Awake in Nature Meditation

A guided nature meditation, bringing awareness to all of the senses while connecting with the natural world.

Transcript

So beginning by establishing posture that's upright and at ease,

Relaxed and open.

In this meditation,

The orientation is to be inclusive and welcoming of your full sensory experience outside.

By simply observing what you notice,

What's being known through the senses in a very general way.

What arises in the field of your experience of hearing,

Seeing,

Sensing,

Smelling,

Tasting.

And now opening awareness to the field of sounds.

Allowing awareness to be open,

Spacious,

Receptive.

Aware of the distant sounds,

The near sounds,

Sounds of nature,

Mechanical sound,

Human sound.

All coming and going and known quite effortlessly in this open quality of awareness,

Hearing and aware of hearing.

Aware of the space and the silence between sounds.

All coming and going and knowing quite effortlessly in this open quality of awareness,

Hearing and aware of hearing.

No need to think about or visualize the source of the sound,

Simply resting in awareness of hearing.

All coming and going and knowing quite effortlessly in this open quality of awareness,

Hearing and aware of hearing.

When the attention wanders away into thought or elsewhere,

Simply acknowledging that and resuming present moment awareness,

Aware of sounds,

Aware of silence.

And as we open to sounds,

We also may be aware of the quality of space,

The space all around,

The spaciousness of awareness,

The space in which sounds come and go.

The inner space,

The outer space.

And with that same spacious,

Open awareness,

Aware of the other sensations in the body,

Aware of the contact,

The body with the earth,

Sensing the earth sitting on earth.

And aware of the receptivity in the body,

The skin,

The touch of the breeze,

The warmth of the sun,

Coolness of air.

And all the ways you feel sensitivity or receptivity in the body to the elements all around.

Thank you.

Noticing at times how the body can mirror the environment around us,

The stillness of the morning reflected in the stillness of the body.

Thank you.

And aware of the movement of breath and the quality of air as you inhale,

Sensing the temperature,

The fragrance of the air.

The different quality of the inhale and exhale.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And each time the attention may wander into thought and memory or spacing out.

As you return to present moment awareness,

Simply attuning to whatever is most predominant in your sensory experience.

Hearing sounds,

Sensing coolness and warmth or breeze.

Feeling the movement of breath or the contact of the body on the earth.

Thank you.

From time to time,

Attuning to the sense of smell,

Aware of the subtle fragrance that comes and goes in the breeze with the breath.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Being present to hearing without needing to know the source of the sound.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bringing awareness to the inner landscape and how you may be touched by the outer landscape.

Perhaps a smile arises.

Noticing the quality of energy as you sit outdoors,

Perhaps becoming more quiet or still or enlivened.

Aware of how the heart may be touched,

How emotions come and go in this field of awareness.

Aware of how our sensory experience moves us,

Touches us,

Evokes certain feelings and emotions at times.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If at any time it feels unclear where to orient the attention,

You can come back to simply aware of sounds,

Awareness of breath.

Otherwise you can cultivate more choiceless awareness where simply present to whatever's calling the attention moment to moment.

Sound,

Sensation,

Breath,

Space,

Silence,

Fragrance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Imagining the thoughts that come and go like clouds passing through this vast sky like nature of awareness.

Ephemeral,

Transient and unable to obscure this quality of awareness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Aware at times of awareness itself that allows us to know experience as it is.

Yet it's empty,

Open,

Vast,

Spacious,

Yet clearly knowing,

Cognizant,

Abiding in awareness as we attend to our sensory experience.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In the last minutes of the meditation,

Relaxing any sense of struggle or efforting,

Simply relaxing into the naturalness of awareness present to the moment-to-moment sensory experience.

And in your own time,

Slowly,

Gently opening the eyes,

Including awareness of seeing,

Allowing the eyes to be soft,

Soft focus,

Relaxed.

And as we bring the meditation to a close,

Softening the transition between formal meditation and post-meditation.

Can we continue to abide with an open awareness,

Sensory attunement,

And present-moment connection?

Thank you.

Reviews

Mark Coleman is my favorite nature oriented meditation teacher I’ve found on insight timer so far!

Loved this! Did this laying down in the grass and felt very grounded and connected after. Appreciated the pauses as it gave me time to tune into my own environment and practice.

One of the best meditations i’ve ever done. That was beautiful thank you☮️💜

That was excellent. inI'm currently sitting on the Banksbanks of a lake not knowing what to do and this has brought ofme into the moment. When you said, listen to the sounds of nature, about 100 ducks immediately started screaming their beaks off! I did smile. :-)

Love this long juicy meditation out in nature with the sun glistening!

This has become my go-to meditation on Insight Timer, and I’ve listened to it dozens of times. For me the balance of words and silence is perfect. Although I listen to it inside, I love the way the nature sounds, especially birds, mingle with the sounds of birds out my own window as well the suburban sounds of cars and voices. I love the way my awareness can go from my world now to his world then. I’ve practiced meditation for decades, but this is the guided meditation that by far has most helped me look at the nature of awareness. What are its boundaries? What is its nature? Thanks so much to Mark for this.

Refreshing all my senses, thank you Mark

Enjoyed it. Thank you.

Wonderful 🙏 Thanks

Straightforward, done with ease and comfort. I am learning to meditate for more than 15 minutes so for me this was a stretch, a very enjoyable one.

Great pace and voice and lots of warm open quite as well.
Wonderful meditation! Thank you for sharing this with us.
Namaste 💐💐🦋🦋💖🙏🏼

Gentle voice and lots of quiet meditative space. Lovely!

Thank you... that was wonderfully peaceful in there :)