Welcome.
Please find yourself in a comfortable seated position with your eyes softly closed.
Let's start by taking three deep breaths.
And at the tail end of that third breath,
Find your breath,
Your body settling in.
The edges of your breath becoming smoother,
Softer.
In your mind's eye,
Imagine looking out at the trees where the tops of the trees meet the sky.
See them blowing in the breeze.
See them moving with the wind.
This image can be as vivid as you'd like,
With the colors,
The changing of the leaves with the season.
Simply see the tops of the trees moving in the breeze.
Stay with this image for just another few breaths.
And then place this image,
Or rather the feeling that this image evokes into the space of your heart.
So you still see or sense the image in your mind's eye,
But you feel it in your heart.
And every time you lose the image,
You lose that feeling,
Begin to sway your spine as if you were one of the branches on the trees in the breeze.
And when the image returns,
Let your body still.
Stay with that feeling of the trees blowing in the breeze.
And when your mind becomes distracted and takes you away,
Sway as if you are also a part of that breeze.
And then when that feeling comes back,
Let your body become still.
We'll stay with this practice for the next couple of minutes.
Just another 30 seconds here.
Staying with this imagery,
This feeling of the trees blowing in the breeze and swaying your spine when you lose that feeling in that image until you can become still once again.
Now please feel as if your torso and your legs are becoming the trunk of the tree,
Rooting you into the floor,
Rooting you into the ground,
Still and solid.
And then feel as if your chest,
Your shoulders,
Your head and neck become the branches reaching toward the sky,
Becoming the tree.
One more minute here.
The lower half of your body grounded into the earth,
The top half open and free.
And then see or sense the sun illuminated above you.
And see one drop of sunlight beginning to descend toward the crown of your head.
And see that drop of sunlight entering into the crown of your head,
Illuminating the space of your midbrain,
Descending down past your throat and settling into the space of your heart.
With each inhale,
That light grows,
Slowly filling up the space of your heart,
Filling up the space of your belly,
Your pelvis,
Your legs,
Illuminating your throat,
Your midbrain.
And that light begins to grow outside of your body as if you're glowing,
Surrounded by all of this light.
Be here for another few breaths,
Seeing,
Sensing this light surround you,
Seeing,
Sensing this light as part of you,
And begin to bring awareness back into your heart.
Take a couple of deep breaths,
Coming back to your body.
Begin to move your thumbs across the pads of your fingertips.
Inhale your arms up for a stretch,
And exhale lower,
Knowing,
Feeling that the light fades as you come back to your body,
But knowing that it's always there.
Please place your left hand over your heart,
Your right hand on top,
And bow your head slightly,
Remembering that you were the tree,
You were the sunlight.
Together we are grounded in light.
My name is Melissa Kleehammer,
And thank you for practicing with me.