So hi there,
Welcome to the session today.
So today we're going to be doing a little visual meditation with eyes open on a plant.
So for this I'd like you to find if you can a plant.
Now this can be a house plant,
It can be you know plant out in your garden,
Maybe you can see one out your window.
For me I'm on a third floor,
I have a house plant with me but if I didn't I can see a lot of bushes down outside around the buildings around me where I live.
You could also potentially if you want close your eyes for this meditation and just kind of visualize a plant in your head,
Maybe it's got big leaves,
Small leaves,
Light green,
Dark green,
Flowers,
No flowers,
Whatever it is.
Maybe you could even find a picture on your phone or computer just to concentrate on this kind of image for this meditation today.
So once you've found your plant do feel free to pause and go and find a plant and then come back.
I just like you to set it down on the table or the desk in front of you so that you can focus on it during the meditation.
So now what we're going to do is we're going to begin the meditation however you usually want to begin it.
It's quite a relaxed kind of hands-off technique today.
So just starting to become aware of your surroundings,
Taking in your surroundings,
Your environment around you.
No particular focus on the plant just yet,
Just taking everything in and as you start to feel your own weight in the seat,
The weight of the body pressing down,
The weight of the feet on the floor,
Just starting to direct your awareness to the plant in front of you.
And as you start to direct this awareness I'd like you just to start deepening the breath,
Just starting to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.
And as you focus on the plant just drawing the attention to the leaves,
To their green colors,
Their lighter greens,
Darker greens,
Emeralds,
Maybe different colors,
Reds,
Maybe blues,
Different shades,
Maybe there's some lighter patches or brown patches.
And as you continue to breathe deeply,
Just thinking about the oxygen coming into your lungs through the nose and the carbon dioxide going out through the mouth and becoming aware of how this plant before you is taking in the carbon dioxide you're breathing out,
The waste products that you're breathing out and is emitting and letting out that precious and vital oxygen that as human beings we need to live.
Just starting to open up to this awareness of this almost symbiosis,
This balance,
Visualizing this as a cycle as you breathe.
Every out breath you take going into the plant nourishing it.
Every in breath you take drawing oxygen out of the plant nourishing you in return.
And then starting to think about the plant side of this process,
Of this balance.
Starting to focus in in your mind on the leaves taking in this carbon dioxide from the air,
From the breath and it's taking parts of those molecules and it's breaking them down throughout the day.
It's getting sunlight on the leaves,
It's absorbing that warm golden sunlight and it's using the energy from the sunlight to break up the carbon dioxide molecules.
But the process isn't done yet because down in the soil the plant has its roots spreading out through the soil like tendrils,
Probing,
Growing,
Absorbing and taking up water in the soil,
Taking in nutrients from the soil,
Nitrogen,
Phosphates,
All the nutrients that the plant needs to survive.
And it's taking in the water and it's bringing up through the stem of the plant into the leaves throughout the whole plant.
And in the leaves this energy from the Sun,
This golden flowing energy from the Sun is being used,
Like I said,
To break apart the carbon dioxide molecules from the air and to break apart the water molecules from the soil.
And with that energy it's synthesizing them into glucose,
Into the sugars that the plant can use to grow.
It can feel itself being nourished by these nutrients,
Growing healthy and alive.
The greens of the leaves and the stems or maybe blues,
Maybe browns,
Feeling itself nourished.
And as we come to this stage,
Just zooming out the awareness a tiny little bit back to yourself in conjunction with the plant.
This almost symbiotic process,
This balance as the plant is feeling this and you share in this feeling through the awareness that you've just built up and you realize that what you're breathing out,
The plant is breathing in to feel this nourishment,
To feel this growth and this life thrumming through it.
And in exchange it releases this oxygen back into the air which you take up as you continue to breathe just gently now,
Watching the plant,
Feeling these processes and then feeling as you begin to deepen the breath once again how it nourishes you in return,
How what the plant gives out you use to nourish yourself and what you give out the plant uses to nourish itself.
Feeling that refreshing nourishment,
That growth,
That life with every in-breath you take,
Oxygen coming in through the nose into the lungs and then just zooming out the awareness again one final time to the world around you,
To the local area around you,
Maybe that you can see,
Maybe your village or town or city,
Wherever you are and then just beginning to feel your awareness engulfing the whole globe,
The whole earth that we live on.
Feeling this process going on everywhere,
Feeling the nourishment within plants and life everywhere,
Animals,
People,
All of this going on and how beautiful this process is.
And with that,
Thank you for joining me today.
I hope it's been useful and I hope it's perhaps been insightful in a way maybe you weren't expecting to find today.
So thank you again and see you next time.
Bye bye.
