Hello and thank you for joining me for an Oasis of Calm meditation.
Whether this is something you want to use in order to start your day off on the right footing,
To take some time out to reflect and relax,
Or to prepare your mind and body for restful sleep,
I'm delighted to have your company and I hope this meditation will serve its purpose.
We'll begin with a brief preparation,
Move on to a sensory body scan,
Continue with some visualisation and then end with an intention setting exercise.
So without any further ado,
Let's begin by setting ourselves up to get the best out of our practice.
Where possible find a quiet and comfortable place,
Whether seated or lying down,
And try to remove any distraction or physical discomfort.
Now let's empty our thoughts,
So our mind will also be in a state of ease.
If there's anything on your mind or an activity that needs to be attended to post meditation,
Then jot it down now to prevent it from distracting you.
We want to dedicate the next few minutes solely to this practice,
Which is a gift to yourself and an ideal way of encouraging a sense of wellbeing and equilibrium for the day or night ahead.
Now allow your body to soften and relax,
And close your eyes slowly.
Let's enjoy a sensory body scan now,
Where we can appreciate the incredible gifts that we possess and send love to them and encourage sincerity.
After each introduction I'll pause whilst you can enjoy three full breaths to dwell on the sensation or imagery.
Starting at the top of our heads,
Let's focus our attention on our brain,
Our mind.
Breathe deeply and steadily into your head and encourage yourself to create kind,
Gentle and positive thoughts that will raise your mood by keeping your perception of yourself and the world around you as kind and loving as possible.
And I'll pause now for you to take three full breaths.
Now let's move that sense of awareness down to our eyes.
Let's breathe deeply into our eyes.
Whether we have perfect vision or not,
Let's be grateful for the gift of visualisation and through our breathing,
Encourage ourselves to look for the best in all people and things,
To observe beauty in all its shapes and forms,
And to see everyone and everything as deeply and sincerely as we can.
I'll pause now for you to take three full breaths.
For the next part of our body scan,
Let us rest our focus upon our ears and our wonderful ability to hear with a fulsome deep breath in.
When we next have the chance,
Let's make a concerted effort to enjoy all of the beautiful sounds of nature that we often allow to fade into the background,
But also to savour the powerful vibration of silence.
There is no need to fill it with anything.
And when next in conversation,
It could be rewarding to listen more and speak less,
Or at least give ourselves more time to hear before making a judgement or providing a response.
I'll pause now for you to take three full breaths.
Bringing awareness to our nose,
Let's enjoy a full deep breath,
Engaging our stomach,
Our chest and our lungs.
Enjoy how wholesome it feels and how cleansing it is.
We all have a smell or a scent that holds a special memory for us,
One which immediately relaxes or elates us,
So let's show gratitude for this wonderful ability.
Whether it's perfume,
A food,
A person or a place,
Its magic can take us on a journey.
Let's honour that gift with focus on our nose and ability to smell.
I'll pause now for you to take three full breaths.
Onwards we go,
And now it's time to bring our focus to our mouths and our sense of taste with a full inhale and exhale.
Whether it's the treasured feeling of kissing a loved one,
The taste of a favourite food or drink when it first settles on our tongue,
Or maybe the sensation of refreshing sea spray landing on our lips,
Let's allow ourselves to be thankful for the ability to savour a taste that gives us a pleasurable memory so unique to us.
Finally,
We'll celebrate the wonder of touch by shifting awareness down to our hands with a deep breath in and out.
Touch allows us to explore the tactile pleasure of a favourite texture or fabric,
The warmth or even sensuality of holding the body of a loved one,
Or the joy of creating with our hands through artistic endeavour.
Let's indulge our special appreciation of touch by observing it now.
Now we'll move on to the short visualisation part of this practice where we'll create our special place.
Whether it's somewhere that we feel safe or inspired,
Somewhere real or imagined,
A childhood hiding place,
An all-consuming embrace,
A white sand beach or green grassed valley,
Just make sure it's a place or sensation that is special and unique to you that resonates in your heart.
Otherwise there are no limits,
No rules.
To make this visualisation as vivid as possible,
I'd like you to work your way through each of the senses that we've just scanned through.
Sight,
Hearing,
Smell,
Taste and touch.
Build your visualisation with each of these in turn and enjoy the picture that you create.
Remember to breathe deeply and steadily throughout and I'll bring you gently out of the visualisation in just a few minutes time.
I hope you enjoyed the oasis of calm that you were able to create with your visualisation and although you'll be leaving it for now,
Remember that it's yours anytime and any place that you want it.
You are the writer,
Director and lead actor in your visualisation so make sure you replay it as often as you want or need it.
It's your gift of love to yourself.
So now we've come to the end of our practice together.
We began by preparing ourselves to get the most out of the process,
Enjoyed a sensory scan to remind us of the power and wonder that we possess and then we indulged ourselves with a personalised visualisation.
Before we leave one another and begin,
Resume or end our day,
Let's enjoy one last meditative experience together.
Let's set an intention for our day or our sleep and fill it with all the goodness and sincerity that we've focused on and accumulated over these last few minutes together.
Make it a clear specific statement of intent and perhaps after this meditation ends you'd like to jot it down for the purposes of accountability.
It can be connected to a thought or a feeling that's arisen during our practice or be something entirely different.
Let me give you a few seconds now to decide on your statement and repeat it a couple of times for clarity.
Okay,
Now repeating the statement steadily and confidently in your mind,
Let's seal it with three deep in and out breaths.
Make the intention once out loud if you can or want to and remember to jot it down in a few moments.
Now slowly open your eyes,
Enjoy the wonder of the world around you and I hope you approach your day or night with a renewed sense of love,
Gratitude and sincerity.
Thank you so much for sharing this practice with me and I hope we can do it again sometime soon with love from me Isaiah.
