Welcome to this meditation on finding hope.
Let's first just settle in our bodies.
So wherever you're seated or lying,
Begin to notice your body and the points of contact that it's making with whatever is underneath.
Bringing your awareness to your feet,
The legs and what they're resting on,
The weight of your hips and the core if there's any support.
And then bringing your awareness to your shoulders,
Your arms,
Your hands,
What are they resting on?
Maybe you can feel the gentle weight of your head.
And let's take a few breaths in and out of our whole body.
So you can encourage your breath to be gentle,
Maybe just slowing it down a little.
Feeling the breath into the whole of the body and allowing the whole of the body to release the breath.
And as you breathe in and out in and out with your body,
Allow your body to relax.
Embrace any muscles that might be holding tension.
Know that this time is for you.
You've taken this time out and you can just allow yourself to soften and relax.
Allow the ground,
The chair to take your weight.
As we explore what it means to find hope,
Find hope in this world.
We all need hope and we all search for it in different ways.
So often life's journey is about looking for hope.
I want you to imagine if you will,
That you are climbing a mountain.
Maybe that's a familiar image for you or maybe you need to use your imagination and visualize a path or maybe the path has dwindled.
Imagine how it feels,
How the ground feels under your feet.
Are you walking?
Are you climbing?
Are you using your hands?
Is the ground firm?
Is it unfirm?
As you take yourself upwards and you take a glance at the summit,
Which is not far now,
This is where you've been heading.
You've been leaving things behind,
Things below and it's effortful,
This climb,
A little like life.
But you see the summit and you're approaching it now and you take the final few steps and you realize you've come out at the top of this mountain.
And you just take a moment or two to acclimatize to the fact that you have reached the summit.
There is a point above it all.
You look around and you notice a vista stretching for miles and miles and miles into the distance.
As you slowly turn around you see this perspective on all sides,
All the way round.
You can see into the distance houses and trees are minuscule.
You can't even see the people.
You see fields,
Hills,
Other mountains where others may climb,
Stretching away from you,
From this lofty viewpoint.
And you breathe in the air that is thinner but fresher.
You take it deep into your lungs and as you breathe these lovely deep breaths,
This cool refreshing air refreshes you.
You feel perhaps a little lighter at this altitude with its fresh air and fresh air and fresh air.
At this altitude with its fresh air and its bright sunlight,
Perhaps you imagine closing your eyes and feeling a gentle breeze,
Feeling the coolness of the air and at the same time that sense of sunlight on the skin.
You feel your ground on solid rock.
Perhaps you can hear the stillness up here.
There are different things that are speaking to you about a hope that you found that there is a point to your efforts.
There is a moment that you will arrive at where you're above the effort,
The hard work,
The mundane-ness of climbing through life.
There is a place where you can breathe pure air,
A place where you have perspective,
Where things that once seemed to trouble now can't even be seen.
They're so small and you're in this place right now on the summit of the mountain in a place of hope,
A place where you feel lighter and brighter,
A place that's a place that's fresher and a place that has perspective,
A place where you feel freer.
And you drink this in with your eyes,
With your ears,
With your breath.
You welcome this experience of hope.
Maybe it speaks to you of a heavenly place far above all the troubles that the world can bring.
Maybe it speaks to you of a heavenly place where there is stillness,
There's calm,
Where there is a sense of lightness and freedom,
A heavenly place that can give you hope,
A place that does exist,
A place that can be found.
Perhaps you can even receive something of this heavenly place right now in your body,
In your breath,
In your heart and your mind and your soul.
Perhaps you can create space to receive something of heaven.
Take a couple more breaths holding on to the good,
That which has offered you hope.
