My name is Dr.
Christiana Wolff,
And this is a 20-minute guided mountain meditation.
So finding a comfortable posture,
Finding a posture that for you represents sitting with dignity and ease,
And then if that works for you,
Bringing up the image of a mountain and feeling into the qualities of this mountain.
It's being firm and solid,
Part of the earth,
Rising up tall,
But being grounded at the same time.
So seeing if you can feel the sense of groundedness in your body,
Sitting like a mountain.
And the mountain has seen everything many,
Many times,
And it just sits.
So in spring,
The animals are coming back or waking up from hibernation and starting to look for a mate,
Green is coming up everywhere,
On the ground,
In the bushes and trees.
There's a lot of water from the melted snow,
And the mountain just sits,
And the days are getting longer,
Finally.
There's more sun,
And everything is growing and blossoming,
And the mountain just sits.
And then moving into summer,
The days are getting hotter.
There might be less water,
Fruits are ripening,
The animals are raising,
They're young,
And there might be a sense of ease or even laziness around,
And the mountain just sits.
And then over time,
The days are getting shorter again and cooler.
Some animals are collecting food for the winter,
And others are getting ready to go to warmer areas,
And the mountain just sits.
And there might be fall storms that can be quite fierce,
And the foliage is changing color,
And leaves are starting to fall,
And the mountain just sits.
And the days are getting colder and colder,
And shorter and shorter,
Until one day the first snow falls,
And everything is covered in white,
Barely any sounds,
Not a lot of life visible,
And the mountain just sits.
And sometimes it feels like winter is going on forever,
And it will never end.
But no matter how long,
How dark,
How cold that winter is,
One day the days are getting longer again.
And it's getting a little bit warmer,
And the snow does start to melt.
And then one day,
There's the first fresh green,
Tiny at first,
And growing.
Unstoppable,
And the mountain just sits,
And the whole cycle starts over.
And I want to share a poem with you before we sit in silence for a couple more minutes.
And the poem is by Li Po,
A Chinese poet from the 8th century.
The birds have vanished into the sky.
And now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together,
The mountain and I,
Until only the mountain remains.
Until only the mountain remains.
