Welcome to this special meditation for mums and daughters.
This meditation is dedicated to helping us have a healthier and balanced relationship with our thoughts.
So I invite you now to find a nice comfortable place to lie down.
Find something to support your head as you lie in your bed or on the floor.
Gently close your eyes or gaze with soft eyes in front of you.
And just noticing your body.
How does it feel right now?
Sense the contact that your body makes with the floor underneath you.
Noticing its weight.
And just exploring how it feels.
There's no right or wrong.
Everything you notice is perfect.
Our experiences change all day long.
Every minute we are feeling different feelings,
Sensations and emotions.
It can be so lovely just to notice our bodies without judgement,
With a sense of kindness.
So now let's find our breath.
Take your attention down to your belly.
Can you feel your belly rising and falling?
Feel the air going into your nose and travelling down into your belly.
Hold it there for a second.
And then let all the air out until there's no more.
Keep breathing now and just noticing the rhythm of your breath.
We rush about our days but it can be so relaxing to just stop and connect with this gentle cycle of the breath every now and then.
Now I want to invite you to imagine you're in a beautiful garden.
In this garden there's a big colourful picnic rug lying over soft green grass.
Imagine yourself lying down on this rug and looking up at the sky.
It's beautiful and blue with only a few soft white clouds scattered across it.
As you gaze upwards you see a flock of white birds gliding past,
All in formation.
And you feel the peace and calm of being here.
You notice your body still and grounded.
And then you see the most beautiful butterfly fluttering above you.
Its wings are bright yellow and blue.
You've never quite seen a butterfly like this.
Imagine yourself holding your fingers out and letting it sit on your hand.
You bring it in close and you look at it in more detail.
You see its paper thin wings,
Its tiny antenna and its delicate little legs.
And when you're ready you lift your hand up into the air and you let the butterfly take flight.
You watch it as it flies peacefully into the distance.
Right then you notice another butterfly come.
This time it's pink and golden.
It lands on your finger.
You bring it up close and you let your eyes examine its beauty.
And then you let it go.
Each of these butterflies is like our thoughts.
Every day we have hundreds of thoughts pass through our minds.
Some are big,
Some are small.
Thoughts about ourselves,
Our friends,
Our work,
The future,
The past.
Some thoughts are hard to have and others are more pleasant.
We can treat our thoughts as though they were butterflies.
We can meet them with the same curiosity as we did with the butterflies.
Thoughts like butterflies aren't meant to be captured,
To be held onto.
They're meant to flow and be free.
We can say hello to our thoughts,
Let each one sit with us for a moment and then eventually let them go to make room for new thoughts.
So let's try it now.
Think of something that's been on your mind.
Maybe something that happened today or yesterday.
As you think about that thought,
Imagine it as a butterfly.
Imagine it landing on your hand,
Saying hello to it,
Recognizing it and then gently letting that thought go.
Imagine it flying off into the distance.
Spending a few moments now lying here and imagining your thoughts as butterflies.
Releasing the image of the garden and the butterflies and start bringing your attention now back to your body.
And taking a few slow deep breaths.
Notice your tummy rising and falling.
In a moment I'll ring the bell to finish the meditation and when it finishes you can take your time to slowly open your eyes.
