The following meditation is a tribute to my first yoga teacher in the Netherlands who guided a meditation based on the growing process of a plant and in this case a flower.
So the invitation now is to find yourself a comfortable posture,
Comfortable with a sense of clarity by resting the body on gravity and resting the attention on the breath.
And know whether if the breath is high or low,
Fast or slow,
Noticing its natural movement,
Its presence.
Starting this practice with the visualization of a seed,
A seed that gives birth to the growing process of a flower.
And within imagination an image pops up how this seed would look like,
Its texture,
Its form,
Its shape,
Its colors,
Whatever rises.
And suits the image of this seed at this moment.
Feeling the texture of this seed in our fingers,
Hands and bringing it to a place where it can be planted in the ground.
Dropping the seed in its place,
Watering the soil,
Covering under a blanket of soil.
And again coming back to the natural respiration.
And after a few breaths a small green branch starts to pop out through the soil.
Within this practice we are going to follow the growing process.
So each breath slowly and patiently following this green tip of a growing plant to become taller and firmer and stronger.
Feeling the growth of this sprout forming into a branch with small leaves,
Fragile,
Still soft,
Forming its way to become taller and more resilient,
Breath by breath,
Moment by moment.
Fear doesn't hurry yet,
Everything is accomplished.
So again a few more breaths until the full base is formed for the growth of a flower.
Feeling more stronger stem,
Leaves unfolding through the sides,
Becoming stronger.
Being able to move with the wind,
Resist rain and sun.
And there comes a moment where there is a bud forming.
Only a bud comes up,
Becoming thicker each breath.
It's a colour popping up through the protective crown of leaves,
Wrapped around the bud of a flower,
Breath by breath,
Moment by moment.
And the first colour that appears in this visualisation will be the colour of this forming flower.
Allowing it to happen.
The crown slowly starts to open,
The flower starts to spread open,
Breath by breath,
Leaf by leaf.
Until the moment there is a full blooming being,
Showing itself to the world with its own smell,
Attracting pollinators through the wind,
Weaving with the tides of day and night.
Some flowers close at night and open during the day or the other way around.
Let's visualise that this flower,
Like us,
Usually opens during the daytime and sleeps closer at night.
We are starting to visualise the opening and closing of the colourful leaves of this flower.
You might even notice how this process can align with each breath,
Where an in-breath opens,
Expands and an out-breath softens,
Closes.
Flower opening on an in-breath,
Closing on an out-breath.
And this is the moment where we can bring a slight pranayama practice,
Along with the visualisation of the opening and closing flower.
An in-breath fully,
Until the lungs are fully filled and an out-breath gradually,
Until the lungs are empty.
And again.
Opening and closing.
Organising the opening and closing flower.
Concentration,
Purely on breath and visualization.
And when the mind wanders naturally,
Reaching out an invitation to explore this process,
This presence a little bit more.
Just a few more conscious breaths and visualization of flower right here.
There comes a point that a flower can actually turn into a seed,
Form a new seed from the flower.
Sometimes fruits with seeds.
So I'm going to invite us to visualize this returning process.
Seeing the flower closing in,
Becoming smaller again,
Losing its color,
Transforming into a new seed.
Breath by breath,
Moment by moment,
Until you find the texture,
The form and shape.
Back again,
That you were holding in your hand as you planted this flower.
Just a few more breaths here.
Closing out the hand,
Where we have the chance to again drop the seed into the earth.
We can open our eyes and allow new light to enter.
Add some orientation back into the space where we are at this moment.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling longer.
May you find tranquility and peace through the practice of meditation and visualization.
Namaste.
