So starting in the middle of your space,
Either sitting down or lying down,
If you are sitting down just stacking the spine on top of each other,
Head and neck on top of the spine,
Allow shoulders to fall away from the ears,
Resting the hands on top of the knees,
Closing the eyes and sending the sitting bones down to the floor.
If you are lying down,
Spreading out the body,
The legs relaxed,
Arms are comfortable distance from the body,
Turning the palms facing up and a gesture of surrender,
Of letting go,
Of release.
And we'll start just by connecting to our breath,
Becoming aware of every inhale and exhale,
Drawing our attention and our awareness towards ourselves.
Notice the gentle rise and fall of the belly and the chest as you breathe here.
Taking three deep intentional breaths together,
We inhale through the nose and we exhale all the way out.
Inhale through the nose.
We exhale all the air out.
Let go and release.
One more inhale through the nose.
Exhale completely.
We start to drop into our visualization.
This visualization is called the stream of consciousness.
Gently start to bring an image to the forefront of your mind.
Start to paint the picture of you walking on a path.
You find yourself walking in a forest on this path,
Slowly just putting one foot in front of the other.
As you walk,
You're very aware of your surroundings.
The rows of trees hugging each other next to you,
The crisp,
Fresh mountain air,
The earth and the soil beneath your feet.
Gently as you walk,
Become more detailed with what you see and what you hear.
Trees rustling with leaves,
The birds in the trees.
And as you walk,
Slowly the path starts to change,
Starts to shift.
And as it shifts,
You turn right and then you turn left,
Following along this windy path.
You're not concentrating on where you are going,
But being completely OK with not knowing the destination.
Just simply following,
Simply walking.
Slowly you start to hear some trickling of water,
A stream of sorts nearby.
As you follow this path,
Following the sound of the water,
Suddenly you find yourself in an opening.
Before you lies a flowing stream,
A river.
On the riverbank stands a beautiful willow tree that you decide to go sit under.
A gentle breeze blowing the willows above you,
Feeling the mist of the river gently blow against your face.
You notice this gentle breeze blow the trees around you,
Once again rustling the leaves.
And then slowly,
One by one,
The leaves start falling off the tree and into the river.
As the river carries these leaves downstream,
The river carries the leaves past you.
You are simply just sitting and noticing,
Not getting involved,
Not picking the leaves out of the stream.
Just enjoying watching the workings of nature.
And then you start to realize that where you are in this forest,
On the riverbank,
Watching the leaves,
This can be compared to the thoughts in our mind.
Every leaf falling into the stream symbolizes a different thought.
And the river itself symbolizes the workings of our mind.
You also notice that as thought falls into the mind,
Or the leaf into the river,
As it enters the mind,
It gently passes through and exits just the same.
And similarly,
You are simply just observing these thoughts,
Not needing to get involved or change anything.
Not picking the leaves out of the river.
Not stopping the leaves from falling into the river.
Just noticing.
Being a third person onlooker of the workings of the mind.
And slowly,
You can start to dissolve this image of yourself sitting on the riverbank.
Drawing your attention and your awareness back to your breath once again.
Bringing yourself back to this moment of you either sitting or lying down in your space.
And knowing when things feel a bit overwhelming,
Or your mind feels noisy and busy,
You can always come back to this visualization of the stream of consciousness.
To detach from your thoughts and become the onlooker of the mind.
And then we'll end our meditation with three intentional breaths.
The same way we started.
Together we inhale through the nose.
And we exhale out.
Inhale through the nose.
Exhale out.
Inhale,
Last one,
As deep as you can.
And then exhale,
Side out the mouth.
Place palms of the hands on top of the chest at the heart space center to seal your practice off.
Show some gratitude and appreciation to yourself.
Thank yourself for carving out this time in your day for some stillness and self-observation.
