Good morning,
Greetings from the mountains here in South Africa.
I've just been on a morning hike,
Connecting with nature,
Taking a moment to pause,
To breathe,
To be,
And invite each of you to join me in a moment of pause,
A moment of presence,
A moment of just being,
And noticing our sensations.
And just take a moment,
Close your eyes if it helps,
And what do you notice in that sensation of touch?
Do you notice the breeze?
Perhaps you notice the sensation of your clothing,
Or the sensation of sitting or lying wherever you are.
I'm noticing I'm standing here on this trail,
And noticing the different sensations that my body can connect through the sensation of touch.
And I become aware of more right now of my sight,
And I'm seeing all this beautiful,
Natural,
We call it fynbos,
In South Africa we have a really unique ecosystem down at the tip of Africa,
And so there's all this beautiful different vegetation and fynbos,
And I've seen birds as I've been here just now,
Even as I'm recording this.
I'm just enjoying the different colors,
The greens,
The shades of green,
The shades of brown,
Different pinks and different tones,
And taking up that beauty through my sense of sight,
Through my eyes,
Feeling grateful for my eyes that I can see,
That I can walk this trail,
That I can come up onto this ridge and see the changing clouds and mist,
And it's been such a beautiful morning up here.
And then I'm noticing my sensation of sound,
Like right now you can hear my voice,
But let's give a moment of silence.
Can you hear the birds?
Brings me joy to hear the sound of birds,
There's a sense of calming the nervous system.
I'm taking a nice deep breath and noticing,
Do I notice any smells?
And wherever you are,
What do you notice when you bring your attention to smell?
And what do you notice when you bring your attention to your sense of smell?
I'm tempted now to go and smell some of the different fynbos and flowers and vegetation.
I'm just noticing this gentle smell,
This scent of being in the mountains,
Near trees,
Near so much nature and everything,
The air just feels softer.
And then finally,
Taste.
I had some really delicious fruit tea this morning,
Mango and ginger tea,
And I ate some peaches.
And then before I walked up here,
I had a biscuit or cookie,
As they say,
In the US.
And so there's this lingering taste of the peaches and the mango ginger tea and the biscuit.
And as I remember that and zone into that,
I feel gratitude for this body that could walk up this hill,
Up this mountain,
And gratitude of being able to eat a beautiful breakfast,
See this beautiful nature,
Feel this beautiful breeze,
Smell this just natural scents.
And to just really enjoy the simplicity of being in a human body that gets to experience and feel and sense,
Taste and smell,
Touch.
Inviting you to just connect with gratitude for yourself,
For your body,
For your life experience,
For your connection to your senses.
I'm just seeing another bird fly by.
My invitation today,
As you go about your day,
Can you choose one sense,
One of the five senses,
And just see how much gratitude you can have for that sense today.
So whether it's taste or touch or smell or sight,
Can you bring more of your focus and your attention to that sense?
And just see how your day goes by focusing on that sense and focusing on gratitude for that.
And I hope that you get to enjoy a little bit more of nature wherever possible to take yourself,
Even if it's to a park nearby,
Or to just sit on the grass,
Or just look up at the night sky,
Look at the phase of the moon,
See what you can see with the moon or the stars,
Or even just look at the sun and gratitude for warmth.
And just know that this life,
While temporary,
Is beautiful and wonderful and there's so much possibility and beauty and magic really when we can connect with nature and connect with the senses and return to presence,
Return to gratitude,
Return to beauty.
Sending you blessings and aloha.
Take care,
Till next time.
