Tidal Breath & Bare Feet

Join me as I invite you to shed your shoes and socks and take a walk on a Scottish beach. Feel the ground under your feet and the transformation as you reach the sand. Come with me to the edge of the water and allow your breath to sink into the rhythm of the tide. Feeling refreshed and nurtured, this is a beach that you will want to visit again and again.

Transcript

Okay.

Good morning,

Folks,

And welcome to this meditation.

Wherever you are in the world.

From remote Scottish islands to metropolises.

And if anyone's listening on replay you might be somewhere in between those two.

So welcome.

Let's just as we usually do,

Let's just turn our eyes down,

Soften our gaze,

Or close our eyes completely,

Whatever feels most comfortable for you.

And let's just bring our awareness to the soles of our feet.

Perhaps our feet are resting on the floor.

Or perhaps your legs are elevated in front of you and it's the back heel of your foot that is making any contact.

Or perhaps there's a blanket or a duvet over your feet.

Whatever there is just take some time to check in with the soles of your feet.

Your toes.

Your heels.

Your ankles.

And let's just thank them for a few moments for all the journeys they've taken us on.

Walks along beaches.

Walks into woods.

Walks along pavements.

All the surfaces they have invented.

And all the socks and shoes they've been wrapped in as they've done that.

Perhaps they are socks that have been knitted with love and care.

A riot of colour.

Perhaps they're thin socks.

Perhaps they're no socks in sandals.

Thick socks in walking boots.

All these different textures against your feet.

All these different weights of shoes.

Have there been times where you have had to protect your feet?

Steel toe caps or fleeing or out hiking?

Imagine for now that sense of your feet with nothing on them.

Bare feet.

And let us imagine that we are walking on some grass in the early morning.

The dew is still there.

Our feet are bare.

We can flex our toes and feel the coldness of the soil from the night.

But we have an anticipation of it warming up during the day.

The grass we are walking on is holding on to the moisture.

And as we walk we feel the blades of grass on our feet.

And we walk a little further and we encounter the moss.

The springiness of the moss.

Softness.

We walk a little further and we come to power.

And this is a path that has been trodden by many feet before us.

A little muddy,

A few roughs.

A little bit of grass.

Maybe there's flowers growing down the centre of the path or to the side.

There's so many textures on this path.

There's small stones.

And we pick our way carefully.

We pick our way carefully along this path.

Until we come to a beach.

And our feet are almost getting excited now at the thought of stepping onto that sand.

The abrasion.

Perhaps we're thinking of the sea.

Perhaps this beach makes us want to run fearlessly or perhaps we have a memory of a stuffed-toe in a hidden room.

So perhaps we're still slightly cautious.

However we meet this beach,

Let's walk along it for a little bit.

The sand is both soft and abrasive,

Just as sand is.

It's already started to pick up a little bit of warmth from the early morning sun.

But if you were to dig your toes into the sand at all,

You'll soon encounter wet,

Cold,

Solid sand.

And you know that that is there to support you.

The solidity of the sand underneath the finer grains on top.

So if you walk on this beach for a while,

Scrunch,

Scrunch.

And it's a beautiful morning.

It's a beautiful wind to keep the air fresh and cool.

The morning sun takes away the chill from the night and hints at a warmer day later on.

It's not quite there yet.

And we walk along the beach and we come to the edge where the water meets the sand.

And we allow the tide to come in and wash over our feet.

And we feel that sense of configuration coming from our feet.

Up past our heels,

Our ankles,

To our thighs,

Our knees,

Our thighs.

Another wave comes in,

Slightly deeper this time,

Comes over our feet,

Covers our ankles.

The sense of aliveness carries on upwards past our pelvis into our lower back.

The coldness of the sea is penetrating our body but invigorating in a way that leaves us feeling fresh,

Alive.

Another wave comes.

We notice the sucking sensation on our feet as the wave leaves.

We notice the sound disappearing slightly from under the front of our feet where the tide takes it away and we squiggle our feet and sink more deeply into the wet sand.

Another wave comes in and now it's coming up through our shins.

And that invigorating coldness keeps on travelling up through our body.

Past our pelvic cavity into our intestines and it's almost like the shock of the cold stimulates all our organs.

It makes us catch our breath.

We feel that sense of the cold travelling up through our chest.

It makes us more aware of our heart,

How it's beating.

And we feel so,

So alive.

And we allow that sense to travel up past our heart,

Our shoulders.

And it stretches all the way down our arms.

Across our elbows,

Down to our forearms,

Into our hands.

Another wave comes in and this time we bend over and rete it and we scoop some of the water,

Clear,

Fresh.

There's not much seaweed around.

It's very clean water.

It's good for water and we just bring some of it to our face.

That cold sensation on our face.

We can taste the salt on our lips.

We all feel the coldness as it penetrates through our tissues on our face,

Our cheekbones.

We run our hands through our hair and just really allow the water to make contact,

To touch us.

We take our hands out and allow the coldness and the last drops of moisture just to touch our ears.

And we feel so alive.

We let our hands fall back down now to the side.

We retreat slightly from the wave so that we're standing just on the edge.

We allow our breathing to become at one with the inhale and exhale of the tide.

Our own inhale and exhale matches the inhale and exhale of the tide.

We're still coming up and just touching our feet,

Touching our toes.

And as we stand there,

We allow our shoulders to relax,

The weight of our shoulders to sink down.

We notice any tension we might be holding in our face.

Maybe we're clenching our jaw or crowning or whatever subtle tensions we might be holding.

Every time we breathe in,

The tide comes up and as we breathe out,

These tensions,

However subtle or gross,

Can be invited to leave.

The depth of waves can nurture you from the bottom up.

And on your exhale and the exhale of the sea,

Any physical tensions can just leave you.

Any mental tensions can flip away into the water.

Notice as you stand here how steady the sound is under your feet.

Lift your head and notice what is permanent around you.

And what is shifting.

The rocks that stand there on the beach are there and have been there for many,

Many years.

The sand can shift,

It's deeper rain though,

Rocks sometimes covering,

Sometimes allowing them to be seen.

And the other constant,

Although it's always moving,

Is the sea.

Just allow yourself to be touched by all these things.

What is there that is constant in you?

What is there that has always been there?

What is there that is moving and shifting?

And what is it that comes and goes?

Just allow yourself to match the inhale and the exhale of the tide.

Whatever speed that is for you in your breath,

Just make the tide that way as well.

As you invite the synchronicity of the sea.

Very likely that your breath will slow down.

Just notice what your breath is doing now.

You have a sense of your breath coming in and traveling all the way down to your lower tummy.

Or maybe it's staying in your chest,

Just notice for yourself what you're experiencing.

If you'd like to,

You can invite even further lengthening.

Imagine the tide slowing down.

Imagine the next few waves just taking a little bit longer.

Come in.

Leave.

Feeling with waves.

And if you please do,

You can put that invitation going of any physical or mental stress.

Just imagine just as the waves are coming past your feet,

That sense of being slightly sucked out to sea.

Just imagine that any tensions or stresses that you're aware of or not aware of.

Imagine that you're allowing them to let go.

Next.

Say goodbye to the sea for now.

You're going to turn around,

Walk away back across the beach.

Still enjoying that sense of calm that you may have touched.

Enjoying the sponge of the sand,

The drier sand as you get higher up.

The sense of abrasion,

The sense of rubbing away anything old that doesn't serve you anymore.

You walk back up the beach.

And you're onto that path,

That funny path with the mixture of grass and grit and mud.

You're walking through all of this path.

Back from the grass.

Notice the mossy path and you choose to walk through that.

Feeling the thoughtness,

The gentleness.

That sense of being held.

Walk across the dewy grass.

That sense of being refreshed.

And then we'll take a few moments to bring your awareness back up to the surface.

Bring your awareness back to where you are.

Sitting at the moment,

We'll leave the grass behind,

Leave that view behind.

But we'll take with us that sense of lightness,

Of being refreshed,

Of being so,

So alive.

Keep that with us.

And just become aware again of where you are physically sitting.

Move your breath,

Take a couple of deep breaths.

Use that as a bridge to walk across back into your physical space.

And open your eyes whenever you have anything.

Okay.