The Untrodden Path: A Meditation For Courage And Confidence

In this guided meditation, you take a familiar walk—but choose a different way home. Along the untrodden path, you encounter three horses, symbols of unpredictability, strength, and quiet power. As you meet them with presence and courage, you practice staying open, grounded, and brave in the face of the unknown. This meditation is an invitation to gently step outside your comfort zone, build confidence, and discover the strength that emerges when you choose to do something different.

Transcript

My name is Kari,

Let's meditate together.

If you haven't done so already,

Close down your eyes and make sure that you're sat comfortably.

Let's make a point of trying to bring our thoughts,

Our bodies,

Our attention constantly back to the breath.

So when we get those distractions of impulsive thoughts that just rush in about your day,

It's okay.

You can say hi there and then just let it go.

Bringing your attention and your presence and your devotion back to your breath.

And as you settle into your body and you start to focus on your breathing,

Slow your breath down just a tad.

Relaxing your body a little bit more by slowing your breath down.

Start to feel your breath travel through your body.

Pay attention to the subtle movements,

The sensations it causes in your body as you breathe.

Pay attention to your shoulders,

Soften them a little bit,

Pull them away from your ears.

See if you can relax your abdomen.

Lots of time we all tension in the tummy,

So just try really hard to breathe out and soften the muscles,

Any tension in your stomach.

Do that a couple of times.

And then going on a visionary mental journey,

Playing with your thoughts and your mind's creation,

Just imagining.

Imagine that you're walking down a country lane.

There's nature,

Trees,

Bushes,

Like an edgeway all on the left side.

And on the right there's an old small road that cars can go by just one way.

They'd have to squeeze in and take turns.

One of those old country lanes.

And you're on the side of the road just walking.

It's a nice bright day.

A little bit cool,

But you're dressed in a way that feels warm and cozy.

And you're enjoying being outside in the fresh air and just taking in a little bit of nature.

You can feel the ground crunch under your feet a little bit when you walk and it sounds soothing.

It's repetitive,

Just the slightest crunch every footstep.

It's very quiet.

There's no one else around.

You feel safe on this road.

You've been there many times before and you know that it's a safe area.

So there's absolutely no need to be concerned about anything other than just a really nice walk this beautiful,

Fresh,

Crisp day.

Up ahead on your walk,

The path forks into different directions.

So it goes left and also goes right.

You're familiar with both of these ways,

Both of these ways in your mind,

In your imagination,

Take you home.

One is slightly longer and the other one is next to a field with horses in it.

You normally go in the direction of the roads.

You see more people,

You like to say good morning,

That kind of thing.

So you normally go to the right.

But as you get closer and closer you feel inside of your body and your bones that today you're going to go the unfamiliar route and you're going to go left towards the field with the horses.

The ground underneath your feet changes as you start to move left.

Now you're walking on earth.

It's a path still but it's just dirt underneath your feet with the odd bit of surviving grass that's here and there.

But it's been well trodden.

It's definitely formed a path.

The field is about maybe 20-25 steps there in front and it has a fence around and you can see the horses as you get closer and closer.

There's three of them in the field.

One quite close to the fence where you'll be walking by and the other two are just spread out grazing.

As you get closer and closer the horses hear you and the other two horses also start to approach as if they're walking in one direction towards you and you're walking in the other direction towards them.

And as you get close,

A few steps now,

You pause just a little bit away from the fence.

There's an uncertainty.

You may love horses but this is an animal.

They have moods,

They have behaviors and they can be unpredictable.

And you don't know these horses.

You're drawn to them.

You'd like to maybe reach out and stroke them but you have to pay attention to that part of you even if it's the tiniest little part.

Or maybe if you're like me it would be quite a big part of you that's apprehensive about being close to the horses in case they don't like you or they bite you or they're just not happy to see you.

Even though this may be something completely new to you,

You take a step closer and let the horses sniff one of your hands.

They seem friendly enough.

There's one of the horses that's particularly friendly,

Nudging your hand a little bit as if it's asking you to be gently scratched and stroked.

So just gently you start to stroke up the horse's nose in the middle of his eyes,

Leaning in to your touch as if to say yes that's okay you can touch me.

It moves its head slightly to the side and allows you to scratch around his ears.

This one is a happy horse and he likes you.

While you change hands and carry on stroking the happy horse,

You put one of your hands forward for the next horse to smell.

The horse smells your hand and nudges it.

So you gently stroke up his nose.

But when you move to stroke around his ears,

He shakes his head as if to say no,

No that's not what I want.

This is all so unfamiliar,

You're learning,

You're taking small steps,

Apprehensive steps,

Until you know the lay of the land.

Because like I said,

These are animals and they can be unpredictable.

Unpredictable.

You stroke just down his nose and he seems to be very happy with that,

His eyes softening and closing as if he's enjoying it.

You're getting to know each one of them bit by bit.

And then you stop,

Stroke in the horse that doesn't like his ears being touched and you go slightly right and let the last horse smell your hand as if you're introducing yourself.

And the last horse sniffs and pulls away completely.

Very clear communication,

It doesn't want to be touched.

This distance that you have with that horse is good,

The horse is not unhappy with being close to you but it doesn't want to be touched.

And you honour that.

As you're learning,

This is a learning process.

You go back to the second horse and stroke up his nose and he looks happy once again.

As you look around your feet you see that there's lots of wild grass,

Long grass on your side of the fence and it's all been nibbled away on the horse.

The side of the fence as far as they can reach.

So you stop touching the horses and you pick lots of the long grass,

Pulling it from the earth.

It feels good in your hands.

Pull bunches and bunches of it and then you offer it to the three horses there in front of you.

All three are very interested in the grass and that makes you happy.

You stay there for a few more minutes and feed them as much grass that you find close by.

And then it's time to say goodbye and carry on on your journey home on this different route that you're taking.

The horses after you start to walk away disperse back into the field and you get back on the path that leads to a main street not too far through this field.

As you walk away from the horses you're very proud of yourself.

You've just done something that could have been scary,

Could have been uncomfortable,

It could have been fun or exhilarating,

Whatever your feelings were while you were doing it.

You're proud of yourself because it was something different that you just did,

Something new.

And there's always risk when you do something new.

But that was a good experience.

You smile and the road is closer and closer until you find yourself on the street and then there's life again.

There's a couple of small stores and people mulling on the left side and the right side of the road.

And you make your way home.

You can stop on your journey in your mind.

I'm going to count to three and you can open your eyes and come back into your present moment.

One,

Two,

Three.

Coming back into this day,

This moment,

In your space.

Feeling like you've just allowed yourself to be brave,

Mentally,

Emotionally doing something that could be very unpredictable and you just did it.

It doesn't matter what world you did it in,

You did it.

And that's an accomplishment.

Namaste my friends.