Welcome,
Everyone.
Wonderful again to be here with you.
This practice that we're going to move into is called climbing the mountain.
And it's a practice that was shown to me by my addictions trauma doctor.
I worked with this doctor for about a year and a half.
And we went through this practice a few times.
And it's a practice which focuses on letting go,
Which focuses on attachment,
And what we would call in recovery dropping the rocks,
Which simply refers to kind of letting go of that weight of the past.
So let's begin to find our comfortable meditation seat.
Something that works for you could be leaning up against the wall to support the back could be sitting on a chair could be laying down as well.
I always prefer to do this practice seated.
But for some of us that may not be available,
So by all means,
Find yourself in a horizontal position.
And if it's comfortable for you,
You can come to close the eyes,
If you'd prefer to leave the eyes open,
And just place them about three or four feet ahead of you somewhere on the floor.
And use that point to hold the gaze.
In your own time,
A few inhales through the nose,
And a few exhales slip out the lips.
And you can use these first few breaths as a way to check into the practice,
Giving yourself full permission to be here.
And then when you're ready,
Allow the inhales and exhales to wave naturally in and out of the nose.
And I'd like you to begin to locate in your body where you feel your breath the most.
Could be somewhere in the nose,
The nostrils,
The nasal canal,
Could be somewhere in the throat,
Could be in the rise and fall of your shoulders,
At the chest,
The abdomen,
Perhaps.
Could be somewhere completely different as well.
But wherever you notice that you feel your breath the most,
I'd like you to place your awareness fully at this point.
And allow this point,
Allow your breath to begin to calm the mind into this present moment.
Every inhale and exhale is a new opportunity to be present,
To be focused.
Be compassionate with yourself,
Be soft with yourself.
If you notice the mind runs off thinking,
Just slowly draw it back to that point of awareness.
Allowing the body to further soften with each breath.
Know that at any point throughout this meditation,
Or at any point in your day to day life,
You can return to this breath.
The breath is always here to anchor us into the present moment.
I'd like you now to envision yourself as if you were standing at the base of a mountain.
And this mountain may be covered in trees,
It may be stones.
Whatever you're envisioning is perfect.
And running up the very center of this mountain is a path.
And lining both sides of this path is all the characters that have played a role in your life.
This includes family members,
Distant family members,
Friends,
Co-workers,
Associates,
All the people who have played a part in your life.
Whether their contribution is viewed as positive,
Negative or neutral,
They stand on the side of this path.
And as you begin to walk up this path,
Walk up the mountain,
Each person hands you a little package.
And within this package is everything that that person has contributed to your life.
Whether that be seen as positive,
Negative or neutral.
Each package is the same size,
Despite what that package holds.
And as you continue your journey up the mountain,
You collect more packages.
One by one,
Each person hands you their package.
And as you continue to walk up the mountain,
You notice that the packages are beginning to build up.
The load is starting to get a little bit heavier.
As each person hands you their package,
The weight increases.
It becomes harder to walk up the mountain.
As you begin to near the top of the mountain,
The packages are getting considerably heavy.
You're walking slower.
It's becoming harder to breathe.
And as you approach the top of this mountain,
The load now is so heavy that you can barely walk.
It takes all of your strength to take the last few steps and collect the last few packages.
You can feel the weight in your arms and on your body.
It's even a little more difficult to breathe.
As you approach the top of the mountain,
You use all your strength to turn around.
And as you turn all the way around,
You now begin to head back down the mountain.
And as you walk down the mountain,
One by one,
You hand each person back the package that they gave you.
And as you hand back each package,
You thank each person.
One by one,
Handing back the packages to each person lining that path.
And as you continue down this path,
Handing back each package,
The weight begins to lighten.
It's beginning to become a little bit easier to walk down the path.
One by one,
The load lightens.
The breath begins to open up.
As you begin to approach the bottom of the path,
The load is now considerably lighter.
It's much easier to breathe,
Much easier to walk.
As you approach the bottom of the path,
You come to that last person.
You look down at that final package and then hand that package back to the last person at the bottom of the path.
And as you take that last step off the mountain,
You pause.
And you stand here in your wholeness as a human being.
There's nothing to be added,
There's nothing to be taken away.
And then when you're ready,
You walk away from the mountain.
Thank you for doing this practice with me.
Peace in the body,
Peace in the speech,
And peace in the mind.
