Hug A Redwood Tree

Walk into a Redwood forest through this guided visualization. Notice there's nothing to fear right now and let your body soften into the sights, sounds, and smells of the trees. Approach a Redwood, feel the rough bark under your hands, and lean into its trunk for support. Release any worrying thoughts and sense the slow, ancient pulse of the tree beneath your palms. Picture the vast network of roots below, sharing nutrients and connecting you to the whole living forest.

Transcript

Today our meditation is a visualization, A remembering in our body and our mind. We're working with going to the redwood forest. We look around, We notice if there's nothing that I need to do right now, If there's no immediate threat, I could take some deeper breaths and I could soften my body. I could come into the practice with a lot of confidence that my body will be safe during the practice. If we were actually in danger, We'd probably be holding our breath or our body would be very still. Still, We're hiding out, Trying to escape danger. We carry that in with us and then, You know, That's actually not my situation right now. I could afford to take this time and nurture myself. Close your eyes or have you gaze soft and come into a visualization. It might be a memory of being in a redwood forest or an old girl's forest. Certainly there's images in our minds of that. Most of us have seen movies or pictures. Let's come into the visual sense first. Maybe you could see yourself standing, Such a small being in terms of the immensity of the redwoods. These trees are hundreds of feet tall, And there's a lot of them in a forest. There's short ones, Tall ones, Healthy ones, Crooked ones, Straight ones. There's all this variety in a forest that we can see or visualize seeing. And what are you hearing? What are the sounds? Might be a gentle breeze ruffling the leaves a little. Might be the sound of the birds or the squirrels. Some of the sounds we're familiar with, And we don't have any alarm. There is a big crashing sound. You probably have some alarm in that. But there's no danger here in our mind. There's very little danger in a redwood forest, Too. But for certain here in our mind, Nothing's going to come crashing out of the bush. We can just let our body relax. Focus on the beauty. What we see, What we hear. And what about the smells? What are the aromas in a forest? We know that trees and forests give off a lot of oxygen, So we're in an oxygen-rich environment. Our bodies are really nourished by that oxygen. If you were to get a little bit closer to one of the redwoods. Let's check it out with the tree. Is it okay if I approach, If I touch, If I hug? See if the tree energy is receptive to you. Perhaps you're putting your hands on the bark. The bark of redwoods is very rough. It's about a foot deep or two feet deep in places, And that's how they survive the forest fires. So if you were to put your hands on the bark, It has a certain roughness to it, A lovely kind of a strength. And then maybe putting your whole arms, Of course we can't put our arms all the way around a redwood tree. Putting your face or your forehead onto the bark. Putting your heart, Your belly in contact with the tree. And if your mind goes to something alarming, Like, What if it gets hit by lightning? We could just see that as a random thought in the mind. A lot of that kind of thinking is through the nervous system. Well, What if this? What if that? Very, Very unlikely in a redwood forest, Let alone in our mind. We could let that go. Let yourself release any worrying thoughts, Either about that or something else about your life right now. Let's give ourselves a few minutes to settle into this experience of embrace. Of being held and held up. Breathing and being nourished. And if we were to connect with the pulse of that tree. Notice that experience. We have a pulse. We have breath that's several times a minute. But in the forest, A redwood has a very slow rising of the sap. Falling of the sap. Leaves are taking in the sunshine, Making chlorophyll. So what is the pulse of a several hundred year old redwood tree? Very slow. If you were up in the top of that tree through the last hundreds of years of this tree's life, There would have not been any airplanes. There would be no engine noises for almost his entire life. Just the sky. And if it was night, What would you see in the sky from up there? Complete darkness. There's no artificial lightness. Just the brilliance of the starry night, The Milky Way. Many people have never seen the Milky Way because it's too light where we are. Planets and maybe the moon. And then going into the vast network of roots, Mycelium, Fungi of the forest. Water and air and little creatures. There's the communication and the nourishing of each other in the forest. Trees will send nutrients to a tree that's struggling. Know yourself as part of this. This vast network of nourishing, Of communicating. Of support. The slow pace of this redwood tree in this forest. Let yourself feel how you are part of this living system. Let your energy and the energy of the tree and the energy of the forest be one. Just to be part of this system, Knowing that we are part of life on earth. And we forget about that all the time because we're busy and we're in a culture, Especially in the city. And then we can just come right back into it anytime.