Earth Day Nature Meditation: You Belong to This Earth

We spend so much of our lives indoors, in our heads, disconnected from the living world around us.
This guided visualisation is an invitation to come back. To remember that you are not separate from nature, but are part of it. In this practice, Emily guides you through a visualisation of the natural world, helping you reconnect with the earth beneath your feet, the air in your lungs, and the quiet intelligence of the living world. A perfect practice for Earth Day — and any day you need to find your way back.

Transcript

Well, If you haven't really had a chance to consider Earth Day too much, Then today I'd like to do a meditation grounded in connecting into nature, Connecting into our beautiful environment. So that's the plan. So without further ado, I think we should get into it and I might spend, I'll have a little bit of time at the very end to answer any questions that you have. Alright, Everyone. So. For anyone that's not aware, This is something I'm very passionate about. And I actually spent a long time, When I moved up to Byron Bay, I was surrounded by a lot of activists and a lot of people who were very environmentalist and sort of conservative, Conservative is the wrong one, Conservationist. I can't say it. I was surrounded by lots of conservationists. Yes. And it made me really inspired to move into the field of ecological psychology, Which is looking at how we can mobilize ourselves to best help the planet. Pretty cool, Hey? I didn't even know that it was a feels, But it is. And so there's a few pretty interesting things that I learned. And I put it all into a course called Climate Change Overcoming Hopelessness and Fear. And that course, You can head to my page, Emily Toner, And you can find out more about that. So if you do find yourself getting a little bit overwhelmed when you think about where we are at with our planet, With our environment, Then I really made this course for you. So see how you go because it really can be quite overwhelming. All right everyone well let's move into our morning practice so when you're ready sitting comfortably. And if you're new, If this is your first time meditating, Then welcome to you. You're welcome here. And we will Just stop by. Coming to our senses. What can you feel? Inside your body. What can you sense? Then we just slowly start to tune in to one anchor of the breath And the breath is a great way to ascertain. Or tuning into the breath is a great way to ascertain how you're feeling in this moment. How you're feeling today. So just start to notice the breath. Notice what it is telling you about how you feel. Fast and shallow breathing might indicate some stress and tension. It's perfectly okay. It's just useful to be aware of. Where you're at. Bring some compassion to your experience. I think I've probably said this about 5, 000 times in my life. But I'll say it again because it is one of the most important things to acknowledge when we sit and meditate. And that is that we're not here to try and change our experience. I know, I know it sounds unusual. We are here. To feel calmer and more present in our day. But we actually achieve this through being completely open to how we're really feeling in this moment. Mindful acceptance. And so we can just take the pressure off just for the next little while. There's nothing you really have to do. There's nothing to be achieved through thinking. And all to be achieved through letting go and being. Sometimes when we tune into our being, We might find some discomfort there, Some stress, Some frustration. Whatever it is, But the. . . Journey of mindful meditation is trying to be okay with whatever you notice. Just observing. Everything with the same awareness. Ah there's irritation here. Ah, There's joy here. Ah, There's boredom here. There's contentment here. And the truly enlightened one is one that Judges. None of these emotions as more important or That's it. The next. A lifelong practice, That one. So as we sit here breathing, Resting in spacious awareness. Invite you to allow your awareness to move to Think about a place. In nature. That you just love. Your favorite place in nature. Or if you don't have one, Maybe it's an imagined perfect place in nature. And I invite you to go there now. So as you sit here breathing in the present moment, You suddenly find yourself surrounded. By this beautiful scenery. And you start to hear the sounds around you. What can you hear? And as you sit here breathing in this special. . . Natural place. What can you feel underneath you? Can you feel the earth underneath you? What are you sitting on? Just imagining what it would feel like to run your hands along the ground. Where are you? So you can feel earth underneath you can hear the sounds around you and then all of a sudden you start to breathe in through the nose and you start to Smell. The subtle scent of this place. Being carried on the breeze. What does it smell like? You can hear and smell and feel this place. And if you were to open your eyes, What would you see all around you? As you rest back in this beautiful place in nature. Invite you to tune in to how this place makes you feel. Where can you feel this place in your body? You feel it in your chest. Deeper in your stomach. If you could absorb the energy of this place. And draw it into your body. What would it feel like? To absorb this place. With each and every cell of your body. It is almost impossible to feel stressed out when sitting quietly in nature. Why is that? Perhaps it is because we are nature. We have sprung from the earth and we rely on the earth. And the sun. We are interconnected with all of it. And we forget. Living in our house, Living in our cities. Living in our lives we forget. How inextricably linked we are. And if ever we're feeling overwhelmed, Stressed out. By our man-made world. We can always retreat back to nature. And if you don't have a vast expanse nearby, You can simply Be with the tree. Watch a sunset. Hold a shell in your hand. Relief. And you are back. Connecting to our awe-inspiring world. Connecting to our deepest and wisest. Nature. The more we value something. The more we take care of it. So we simply need to collectively remember. The incredible value. That our natural world can bestow to us. Just resting back now. Noticing any. Feeling sensation arising, Allowing all of it. Being open to whatever is arriving for you. In this moment. Compassion for Mother Earth. And compassion for ourselves. And all beings. As we begin to come to the end of this. Experience in our place. Know that you can return here anytime. In exactly the same way. Sitting, Breathing. And connecting. So deepening your breath now. Sitting up tall. What is one small Concrete theme. You can do for our planet, Our earth today. Just keep it simple. And follow through. Taking as long as you need. So open up your eyes. Really, We can make an impact and never forget the power of one small committed person, Someone like Greta Thunberg who started a whole movement. All right. I think I better get out of here. All right, Everyone. Hmm, Hmm, Hmm.