This meditation is called Leaves on a Stream.
It's a calm,
Serene journey,
Allowing you to leave the busyness of your day and the busyness of your thoughts just for these few precious moments,
To be with your breath,
With a sense of calm awareness.
It's a tool that you can come back to whenever you feel overwhelmed.
Perhaps you just need a small break in your day to allow some serenity in.
And with that,
Let's begin.
I invite you to close your eyes.
And let's take three deep cleansing breaths.
Breathing in.
.
.
And breathing out.
.
.
Breathing in.
.
.
And breathing out.
.
.
And breathing in.
.
.
And breathing out.
And now find your own comfortable rhythm.
Making sure your back is straight,
Your shoulders aren't touching your ears.
Bring them down,
Gently.
Have an open heart.
If your jaw is clenched,
Perhaps part your lips slightly.
Breathing in.
.
.
And breathing out.
Allowing each breath to massage your organs and nourish each and every cell in your body.
When you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth,
You actually feel the full circle,
The full process,
The full journey of your breath.
You feel the motion of your chest rising.
Perhaps you feel the motion of your abdomen in and out.
When you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth,
You can actually notice the change of direction that the breath makes.
There's a slight pause between the in-breath and the out-breath.
It's so subtle that sometimes you don't even think about it.
But it's there.
And it's that pause that changes the in-breath into an out-breath and an out-breath into an in-breath.
Each breath dependent on the next.
Noticing the change in direction,
Noticing the pause signalling the change,
Noticing how change is inevitable,
Even with our breath.
When we become conscious of our breath,
We're reminded that our breath is a wonderful tool.
It's a wonderful indicator of how we're actually feeling.
If you're feeling calm,
Your breath is slow and measured.
If you're feeling anxious or stressed,
Your breath might be shorter.
If you're feeling scared,
Your breath might be shallow.
Noticing the quality of your breath is really important.
And what you notice is that nothing stays the same.
Change is inevitable.
Breathing in and breathing out.
And now I would like to invite you on a journey.
Just a small trip to a little stream.
Imagine that you're sitting at the side of a bubbling little stream.
The water is flowing,
Ripping over some stones that are there.
The water is clear and cool.
The sun is out,
But you're in a shady spot.
The dragonflies are dancing around,
Dipping in,
Swooping down,
Their turquoise bodies and opaque wings,
Floating around in the sunshine.
While you're sitting watching the water flow and ripple,
Enjoying the calm serenity,
You notice a leaf fall into the water and float down the stream.
You watch the leaf until you can't see it anymore.
And you look up and you see another leaf land and fall into the stream.
And you decide that each time you have a thought,
You're going to place it on the leaf and watch it float down the stream.
You're going to remain at this beautiful place for a few more minutes.
And every time you have a thought,
Watch it fall into a leaf,
Land and float away.
It lands so gently,
So smoothly,
And so quickly that you don't have time to engage in a conversation with your thought.
It lands and it floats down the stream,
Down the stream,
Down the stream.
Always aware of our breath as we breathe in and we breathe out.
You may want to count the number of leaves as they fall.
You may just want to watch them fall.
If even that is a little bit hard to do,
That's okay.
There's no right way,
No wrong way.
You always come back to your breath,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Flowing in and flowing out.
And as this meditation comes to an end,
Slowly start bringing your awareness back to your breath,
Back to the sounds in the room,
Back to your chair,
Back to the space that you occupy within the chair,
Back to the solid forms,
Feeling the floor,
The building,
This earth,
The space of this room,
Being aware of where you are,
Right here,
Right now.
And during the course of the day,
When an emotion arises,
I invite you to recognize the emotion,
Acknowledge it,
And then place it on a leaf and let it float down the stream,
Knowing that that emotion is not part of you,
It's not permanent and it can disappear if we let go and watch it float down the stream.
It's the noticing,
The recognizing,
And the acknowledgement of that emotion that is important.
Don't allow it to control you.
Just gently place it on a leaf and let it float down the stream.
And it's taking three deep breaths,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Breathing in and breathing out,
And breathing in and breathing out.
And when you hear the bell,
You can gently open your eyes.
