Hi,
It's Julie Potichur for the Balanced Mind Meditation Center.
Let's start by taking three nourishing breaths.
Breathing in deeply and fully and then releasing slowly and gently.
Relaxing your forehead.
Relaxing your eyes.
Relaxing around your eyes and behind your eyes.
Releasing your jaw.
So much tension builds up during the day.
Just relaxing and releasing and softening.
Imagining a slight smile to the outside corners of your lips.
And then dropping that smile down into your heart and your chest.
Imagining a smile in your heart.
Letting your shoulder blades drift down your back,
Keeping your chest nice and open.
Relaxing and releasing your abs,
Letting your belly be soft.
And then releasing your hips into what is supporting them.
Letting your thighs relax and your knees.
Your calves relax and your ankles.
Your feet relax and soften.
And then imagine relaxation going from both of your shoulders down your arms.
Relaxing your elbows and your wrists and your hands all the way to the tips of your fingers.
Imagine feeling your hands from the inside out.
Seeing if there's any tingling there,
Any feeling pulsating there.
And then placing a hand or hands,
If you feel like it,
On what is soothing for you.
It could be your heart,
Your chest,
Placing your hands on your chest or cradling your face.
Hands on your belly,
Giving your arms a hug.
Just as a reminder that you're carving out this time and this space for yourself.
This is excellent self-care.
A time for you to calm your nervous system.
And now I'd like us to focus our awareness on our breath.
Imagine following the breath all the way from the beginning of the in breath to the very top where there's a little gap and then exhaling all the way out to the end of the out breath and noticing the little gap before breathing in again.
Almost as if you're ice skating the breath,
Allowing your awareness to glide the full length.
Now I'd like you to imagine that you're breathing in this cool,
Crystalline air.
This gorgeous,
Fresh,
Cool,
Clear air on your in breath.
And you're becoming buoyant.
Your whole body breathing.
And now using your imagination,
You're floating and hovering above the earth,
Completely safe.
Cool,
Not too hot,
Not too cold.
Just relaxed and comfortable.
You're looking down on Northern California and you can see the fires below,
But you're safe where you are.
You're not in any danger.
You watch for a while and of course compassion arises.
Although logically you know you can't put out the flames,
You begin to envision a fire blanket.
One of those blankets that firefighters use to extinguish fires.
You're breathing in this cool,
Clear,
Crystalline air on your in breath and on your out breath,
Your care and concern and love starts knitting the clouds together into a blanket of your care,
Concern and love and then gently releasing this blanket down onto the earth below.
You might be creating your blanket by weaving the clouds together.
You might be knitting the clouds together if you find knitting pleasurable or crocheting them or you could even be just weaving them together like children do with strips of paper or even taping them,
But you're just gently and relaxed state breathing in this cool,
Gorgeous air and you are creating these blankets with the clouds and then allowing them to release down onto the forest below.
The trees receiving your soothing,
Saturated blankets of love are relieved.
Continuing to create these blankets and imagining them floating down on individual neighborhoods and towns,
Soothing and cooling the animals,
The people,
The forests,
The buildings.
These moist blankets are drifting and soothing and on your in breath,
You're continuing to breathe in this crystalline,
Clear air.
Your out breath is lovingly knitting these clouds together in service of the planet.
Breathing down,
Down,
Releasing,
Wrapping the forests and the mighty redwoods that have been John Muir said,
A few minutes ago,
Every tree was excited.
Bowing to the roaring storm,
Waving,
Swirling,
Tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship.
But though to the outer ears,
These trees are now silent,
Their songs never cease.
John Muir and Henry Ward Beecher said,
Of all man's works of art,
A cathedral is greatest.
A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.
Henry Ward Beecher.
And the last quote is a Chinese proverb.
Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it,
Coming back into your body,
Back into your room and just noticing how your body feels,
What thoughts,
Feelings and emotions are arising and letting them blow through like clouds,
Not like the blankets that you were creating and releasing,
But like your everyday cloud in the sky that wisps through your awareness.
Just noticing,
Allowing your experience to be just as it is.
And when you hear the sound of the chime,
Coming back into this space.
Thank you for listening.
It's Julie Potichur from the Balanced Mind Meditation Center.
