Butterfly Meditation to Nourish Happiness

In this meditation, we nourish wholesome energies in us by visualising a butterfly exploring a meadow of wild flowers.

Each flower is an energy that is good for our heart and our happiness. Here, we taste the energies of connection, peace, joy, gratitude, hope, wonder and friendship.

You can pause the meditation to visit other flower energies. You might also like to write down or draw your reflections, so that you can amplify the effect of these energies.

Transcript

In this meditation we nourish wholesome energies in us by visualizing a butterfly crossing a meadow of wildflowers.

Each flower represents an energy that is good for our heart and our well-being.

We can use our memories or our imagination to awaken these energies and receive their nourishment.

Begin by bringing your awareness back to your living presence,

Just as you are,

Supported by the earth,

Sensing your breath coming and going,

This moment of coming home to yourself.

And you can bring to mind a beautiful meadow filled with wildflowers.

As you gently gaze across the field,

You can see so many different colors.

I see white blossoms,

Blue flowers,

Pops of red,

Bright yellows.

Take a moment to simply notice them within the wild grasses,

Gently swaying in this lovely moment.

And then allow yourself to be a butterfly.

You can be any color.

You might have very simple wings or very elaborate decorations.

Whatever kind of butterfly comes to mind is perfect.

Allow yourself to rise up into the air and flutter across the meadow,

Exploring this beautiful space.

In a moment,

One flower will draw your attention and you can land on it to take in its aroma,

To taste its sweetness.

And as we're enjoying the nectar from this flower,

We realize that it is a flower of connection.

You might sense how does it feel when you are deeply connected,

A sense of being close to an animal or a human or a tree.

Just allowing yourself to enliven this sense of warmth and closeness.

You might explore where this feeling of closeness lives in your body.

You might sense it in your face,

Your eyes,

Your chest or heart or somewhere else in your body.

So allow yourself to gently scan through to see if you can find where that feeling of warm closeness lives in you.

And then you can allow yourself to take to the air once more.

Continue exploring this beautiful meadow,

Feeling the warm sunshine,

The soft breeze,

The very wholesomeness of the air here.

And then allow yourself to be drawn by another flower as you fly towards it and land gently.

You might sense the delicacy of its petals as you come to rest your weight on the flower,

Sensing the delicate aroma of this flower,

Its beautiful scent.

And as you taste this flower,

You know that this is the flower of peace.

This flower offers a beautiful medicine for these times.

And allowing yourself to simply be on this flower,

You might notice how does peace feel in your body?

You may notice it in your muscles,

Your shoulders,

Your face,

Your forehead,

Your eyes.

How does peace feel in your hands?

You might sense peace in your heart,

Sensing it as an easeful nervous system.

You might sense peace in your mind,

Perhaps in the difference in the speed of your thoughts or their erratic movement or their spikiness.

Maybe peace soothes,

Transforms the quality of your thoughts.

Really take your time to savour this precious energy.

And when you feel ready,

You can allow yourself to lift up into the air once more and continue flying,

Moving through these gently swaying grasses and flowers.

And another flower may pull your attention.

You feel yourself really drawn towards it.

You allow yourself to land,

To discover the scent and the taste of this flower,

Realising that this flower offers the energy of joy.

This flower offers a bright,

Bubbling energy that uplifts our heart,

That naturally brightens our spirit.

So when you think of this warm,

Effervescent feeling,

There might be different memories or different images that come to mind.

You can allow yourself to savour them,

Just as you savour this flower,

Sensing the experience of joy at times in your life and exploring where joy lives in your body.

So when joy manifests,

Where does it arise in your body?

And we can allow this energy to feel very natural in us.

Sometimes we can be a little suspicious or not so at ease with feeling joy.

Allowing it to flow as naturally as possible in your body.

And when you are ready,

You can take to the skies once more,

Full of this bright energy,

Moving through this beautiful,

Sunny meadow,

Just appreciating the beauty around you,

The freedom and ease of this moment,

Noticing a flower that really draws your attention to it.

You find yourself getting closer and coming into land to snuggle into this beautiful flower,

To explore its energies.

And this flower is the flower of gratitude.

This flower offers you the energy of deep appreciation,

Of thankfulness,

Maybe of relief.

Gratitude comes in different forms for us.

So it may be something we appreciate in ourselves.

We're so grateful to ourselves for living in this way.

It may be a kindness that another person has shown us.

Maybe a moment of care,

A moment of sweet surprise.

We may be grateful for the presence of animals or plants or trees,

Birds around us.

Allowing your heart to sense where this energy of gratitude weaves through your life.

So many different connections,

Moments where we know we're being supported.

And in your own time,

You can allow yourself to lift off this flower,

Knowing that you can return to it again and again,

To allow you to keep your heart well nourished with this nectar of gratitude.

And then enjoying simply flying,

Exploring this easeful space.

You might see a small flower that calls to you.

And as you position yourself on this flower,

Noticing its delicate petals,

You can sense an exquisite aroma.

It's a very precious flower.

And you know that this is a flower of hope.

This flower offers you the energy of hope.

Such an important energy in our life to be able to feel,

Know in our bones that it's possible that there will be a moment in the future that's more easeful,

That's less difficult than this moment.

So we know hope has this uplifting quality that can lift the heaviest of hearts.

It protects us from despair.

So may we drink deeply this energy of hope,

Sensing the optimism and also the sense of action in us.

That when we have hope,

We know that we can take one step towards that brighter future.

And that step may be creating the energy of peace in ourselves,

Caring deeply for ourselves in this moment.

Maybe allowing ourselves to rest or maybe taking another action.

So may we keep this energy of hope well nourished in our hearts every day,

So that when all feels lost,

That this sweet,

Delicate energy can arise in us and can soothe and inspire our hearts to keep going.

When you feel ready,

You might move up into the air again,

Having a wider,

Higher perspective on this whole meadow of flowers.

And a beautiful flower calls to you and draws you close.

So you can allow yourself to descend,

Landing gently.

You'll be curious to taste the nectar of this flower.

And this flower offers us the energy of wonder,

An extraordinary energy of wonder,

Of awe.

Moments where,

As a human,

We widen into a much greater perspective,

Where we allow our hearts to feel the sublime energy of awe.

Where our hearts feel so much greater than an egoic sense of ourselves.

We feel pure wonder.

And you may have a memory or an imagined sense of what might spark wonder.

Maybe a beautiful view in nature,

An extraordinary night sky.

You might be meeting a very young baby,

Seeing this new life.

It might be music or art.

What touches your heart with a sense of wonder?

And you might rise up effortlessly into the air,

So buoyed by this beautiful energy of wonder and awe.

And almost immediately another flower calls to you.

And you come into rest feeling so well nourished.

Maybe space for just one more flower.

And as the aroma infuses the air around you,

As you drink deeply from this flower,

You realize it is the flower of friendship.

This precious energy of knowing and being known.

Of loving and being loved.

This flower that contains the energies of so many other flowers.

A sense of closeness and warmth.

A sense of peace at times in each other's company.

Whether this is friendship with an animal or a human or the earth herself.

A sense of joy that we have in each other.

And the sense of appreciation of the qualities that we sense in this being.

Our gratitude for the friendship itself.

All that it brings to our life.

The sense of hope we feel during difficult times.

That we can heal and repair.

That we can move through these struggles and challenges.

The sense of wonder that we were this lucky to find this kind of friendship.

And to have the skills to learn how to nourish it so that it can thrive in our hearts today.

We can take a moment simply to savor this energy.

Different people or animals or parts of nature might come to mind.

We allow them to flow through us very naturally.

Sensing the sweetness of friendship in our life.

And feeling full of nourishment.

We can allow ourselves to take to the air once more.

Flying a little higher now as we gaze upon this meadow.

And noticing there are so many other butterflies in the air.

Butterflies landing,

Butterflies drinking deeply from the sweetness of their life.

May we all know how to nourish ourselves every day with these wholesome energies.

May we all take time to remind ourselves again and again of all the sources of sweetness in our life.

May we take a moment to simply enjoy moving through this space.

Witnessing this joyful feast.

Butterflies,

Honeybees,

Maybe dragonflies.

So many beings moving through this space,

Drawing in deep nourishment for their hearts.

Thank you so much for being together.

We'll end with two sounds of the bell.

Bell

Reviews

This was such a lovely meditation…! An instant favorite. Even more beautiful listening to it on the spring equinox. ☺️🌱🌸

This is absolutely delightful. It's rare to find something really original like this! Thank you.