Let us start by making sure we are comfortable.
Your body can slowly unwind and your eyes can gently close.
Allow yourself to soften,
Your face and jaw to relax,
Your whole being to enjoy a few minutes of calm and stillness.
Next,
Bring your awareness to your breath,
To the natural rhythm as you gently inhale and draw the air into your lungs and then as you gently exhale and let it out again.
Just listen without stopping or changing it in any way.
And then slowly let us bring our awareness,
Our attention to our heart centre,
The deepest part of each one of us where we connect to our spirit,
Our soul.
We connect to our Atman as we call it in yoga,
That which is eternal,
Imperishable,
The centre of our being that is timeless.
We connect to that place that is sacred inside each and every one of us and here I would like to visualise,
To imagine that there is a very tightly held little bud,
The bud of a flower.
The petals are pressing together very closely as though it is at the very start of its journey and this bud is the bud of a lotus flower.
You might notice the colour of these tightly held petals,
They come in many colours so let us choose one that is close to our heart,
That speaks to us and as we bring this image to mind in the centre of our being,
Of this tight little bud,
As we take our next slow breath in and then gently out again,
I would like you to imagine,
To visualise the petals are very slowly starting to stir,
Very gently they are starting to awaken and as they start to open out,
To spread and gently unfurl,
We can feel something powerful,
Pulsing.
There is life,
There is beauty,
There is light shining from within.
With each slow inhale and with each slow exhale,
You can see the petals as they each slowly start to extend further and further until they slowly soften into full bloom.
The inner yellow is now visible,
Like the centre of our being and when we look closer,
We see like a velvet cushion,
The centre is golden,
Vibrant and resplendent.
As we watch in awe,
This beautiful flower at the centre of our being,
Keeping our breath flowing gently in and gently out.
It is as though we are starting to see our true selves,
The potential,
The beauty,
The light that we shine within.
We are starting to let go of the walls,
Of the boundaries that we build around our own heart.
We can start to feel that there is a softening,
A releasing,
A blossoming,
If you will,
Of our soul.
We start to realise,
To understand the beauty of the flower within each one of us and what this represents.
We can start to see as each one of these petals gently opens,
Something sacred inside is revealed.
It is totally unique to us.
As we marvel and inhale the scent of this beautiful flower,
We can feel like an elixir,
This scent flowing through our entire being.
It flows from our heart slowly outwards,
Warming,
Spreading through our body and as it reaches our arms,
They start to soften,
To melt,
To relax.
As it starts to reach down to our legs,
They again start to soften and relax.
And as it starts to come through our entire being,
It's as though we are reconnecting back to our heart.
And the light that shines from within,
From what started as this delicate bud,
And slowly blossomed,
Then opened into a glorious lotus flower,
Is one that shines our true life force.
It is allowing us to see,
To reveal the depth,
The connection to the universe that is inside.
Letting us connect with all that is,
With the stillness,
The strength,
The compassion,
The kindness,
The love that is within each one of us.
And let us stay here.
Let us enjoy this moment.
Savour it,
Connecting back to our heart.
And very slowly,
As we bring our awareness back to this moment,
To this breath,
Once again let's listen to the natural rhythm as we gently inhale and gently exhale.
Know we can come back to this lotus flower whenever we choose.
We can reconnect to our heart whenever we choose.
Slowly let us bring a little bit of movement then into our hands.
Slowly bring a little bit of movement into our toes.
And as we gently open up our eyes again,
Feel that warmth still spreading through our being.
Reminding us of the love and the light that shines from within.
