Hello and welcome,
My name is Tanya.
Before we get started and before you close your eyes,
Please take the time now to get yourself comfortable.
Making any adjustments with pillows or blankets and please turn off notifications as well.
I encourage you to be seated in an upright position but feel free to choose whatever is going to work best for you.
Just making sure your legs can relax and your shoulders can fall easily and your back feels supported.
As you're making your final preparations I'd like to acknowledge that I'm coming to you from Darug and Gondangra country which is known as Noora and I am very grateful to the First Nation people that came before us and those around us for listening to and caring for country and for showing the importance of a deep understanding and kinship with Noora.
Please close your eyes.
It's lovely that you are joining in this effortless meditation and I will be guiding you through some breathing before walking through one of the rainforests here in the upper Blue Mountains as part of a visual journey.
Be thankful for this kindness you have given yourself,
Taking time for your mind and body to rest and let go.
Letting go of what has been,
Letting go of all my calm and letting this be a safe place without judgment.
Just simply observing and accepting your experience.
Each meditation is likely to be different and there is no right or wrong so whatever happens is okay.
Every effortless meditation will still be of benefit to your mind and body.
Keeping your eyes closed and our meditation is beginning.
With a few minutes of full and deep breathing right down to your belly and diaphragm.
Just noticing your breath as it passes through your nose,
Travels down through your body and how your body responds to this deep full breathing.
Your diaphragm is your main breathing muscle just below the ribcage and if you wish you can lightly place one or both hands on your belly and see it as part of experiencing your breath and it coming all the way down into this part of your body.
You can add a slight pause between your inhale and exhale so pleasantly and without any discomfort.
There is no measure here just experiencing your breath and bringing awareness to this moment.
Feeling the rise of your hands in response to your breath and know that with every inhale you are feeling your own aliveness and health.
With each breath feeling your body softening and sinking into a relaxing state.
The cycle of your breath both releasing tension and bringing wellness.
Continue with a few more lovely deep breaths.
Now let your breath fall into whatever rhythm it wants to just accepting the natural in and out of breathing with no thoughts about how to do it and now our visual journey commencing and I'm taking you to a unique and rare place here in the upper Blue Mountains.
This rainforest is found nowhere else and there is definitely wisdom here in the old trees and moss covered boulders.
Leaving the dry ridge top and descending down into the valley of Lura forest taking the stairs that have been neatly chipped out of the rocks.
Stepping over enormous tree roots and passing cavernous overhangs that have a slow drip and drop of water.
Footsteps are quiet on the layers of leaves below your feet,
It's a mixing palette of green and grey,
Yellow and brown.
The undergrowth of ferns is lapping between your ankles and knees.
Some of the ferns have young fresh leaves of soft pink and some of the ferns have a vivid fuchsia.
Entering the green room it is a place of giant ferns towering above you.
There are vines that are wound tightly in ringlets around the tree trunks and there are layers of green emerging from every angle.
The air is fresh and damp and there is the distant sound of a creek.
Spying some curious looking tree trunks,
Moving closer and noticing a camouflaged pattern with spots of light pinks and greys and whites.
You can see it's a cochlear tree and following the curve of the trunk around recognising the eye shaped etchings on the bark,
It's a marker of where a branch once grew.
The next tree trunk is different,
It is dark brown and running your hand down its bark is uneven and knobbly and crumbling a little under your fingers as you touch it.
It is a lily-pily and in autumn it has masses of pinkish purple edible fruit.
Sitting now and watching the lyrebird scratching away at the leaf litter,
Its chocolate grey coloured feathers are silky smooth over its large egg shaped body.
The lyrebird is moving away but its long tail feathers can still be seen waving above the green ferns.
The lyrebird's tail feather is an assemblage of white and tan colours tipped with dark brown.
Following in the tracks of the lyrebird are tiny white browed scrub wrens,
They are small and delicate,
Their movements are quick,
Springing around the dug up dirt looking for food.
To your left and rising out of the soil is a little world of vibrancy and colour,
Orange fungi fingers are sprouting and delightful red parasols appear.
Hundreds of tiny white fungi are also collecting along a huge decomposing tree.
The trunk is wider than your hands stretching out.
A creek is carving its way further down into the valley,
The water toppling over pebbles and rocks.
It's a musical in tandem with the king parrots and the rosellas calling above you.
The creek is a cooling presence for the rainforest as it is for you.
Placing your feet into the moving creek the water quickly spirals away in little circles and then squeezing its way between the stones tumbling over other rocks too.
The water is also in the soil and the moss and the trees.
Water is so simple and elementary and yet water has these superpowers of transforming and creating.
Water smoothing out the rough edges of rocks.
Water overcoming gravity and climbing the tallest tree to quench its thirst.
Water softening the hardest seed coating granting the seed to grow and plants and flowers to emerge.
Water is transforming this rainforest creating beauty everywhere.
You are also mostly water and you have superpowers too to transform and create through loving your own rough edges with kind thoughts.
Overcoming your past and quenching your thirst for living a life that is true for you and emerging and blossoming from a seed watered by self-love and self-worth.
In this cool place of tranquility I'm inviting you now to rest your awareness on an anchor which will be the sounds of the rainforest.
As your anchor safely holding you your thoughts will set you adrift and that is part of the cycle.
It is normal and expected.
Your mind will drift many many times drifting to and from the sounds.
Simply relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest at any time and always in an easy and effortless way without concern.
With your body relaxing you may even nod off and that's okay too.
Simply rest your awareness on the sounds of the rainforest whenever you happen to realize.
Observe and accept any thoughts and whenever you happen to realize simply and slowly,
Easily and without any effort,
Return to the rainforest.
Whenever you happen to realize you have drifted away with your thoughts just as effortlessly drift back to the sounds of the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
There is no judgment,
No resistance to whatever happens.
Continue to float,
Float back and forth from the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
Thoughts will come again and again but let it not concern you.
You can in your own time rest your awareness on the anchor which is the sound of the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You can be open minded and detached to any thoughts that wander past.
Continue drifting to and from the anchor,
This is the normal and natural cycle.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
Inviting you now to let go of the anchor and simply rest for the last few minutes,
Basking in the effects of the meditation.
There is nothing to do here but rest and I'll let you know when it's time.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
You may now relax and know you can rest your awareness on the rainforest.
Keeping your eyes closed right to the very end but you can now start awakening all the cells in your body and mind.
You can do this by taking some lovely full breaths.
Start welcoming small movements to your toes and fingers.
Just feeling the inhale and exhale bringing you back into the present.
Using all your muscles now to slowly start to stretch and move.
You can touch your skin with your fingers,
Just enjoying the breaths that are coming into your body.
If it hasn't already let a smile come to your lips and to your heart.
May gratitude and grace and wonder weave its way into your day and your week.
Thank you for being here and whenever you are ready please open your eyes.
