Slow Down & Awaken Your Senses

A guided meditation to help slow down and awaken our often dulled down senses. We rely on the use of our sense of sight so much that we can reduce our full sensory ability. This is a practice that we use in Nature & Forest therapy.

Transcript

Hello,

Today I wanted to bring to you a 10 to 15 minute exercise that we often do in forest bathing.

It's one of the first elements that we and invitations that we offer and it's a chance to really awaken our senses.

We call this in forest bathing actually pleasures of presence.

Now you can actually do this seated,

You can do it standing,

It will take 10 minutes or so,

So do find somewhere that's going to be comfortable for you.

If you're replaying this or I'd really encourage you to do this outside as it's a lovely experience to do it this way.

When you do find that comfortable position,

Perhaps take a moment to look around where you are,

Just acquaint yourself with your surroundings.

Looking up and down,

If you're near a window just checking what's going on out there for yourself and also on the floor if you are outside just make sure there's no sharp objects around you or anything you're going to put your hand on that might hurt you.

And then when you feel ready just gently close your eyes.

If that's not comfortable just lower and soften your gaze and if you can just fix your pew,

Your stare actually down so you're not moving your pupils around.

And I wonder what the sensation of your breath feels like right now.

Just breathing as you normally would,

Noticing where you feel those sensations in your body.

Maybe observing that actually we breathe with our entire body,

We breathe through our skin.

And actually bringing our attention to our skin,

I wonder what sensations you can feel.

I wonder how perhaps the skin feels different to where it's exposed to the air as opposed to the parts under your clothing.

I wonder if you can feel that air surrounding you,

If you can feel it on your face or your hands.

Maybe putting your hands out in front of you and actually feeling the air surrounding them.

I wonder what it feels like for to be held by that air and also for you to also be holding that air.

I wonder if you very slowly bring your fingertips together.

I wonder what it feels like to actually feel the touch of your skin.

I wonder if you can feel the imprints right on the tips or what it feels like on the palm of your hand or the back of your hand,

How different that feels.

And other textures,

Maybe clothing or your hair or how it feels to touch a piece of jewelry.

How do they actually feel to you?

And maybe putting your hands down by the sides of you,

Whether you're inside or whether you're outside,

And just feeling what's beneath where you're sitting or if you're standing,

If you can gently lower yourself down to feel whatever is underneath your feet.

How does that feel to hold in your hands?

Then we're just going to move our attention to our sense of smell and especially if you've been touching something like soil or leaves or bring your hands up to your nose and just take a deep breath.

The aroma of the earth.

If you haven't been outside,

Maybe smelling what your skin smells like or lifting your head up into the air,

A bit like you'd see a dog or an animal just sniffing the scent that's actually in the air.

I wonder what you'll smell.

And I wonder what those aromas,

What memories they invoke,

Where it brings you in your mind's eye.

And taste is very much linked to smell.

So I wonder what you can taste right now.

If it's linked to the memory of what you smell or it may simply be something that you ate or drank earlier.

Maybe licking your lips to see what you can taste from the air that's around you or pursing your lips and sucking the air in as if you were sucking through a straw.

Letting that air just float across the top of your tongue.

If you're really adventurous,

Sticking your tongue out and just letting the air float across it and then bringing it back into your mouth and just taking a moment to recognize what you can taste.

And then bringing your attention to your ears and hearing.

I wonder what you can hear.

Perhaps see what the most distant noise is that you can hear.

Really expanding your hearing.

And then bringing that back in.

I wonder what the nearest sound you can hear.

The nearest and closest to your body.

Often we say in nature that it has its own rhythm,

Its own music.

And quite often when you're in a forest with the bird callings and the wind and the whistles you can almost hear its own melody of that forest.

I wonder what melodies are in the area that you're in today.

And I wonder how your own heartbeat and your own breath adds into that symphony.

And then I want you to bring in your imaginal sense and perhaps imagine roots coming out of the soles of your feet and sinking through the layers of your home and then into the earth and through the layers of many years.

As the roots get deeper and deeper imagine they've got tentacles coming out just as a root would.

And as those tentacles go out and reach out I wonder what they might find.

I wonder what they may encounter that we cannot see.

And even in all of your homes here wherever you are in the world it's always worth remembering that just as we've been on our own journeys up to where we are today so has the land.

They've also been through a long journey to be exactly as it stands today.

And although it's been here for many years centuries it's not been as it has been today.

Where I am standing right now was an orchard.

And I just wonder you know this is a very unique moment in my life in this land's life how it feels to be rooted to this ancient land knowing that we've all been on these journeys together.

To be able to stand here rooted right here right now together today.

And then I'd like you to if possible stand up if it's easy to do so if not just use your body directional sway.

If possible do this without opening your eyes.

And when ready take a breath and then either imagine or if you can turn your body slowly round in a circle as many times as you need to do so.

And consider how each direction feels and stop when you are facing the direction that your body feels pulled to.

That feels right for you.

That your body has chosen for you.

If you're not moving around and you're just using your body's directional sense.

If you can turn your head for that to face that way or simply just really feel feel that in your body that pull for that direction.

And then gently bring your hands up and place over your energetic heart in the center of your chest.

And I wonder what your heart may be reaching out to right there.

The direction that you've been pulled towards maybe right in front of you or it could be miles away or even over over waters.

I wonder what your heart is longing for.

And if if that feels nice for you then I invite you to invite this into your heart and perhaps just notice how that feels in your heart.

And in a few moments but not quite yet I'm going to invite you to open your eyes and when I do see if you can open them very very slowly and look at everything that's around you as if you are looking at it for the very first time.

And also that it is also looking back at you.

So go ahead and open your eyes.

Maybe you want to look at the area where you were drawn to.

Looking up,

Looking all around you,

Looking down.

And if that gives you pleasure invite that also into your heart right now.

And just take as long as you need.

Even after the recording has ended just letting that all soak in and just noticing what you notice.

And I invite you to if you are a journalist to maybe write a little bit about what you are noticing.

If you're not a writer just a bit of contemplation.

What are you noticing right now?