to those mantras.
Breathing in,
I am life,
Breathing out,
I give life,
Breathing in,
I have life,
Breathing out,
I create life.
And then just keep being aware of your breathing,
Just as it is,
Making no demands on you,
Having no requirements from you.
And you freely take that breath,
Enjoying it,
Gaining more life from it,
And then giving freely your gift,
The gift of your breath,
The gift of your very being,
Your presence in life,
And that you need do nothing else,
That this is wholeness,
This is complete,
This is integrity.
In the same way that every flower,
Every plant breathes in and out,
And just by being a flower and a plant is complete and in integrity and held completely worthy and valuable in nature's gaze,
Its very presence is life force,
And so is yours.
Needing to make no further demands on yourself,
But rather to enjoy from this foundation,
Being able to love and play and explore and be curious and make connections and try things and give up those things and try other things.
This playground,
This freedom,
You,
A free being,
With full permission to exist as you are and to flow freely from that,
Flowing always towards what delights you,
What inspires you,
What charges you.
Not needing to change yourself or judge yourself or make yourself accountable to anyone,
Least of all yourself,
But simply to be,
To explore,
To live your life as you and to follow what touches you most.
Think now,
Briefly,
About the qualities of life that touch your individuality,
Your unique being,
Your I am the most.
What are your joys?
What makes your energy sparkle inside you?
What makes you feel at home,
At ease and alive in this world?
What touches of life?
What sacred places?
What elements?
Which people?
Which situations?
What visions and fantasies and dreams?
Spend some time awakening these energies that fill you up,
Heart,
Body,
Soul,
Mind,
Spirit with the welcome of their abundantly loving touch and that during today,
You will remember those touches and allow your instincts to gravitate toward them to be honored.
And all the time,
Feeling your abiding breath is a spirit of acceptance within you,
A spirit of welcome,
Of belonging unconditionally to life and of life belonging unconditionally to you.
And that anywhere in your experience which is calling for that acceptance,
You can bring your breath there and bring it space and freedom and compassion,
The spirit of compassion and acceptance and belonging and welcome to anything you're feeling physically or emotionally that needs that acceptance.
Let your breath flow onto those places with its spacious,
Vitalizing,
Accepting,
Soft,
Loving touch.
Your breath itself representing that larger acceptance of life,
Filling you softly and fully and nourishingly without any demand.
And for these last few breaths of this meditation,
Receive that blessing of life,
The blessing of belonging,
Always belonging,
Of being a part of everything,
Of everything in nature and every part of nature flowing equally within you.
And the particular welcome of your whole,
Untouched,
Freely circulating,
Wild and free spirit of the you in particular,
The you who cannot be emulated or imitated.
Nothing needs changing,
Nothing needs deleting or filtering.
Energies can be free and in your body,
You live in love and your own body lives in the wider body of love and welcome and well-being.
The whole unique you belongs and is welcome.
Receive that blessing and bless yourself and life with this welcome.
