Jungle Of Acceptance

Serenity Comes When You Trade Acceptance for Expectations. When our expectations are unmet, we can be faced with disappointment. But when we focus on this disappointment, it often overshadows a gift that is being offered. In this meditation, we surrender to the gift of acceptance. We learn to lean into Acceptance over Expectations that will lead you more directly to the life you love over the life you planned!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this Rise to Shine meditation.

I'm Bex Thompson and thank you for allowing me to be your guide here today.

In today's meditation we are going to release our expectations and flow into our acceptance.

So I invite you now to find a comfortable position either sitting up or laying down.

Just finding your space of comfort as you begin to relax your body,

Relax your mind.

And as you lay here relaxing into this moment we are going to begin to move into a deeper state of complete relaxation.

Just allowing the outside world to completely dissolve,

To disappear.

And if you haven't done so already,

Gently closing down your eyes,

Shutting off your lenses to the outside world.

So you begin to focus inwards.

Just bringing your awareness to your breath.

Allowing yourself to breathe nice and deep.

Breathing in and out.

Noticing how your body begins to soften.

Notice how your body is relaxing.

Knowing that at this time there is nowhere else you need to be.

Where you are right now.

You can just allow yourself to let go.

Let go of any tension held in your body.

Just feel it releasing,

Leaving your body as you completely surrender to the surface below you.

And as you continue to fall deeper and deeper with every breath in and out,

Your body is beginning to enter a deep state of complete relaxation.

You may notice how loose and limp your body now feels as you accept this gift.

The gift of complete ease,

Of complete comfort.

And now as you relax deeper and deeper,

Releasing every last bit of tension held in your body,

You can feel it simply melting away.

As you now feel so free,

So light,

That you could almost float away like a feather in the wind.

And now that you are completely relaxed,

We can begin our journey here today.

In your mind's eye,

Imagine that you are in a big tent in the middle of the jungle.

You are sitting at the edge of your tent,

Awaiting the sun to rise over the horizon.

In your hands you notice there is a nice hot drink,

A drink that warms you from the inside out.

As you look around,

The light begins to waken the land.

The warm colours begin to fill the sky.

Purple,

Pink,

Orange,

Yellow.

You can begin to see the lush green jungle that surrounds you.

And just notice how the greenery stretches for as far and as wide as your beautiful eyes can see.

Thick,

Lush,

Green.

The jungle is beginning to awaken.

And you hear the birds beginning to chirp as they greet the day.

You can hear the wild animals beginning to rustle around as they also awaken from their deep night sleep.

As you sit here with your warm drink in your hands,

You contemplate your quest today to venture through the jungle,

Winding your way up a mountain ridge to reach the peak of the summit.

In your mind you are certain that you will get there and you feel a sense of accomplishments of such pride once you reach this milestone.

As the sun now breaches the horizon,

The air begins to warm.

So you finish off your warm drink,

Grab your backpack and begin to set off on your journey today.

You follow a path and this path will take you to your intended destination.

The rising sun warms your back and you face the opening in the trees.

The cool breeze from the jungle invites you to enter.

The path is clear with a pointed sign that reads,

Mountain Summit this way.

So you begin your journey on this path.

You expect that it leads you to your desired destination.

In the distance you can hear the birds calling out to one another.

They sound so gentle,

So knowing,

So sweet.

They are inviting you into their home.

As you begin to walk the designated path,

You notice in front of you some captivating stone steps.

There is no sign,

But somehow you trust.

You trust that this is the way to go.

And although you expected to see a sign confirming that this is the way,

You accept this and you carry on forward,

Following this beautiful cobblestone path.

As you walk you feel the coolness of the stones underfoot and you observe,

Just observe the peace,

The harmony that the jungle offers.

You are aware of some creatures surrounding you as you hear them romping,

Playing,

Hiding amongst the dense canopy that you walk through.

In this place you realise that every living plant,

Every creature,

Every animal is accepted for exactly who they are.

In this place,

Nature's cycles are fully accepted.

There is no upset when the heavens open up,

Watering and nurturing the soil.

Nor is there any question when the sun's presence shines bright.

And it shines its bright and beautiful light down on the land below.

In this jungle there is no judgement,

Just pure acceptance for exactly what is.

As you continue to walk your path,

You notice the jungle begins to get thicker.

You have to push your way through some vines and a little thought irks at you as to how this track has not been maintained.

The path ahead of you looks dense,

Overgrown with leaves and vines.

Surely you would expect this path would be smoother,

It would be easier and not such an effort to push through.

Just as you have this thought,

A beautiful deer then walks right into the middle of your path.

You both stop in your tracks,

Aware of each other's presence.

As your eyes lock,

You connect and you feel yourself beginning to soften,

Beginning to come into complete stillness.

And this stillness allows you to sink into the harmony of the jungle,

This jungle of pure acceptance.

In this place where every person,

Every creature,

Every living object is accepted with no expectations.

The deer doesn't try to be a monkey.

The monkey doesn't try to be a snail.

A snail doesn't intend to be a butterfly.

In this place of pure acceptance,

Everything thrives.

Everything is in complete balance,

In complete harmony.

And as this power of acceptance begins to flow through your entire body,

Just ask yourself,

How can I free myself to live with more acceptance and less expectations?

Just as you ask this question,

The deer begins to walk away,

Revealing a beautiful clearing with a small stream flowing through it.

Once again,

There are no signs telling you which way to go,

But you simply follow your heart's direction,

Trusting and accepting.

Here you find the perfect place to stop,

To refresh and to contemplate.

As you walk over to that small stream,

You look up and you see the mountain ridge you were expecting to walk up.

You realise that it is in the complete opposite direction to where you are now.

You expect it to be on the right path.

You expect it to be closer to your destination.

But somewhere along the way,

You must have taken the wrong path.

But was it really the wrong path?

So often we focus on not meeting our expectations that we fail to see the gifts that lay right in front of us,

The gifts of the unexpected.

When our expectations are met and when things do go according to plan,

We feel the sense of accomplishment,

Of pride.

But here we often risk little.

We feel safe,

We feel in control and we feel on track.

When our expectations are unmet,

We are faced with disappointment.

And as we focus on this disappointment,

It can overshadow the gift that has been offered.

To your right you notice a small sky lantern with a light within it.

This lantern is ready to be released up into the sky,

Just as you are ready to release the outcomes of your expectations.

As you walk over to this lantern,

Bring to mind a time recently where you have felt disappointment,

Where an expectation has not been met.

Perhaps you felt let down by someone close to you,

Or maybe you had been looking forward to something.

Just allow this to rise to the surface now,

A feeling,

A memory of where you feel something has not gone to plan.

A time where something hasn't gone your way.

And as this sense,

This feeling,

Or memory begins to emerge,

You walk over to that lantern and place this memory or this feeling inside the lantern.

As you place this disappointment,

This expectation inside,

You see that the air lantern begins to rise up into the sky.

As it rises,

It gives you separation,

It gives you freedom from this attachment.

You allow yourself to completely surrender as your feet begin to deeply ground into the jungle of acceptance.

As the lantern rises higher and higher,

Up into the sky,

You begin to feel freer.

You notice it floats up even higher and you feel freer,

Up to the moon above.

With this distance that now exists,

The gift from this unmet expectation is now free to reveal itself to you here today.

As you go within,

Ask,

Where does the gift lie that I wasn't able to see?

Because there is always a gift when things don't go to plan.

There is a gift of surrender.

There is a gift of faith.

There is a gift of courage.

And most importantly,

There is the gift of pure acceptance.

Acceptance that your life is turning out exactly the right way,

Even if it's not the way you thought.

In fact,

You are learning to make room for the unexpected things that lead you more directly to the life that you love over the life that you planned.

And really let these words sink in.

You are learning to make room for the unexpected things that lead you more directly to the life you love over the life that you planned.

As you have now turned your focus away from disheartment and into complete acceptance,

You can see that you were so caught up in planning,

So caught up in the discomfort of awaiting an outcome,

That you overshadowed the gift that the unexpected gives us.

You realise that so often life throws us curveballs,

And in fact these curveballs are a catalyst for our profound transformation.

But if we are so caught up on things not being the way we planned,

We fail to see the gift right in front of our eyes.

And now is the time to allow this gift to come forward.

What gift is right in front of you that you have overlooked,

Staring at you from behind the shadows of your expectations?

Here today you realise the gift you received was acceptance.

You did not reach your intended destination of that mountain peak.

However the gift of presence,

The gift of acceptance is far more valuable to you.

This was a journey that you could not plan for,

Yet you now accept it with complete grace,

With complete gratitude.

As you look back up to the night sky,

You see your air lantern shining bright,

You see it has landed up amongst the stars.

You are reminded that in life as we shoot for the moon,

It fills you with such delight to land amongst the stars.

You can still intend,

You can still plan for the best that life has to offer for you,

And then allow yourself to surrender into acceptance,

Knowing that you will be led to the best possible outcome,

Perhaps an unexpected outcome that exceeds everything you could possibly dream of.

As you sit here in the depths of the jungle,

You are filled with so much gratitude for the gift you have revealed here today,

The gift to make room for the unexpected that will lead you more directly to the life that you love over the life that you planned.

Here in the jungle of acceptance,

You now have everything that you need,

And it is time to begin your journey back to the here and now.

You thank this jungle one last time for giving you this amazing gift of acceptance deep in the jungle.

And now I will begin to gently count you back into the room,

Back into your body.

5.

Accepting that life has a way of working for you in ways that you could never expect.

4.

Being so refreshed,

So revived from your journey here today.

3.

Knowing you have freed yourself today to live with acceptance over expectation.

2.

Trusting your journey and that the universe always has your back.

1.

Bringing your awareness to the surface below you as you feel your presence back in your body.

2.

Just allow some small movement,

Wiggling your toes,

Wiggling your fingers.

3.

And only when you feel ready,

You can flutter your beautiful eyes awake.

4.

Just to summarise our meditation here today,

We have released our expectations and our judgement that we hold.

In its place we have allowed acceptance to flow through us,

Giving us this gift to see the silver lining that often gets overlooked.

When we're so busy focusing on our disappointments and our unmet needs,

We fail to see the gift that is there.

So today,

We freed ourselves of judgement of ourselves,

Of others and of our circumstances.

From the bottom of my heart,

I thank you for practising with me here today and although I may not know you personally,

Trust that I see you,

I honour you and I am very grateful for you.

Namaste.

Reviews

💚Thank you. This was helpful for my acceptance of a huge obstacle that has arrived and greatly changing my life path. 🙏