Finding Calm in the Rushing River

A meditation to help you find calm and clarity in the midst of busy life. It can be difficult to relax when you are stressed. Parts of us can insist that the only way to get things done is to stay on alert.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Rachel Alexandria.

This meditation is finding calm in the rushing river.

Take a moment and start to tune into your breath.

Noticing the air flowing into your lungs.

And notice how your lungs breathe in the air and release the air.

And how it doesn't take any effort from you.

Letting your breath be what it is.

Not hurrying it or slowing it.

Unless you'd like to.

And then start to notice your heartbeat.

You can bring your hand to your chest if that's helpful.

And you can start to feel the sense of this kind and powerful workhorse of your body.

And how it brings oxygen and blood throughout your whole system.

It works for you 24-7 without you having to think about it.

For any piece of gratitude that you might feel throughout yourself to this amazing heart.

And now you might notice your skin.

Notice what it feels like on your clothes,

Against the air.

This wonderful organ that holds you together.

And has so much beautiful sensation.

And it's maybe activated because you were having a busy day,

Or busy week,

Or busy month,

Or busy life.

See if you can bring your breath to your skin.

And allow it to exhale.

And now picture that you're on a river.

And the river that you're on used to be slow.

It was calm and glassy on the surface.

But lately you've realized that you're in the midst of white water.

There's water rushing everywhere.

And it's been tossing you around.

But you can rely in this moment on your breath,

On your heart,

And on the sound of my voice.

See if you can focus in,

In this moment,

Even amidst the rushing river.

See if you can let your breath be your raft.

A nice big air-filled raft that holds you and floats you.

And if there's any kind of rocks or trouble,

This raft has an amazing impermeable shell.

And maybe you notice,

Sitting in this raft,

As you breathe,

That you have something in your hands.

You have a magical paddle that helps you steer.

And you find the more that you breathe,

The easier it is to identify which way to steer.

And you start to feel which way the river wants to carry you.

With this magical paddle in your hands,

You can feel as you put it in the water,

The direction of the river.

And sometimes there are currents that want to shoot toward the rocks,

But those aren't the only ones.

And there are deeper movements that you can feel.

And you can use your paddle and your breath,

And you can use them in the currents like leverage to steer when you need to,

To keep you away from the rocks or to slingshot yourself away from danger.

And you can feel as you dip further in,

The pull of the current and where it wants to take you downstream.

Breathing in and breathing out.

You might even say to the spirit of the river,

Show me the way.

Show me the way,

Great spirit of the river.

Help me to be in service to your flow.

Help to carry me through.

And I will not dash against the rocks.

I will take care of myself and watch my boundaries.

And I want to be in tune with your flow.

So I ask that you help me feel your natural flow downstream.

And as all of this water safely moves from upstream in the rushing rapids to downstream smoothly,

Efficiently,

Even joyfully,

Let me partner with you and with it.

Let me partner with these drops of water and the flow and the force so that I may be carried with you safely down the stream.

I trust in my paddle.

I trust in my raft and my breath.

And the more that I breathe,

The more space I have,

The calmer things seem outside the raft.

You might feel in your paddle the spirit of the river taking hold and guiding you.

I feel it in the whisper of the wind.

Directions and which way to lean and in honor and gratitude,

You lean with the river.

You lean the direction the wind tells you.

You lean on your big raft of breath using your magical paddle.

And sometimes something might fall out of the raft.

A possession you thought you had needed,

A relationship that had seemed important at the time,

An idea you had held close.

But you might notice now that partnering with the flow of the river is what's required for your safety and your joy.

Though you may be less attached to ideas and things that might have fallen out of the raft,

You might breathe and surrender those attachments.

You might even offer them with gratitude to the spirit of the river.

You might say,

Perhaps I did not need that anymore.

Perhaps it's what I offer to the spirit of the river and the flow that carries me forward.

And sometimes this might be hard and that's okay.

You are allowed to have grief even as you're in the flow of the river.

You might also become aware that downstream there are some glittering glimmers of ideas,

Connections,

Opportunities just downstream,

Just ahead of you.

So things that may have fallen out of your raft,

They cannot be replaced,

But they will be in some way compensated for.

There will be room now downstream to bring something new on board the raft,

To take in something new,

Some glimmering possibility.

New treasure that's necessary for where you float to next.

And that doesn't need to change the grief you might feel about losses,

But you can still honor the things that go and the things that come with your breath,

Like your breath.

The oxygen that comes in,

Carbon dioxide that goes out,

Things that all the time are being taken in,

Used or transformed and released.

If you feel it's true for you,

You might now honor the spirit of the river or any other spirit that you feel in alignment with.

You might offer gratitude for the clarity by saying,

I see this is not something I was meant to hold on to,

Even though I had wanted to,

And I give it with an open heart back to you,

Spirit.

I trust that the river has a place for this.

Thank you for letting me have it for the time that I did.

Thank you for the beauty of whatever comes into my life next.

And you may find that this gratitude helps you to partner better with the river,

Helps you to feel the flow,

Helps you feel that connection to the pole downstream and the energy and the movement of the river when you're less connected to things that might fall out of the raft.

You can feel the river,

Maybe in this moment,

With the gratitude starting even to flow through you.

You might feel it in your heart,

You might feel a sense of joy,

A sense of largeness,

And to that you may say thank you,

Thank you.

Thank you for this feeling,

This awareness,

This connection.

Thank you for letting me see in this moment that I am also the river.

And you might bow to the river,

The great spirit of the river,

And both see that you are bowing to the river and to yourself.

You are bowing to the river which is in your own heart.

And now as you look around,

You see that the water around you has calmed and that you are downstream in a glassy,

Clear,

Beautiful pool of water.

It's your favorite color of blue.

And you might notice,

Without even opening your eyes yet,

A feeling of warmth,

Of light,

Of connectedness,

A sensation of the opportunities,

The glittering opportunities just outside of your field of vision,

Waiting to be seen.

And now come back to the breath,

To your breath,

Taking a nice breath in and breath out,

Noticing how you feel in your body and how you feel whether you are sitting or lying down.

Coming back to your sense of being in your body,

Of your physical presence.

You might touch your skin,

Your legs,

Your arms,

Your belly.

You might shrug your shoulders or wiggle your toes or flutter your eyelids.

But gradually,

As you feel ready,

Coming back home into your physical presence.

Reviews

Lovely voice. Fell asleep quickly :)

An other helpfulll and plesant medition of yours.

Thankyou I will revisit and recommend 🌸🧘‍♀️🙏

Enjoyed the visualisations and help with slowing down. Maybe a little slow but that's my mind rushing !! Thank you.

Thank you so much. This was the perfect calming meditation that helped me so much this afternoon

Thank you sooo much for that. This just helped me out of a panic attack 🙏🏼

I agree with the other listeners; the river is a very fitting metaphor. Thank you for this moment.

Love the river concept!!! Amazing meditation. Thank you!

Very soothing and easy to follow

Love this! Rachel Rose's delivery is so soothing and the imagery "simple" but powerful.

Beautiful!
My river is Dharma.
Recently I deliberately cut myself lose from everything comfortable and known to me because the clinging onto it was drowning me. Mark Epstein captures it in his book 'Going to pieces without falling apart'. By cutting myself loose from the storylines that were pulling me into the undertow I have surrendered to the river....and it doesn't matter if the flow is turbulent or calm. I have utter conviction in the Path, my river, because in ultimate terms I am nothing other than the river....
The Absolute space of consciousness beyond space and time; The Dharmadhatu; the essence of mind and reality. Calm or turbulent - the same thing ultimately.
Meanwhile though I may be tossed in the whitewater in my going to pieces I know and feel that I am not falling apart. There is grief and sorrow and pain but I can lean into these because I know the River of Dharma is holding me and carrying me - to the other shore or no shore. I have relinquished knowing where I am going because the 'I' hasn't got a clue. And instead I have surrendered to not knowing because The River knows.

Thank you for this meditation! It gave me a sense of being alright in the storm and a sense of gentleness, happiness and calm!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Very calming. Thank you.

Very calming. Thank you.