Okay,
There we go.
Welcome everyone.
My name is Jay Andrews and it is wonderful to be here with you.
This meditation that we're going to move into is called the breathing tree meditation.
And for this particular recording,
I will lead you into the practice.
Now once we've established the visualization and the breathing practice,
I will end the recording and you can continue on with the practice for as long as you'd like.
So let's begin by finding a comfortable seat,
Whatever that means for you in your body.
If it's possible,
The knees are a little bit below the hips.
And we're sitting in some orientation where the spine can be upright.
Of course,
You could be sitting against a wall to help support the back or even sitting on a chair.
The mood of the body will be calm yet attentive.
So the shoulders can relax.
Hands can rest on the thighs or the knees.
Randomly placing the ears over the shoulders.
If it's comfortable for you to close your eyes,
By all means,
Go ahead and close your eyes.
If you'd like to leave your eyes open,
Just place them on the floor about three or four feet ahead of you.
Use this point to hold your gaze.
And let's begin in your own time taking a few breaths in through the nose and allow your exhales to slip out the lips.
And these first few breaths are just kind of breaths to check into the practice to release any surface tension,
Which could be there physically,
Mentally,
Emotionally,
And to empty the cup.
And when you're ready,
Allow your breath to settle to its natural inhale and exhale in and out of the nose and place your full awareness,
Your full focused attention on this breath.
Each breath becoming a new opportunity to draw your attention into the present moment.
If you notice the mind goes off to thinking or fantasizing,
Coming up with ideas,
Grabbing on to past or future,
Be compassionate with yourself and kindly draw the attention back to the breath.
Allowing the breath to act as a masseuse for the body and the mind.
Bringing you into the now.
And from this place,
I'd like you to visualize.
Visualize yourself as if you were sitting two feet away from the trunk of a tree.
And this could be any tree.
It could be a tree that you know from your childhood.
It could be a tree in a park that you often visit,
Sit by.
It could be a visualization of a tree that you've never seen before that has now popped up into your awareness.
Whatever form that this tree arises in,
Imagine yourself sitting two feet away from the trunk of this tree.
And notice the details of the tree.
Notice the texture.
Notice the size,
The height of the tree.
Recognize that tree as a living being.
A breathing being.
And I'd like you to begin to imagine now,
Sharing your breath with this tree.
As you exhale,
Imagine that tree breathing in your exhale.
And as the tree exhales pure oxygen,
You draw in this pure oxygen with your inhale.
And this pattern continues with every inhale and every exhale.
You're beginning to develop an interrelationship of breath with this tree.
The breath sends you pure,
Clean oxygen,
And you send the tree your exhales.
Allow yourself to fall in to this rhythm of breath.
This pulsating exchange of breath.
As the tree absorbs your exhale,
You might notice that it expands.
And then as it releases oxygen,
It moves back inward.
As you breathe in that oxygen,
You expand.
As you exhale,
You release.
Sending that tree your exhale,
Again the tree expands and the cycle repeats.
Breathe this rhythmic interrelationship of breath with the tree for as long as you would like.
And when you've finished this practice,
Whenever you get the internal call,
You can place the hands together and give a light bow to the tree and to all of nature.
Peace,
Peace,
Peace.
