Hello,
My name is Catherine Cook-Coutone.
This is a guided visualization about a boulder and a backpack.
This guided visualization was written to help you think about when you might be carrying too much,
And maybe this will help you discern when you are carrying the stuff that you don't need to carry.
Before I start,
Be sure you are seated in a comfortable position and feel well grounded.
Take a few deep breaths and allow your mind to settle.
And open up to listening.
Open up to the inquiry,
The I wonder of the story.
This guided visualization begins with a group of students and a teacher,
Their mentor,
On a mindful hike.
They are walking through the forest on a path.
As they walk,
They have been instructed to observe everything around them.
They walk slowly and with intention,
Eyes wide,
Ears listening intently.
They are moving through the forest gently,
Seeing,
Hearing,
Smelling,
And taking it all in.
The rays of the sun through the leaves,
The feel and the sound of the pine needles crunching underfoot,
The smell of a thriving forest,
Soil,
Pine,
Fresh,
Crisp air.
As they move through the forest,
They are hiking up hills and down hills.
They have hiked through meadows and over streams.
Though they are silent,
It is clear that they all know,
They agree,
That they are so fortunate to be in such a beautiful place on such a glorious day.
Their years of practice have helped them let go of their worries and their contemplations and be completely present to the mindfulness practice of this hike.
As they hike,
They come across a giant boulder.
It is huge.
The teacher pauses and breaking the silence,
She looks to the students and asks,
Students,
How much do you think this boulder might weigh?
The students do not know what to say.
They are unsure.
They know this boulder is of substantial size.
Time passes.
The teacher is patient.
She gently breathes as she waits.
Finally,
One of the students says,
Teacher,
I think this rock weighs a thousand pounds.
Then another student says,
No,
It is much bigger than that.
I think it weighs 2,
000 pounds.
Still another student argues that no,
No,
It weighs so much more,
Maybe 5,
000 pounds.
He had never seen such a large stone.
After several minutes of discussion and contemplation and all of their guesses were said,
They paused and looked toward their teacher.
After a bit more time,
Their teacher answered,
You are right,
Each of you.
This rock is very heavy.
This is true.
Yet,
Consider,
Students,
That it is only this way so heavy if you pick it up.
For those who walk past it,
It weighs nothing.
And so they did.
They walked past the boulder and returned to their mindful hike,
Eyes wide,
Ears listening intently,
Hearts knowing.
I have another story.
It's a little different,
And it's also about rocks.
When my daughter Chloe was little,
She experienced some back pain.
We were worried,
As this is not something typical for a little person in the first grade.
We were trying to figure out what could be causing it.
We began to think through all of her activities.
Perhaps this causes her pain.
Perhaps that causes her pain.
She heard us trying to figure out the source of her pain and told us that she believed that it was her backpack that was causing her the pain.
She said it was very,
Very heavy.
We asked,
How many books are in your backpack,
Chloe?
And she said she only had one or two books and maybe some pencils.
We were trying to make sense of the weight of a first grader's backpack.
I picked up her backpack to assess its weight,
And it was incredibly heavy.
Baffled,
I opened it up and started taking things out.
I discovered that the entire bottom of the backpack was filled with rocks.
She had been collecting rocks.
All school year,
One or two a week,
She had been keeping them in her backpack.
Week after week,
Chloe added and added rocks without taking any of them out until eventually it was hurting her back.
Until eventually it was hurting her.
And so I think of the teacher's boulder and I think of Chloe's rocks.
And I wonder for all of us,
How much weight do we pick up and how much are we carrying?
Maybe it's a big rock that we picked up.
Maybe it's a big rock we could have walked around.
Maybe it's a big rock that we could put down.
Maybe we've picked up a lot of little rocks along the way without ever setting any of them down.
So question one,
I wonder if there are rocks and even boulders that we never needed to pick up in the first place.
Question two,
I wonder if there is a place where we can leave our rocks that keeps them safe and lets us take a break from carrying them all.
For Chloe,
We put her rocks in a special place in her room so she could keep them and not carry them to school and back every day.
This was an easy one because they were actually rocks and not worries and concerns.
So ultimately I'm not asking you to throw away your rocks or even not to pick them up in the first place for that matter.
But know that you have a choice.
If we are not mindful,
Sometimes we don't even notice that we are taking on weight.
That maybe,
Just maybe we could have simply walked past or set down.
So where can you put your rocks?
Maybe you can set them down one at a time,
Maybe all at once.
Sometimes I ask my clients to actually collect rocks,
Real ones,
And then write a worry or a concern on the rock with a sharpie and then keep the rock well held or the rocks well held in a basket.
A pile of worry stones,
So to speak.
You can take a wish or a prayer and say it to your basket of rocks and leave them there in the basket for safekeeping.
No burden to bear in your backpack,
No burden to bear for you.
So coming from choice,
Choice about the rocks,
Choice about the boulders,
How do you want to work with yours?
And that's the end of the boulder and the backpack visualization.
Take a few breaths here and allow the visualization to settle.
You might want to take a few moments breathing,
Considering what this visualization might mean to you or for you.
You may even want to journal about this visualization.
Take a deep breath in and a big letting go.
Thank yourself for taking a few moments to listen and to wonder.
And I thank you so much for listening.
