Finding a comfortable position to begin your meditation.
You can do this meditation in a seated position or if you prefer you can lie down.
You may want some blankets or a warm jumper as we do this meditation to stay warm.
Taking a few moments to find that comfortable position where your body is not going to interrupt and where you are able to stay quite still through the entire practice.
Once you have found that comfortable position take a few deep and conscious breaths filling the lungs fully on the inhale releasing the breath slowly on the exhale.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And becoming aware of what it feels like to be in this moment,
To be in your body,
To be with your breath.
As you relax the breath now notice where you feel it in the body.
Is there movement in the belly,
The chest,
Do your shoulders lift at all on the inhale?
Just noticing those points that move with the breath.
Start to become aware of your body and aware of those points that touch the support beneath you whether this is your floor,
A chair,
A bed.
Feeling your body relaxing into that support.
Allowing gravity to take the weight of your body.
Breath remains soothing,
Relaxing.
Let go of your body,
Just let it be.
Let the weight drop,
Let the muscles relax.
It's okay if this is difficult,
If this doesn't come easily or if the mind is particularly busy with racing thoughts.
If that's the case then allow those thoughts to be,
Try not to attach and to run off into those thought processes.
Know that you're thinking and come back to the breath.
In a few moments we are going to begin visualisation just to help us release some of our worry or anxiety or even the level of responsibility we feel as an adult.
So for now continuing to focus on the breath,
To focus on what it feels like to let go,
To let go of your physical form,
To drop your weight down.
When you feel relaxed,
When you feel your body and your mind starting to settle,
I invite you to picture a beautiful lake.
Maybe this is a lake where you've visited,
Where you've been.
Maybe it's somewhere you've created in your mind.
Just picture it.
Picture the water,
The scenery around the lake.
Maybe there are other people there with you or around you,
Maybe you know them.
Maybe they are just familiar faces or strangers.
And you're standing on the edge of this lake and you're taking everything in,
The sounds,
The smells,
The sights.
Maybe you can even imagine wind or rain or another form of weather on your skin.
Maybe it's the sunlight,
The warming of the sun.
And as you stand on the edge of this lake,
Take a deep breath in.
Slow breath out.
Take another breath in.
And as you exhale this time,
You begin to walk into the lake,
Step by step,
Feeling the temperature of the water.
Could be warm,
Might be cold.
You continue to walk in until the water comes above your shoulders.
And as you walk into the lake,
Imagine letting go of all of your responsibility,
All of your worry,
Your frustrations,
Anxiety,
Whatever is holding you back as you walk in,
As you immerse yourself in the water.
Imagine letting go of all of that.
Maybe as you immerse yourself fully in the water now,
Maybe you swim or maybe you do some other action.
Maybe it's to play or to splash.
Maybe it's a verbal scream or shout or anything that you feel arises for you.
Imagine yourself now immersed in this water.
Try and feel the experience of being there,
Of letting go and being.
All of the restrictions,
Responsibility,
Worry,
Out of the way,
Be who you are.
And I invite you to be silly now,
Be silly in this water.
Do something out of character.
You are safe to explore,
To find joy in this experience,
To be childlike as you enter the lake,
As you're in the lake.
Keep exploring what happens,
What arises.
What's your urge as you're here?
Shedding the layers of adulthood of responsibility,
Just letting those fall away,
Become childlike.
And any emotion that comes up for you as we do this,
Just allow that to be there.
Allow it to come up.
Try not to push everything down.
Just release as a child does.
Feel the emotion,
Don't control the emotion.
Now you begin to become calm within the lake.
Maybe you start to walk or swim.
So you can come out of the lake now.
As you make your way out of the lake,
You begin to acknowledge that you feel differently.
You stand back on the edge and you take in the scenery,
The sights,
The smells,
The sounds.
Feeling a shift in your perspective.
The way that you view yourself and the space now is different,
There's a change.
And keeping that image of yourself on the edge of the lake.
Begin to come back into the space you're in,
Back into your body.
As you wiggle the fingers,
The toes,
Or stretch out,
Feeling that shift deep within that remains within you as we come out of the meditation.
Holding that close in the heart as you begin to open the eyes.
Bring yourself fully back into the space.
With the eyes open,
Take a few deep breaths.
Still holding that change,
That shift deep within.
And carrying that with you for the rest of the day.
