This is a visualization meditation.
You are creating a sacred space to carry with you and visit wherever and whenever you need.
One of the beautiful elements of this exercise is that it can be tailored to be exactly what you need to feel safe and peaceful,
Regardless of what is happening around you.
And the more frequently you return to your sacred space,
The more you can add to its atmosphere and the more easily and quickly you can feel its calming effects.
I will paint a picture,
But you can change anything you like as you listen.
Make yourself as comfortable as possible in your chosen position.
Take a full breath in,
Filling your belly,
And hold it for a few moments before blowing it out.
Take in another deep breath,
Holding it again before releasing it.
And one last deep,
Full breath,
Holding it again before releasing.
Breathe easily now.
Let your eyebrows relax.
Loosen your jaw.
Feel your shoulders drop and your arms hang,
Your hands feeling heavy and open.
Let this loose,
Warm,
Heavy feeling settle into your torso and down your legs,
Finally making its way all the way to your toes.
Imagine that you are outside.
The air feels warm and pleasant.
The light is golden and mellow.
A soft breeze brushes against your face.
You hear the babble of water from a stream running by beside you.
It flows over smooth stones.
The grass is long all around you,
With heads of seed bobbing in the breeze and your favorite wildflowers mixed in among them and lining the tamped path in front of you.
As you walk,
You approach a grove of trees.
You recognize ones in particular from favorite places you have lived or visited.
Birds sing to each other from the branches.
One lands on your shoulder and you stretch out your hand and let it land and nestle in your palm.
It feels so soft to your touch.
The trees are denser as you travel further inside and their long,
Delicate arms reach across the brook,
Their leafy tips interlocking.
You look up,
Golden light filtering through the leaves,
Revealing their lime-green veins between the spots of bright sun.
Their face is dappled with light and shadow that shimmers with each breeze.
It smells like life here,
Like the best moments,
Like comfort and fullness.
On the bank of the river is a large oak tree.
On one of its thick branches hangs a wooden swing supported by sturdy ropes.
You sit down and start to swing.
Hear the whoosh of air in your ears as you get higher.
Feel the grass every time you kick off from the ground.
Feel your hair billowing forward as you move backward and the sun brightening in your eyes as you crest,
Your feet briefly suspended above you in the air.
You feel a familiar buoyance,
A childhood ease and carelessness,
The verge of laughter in your belly,
Weightlessness,
Freedom.
The river bubbles along in front of you and below you.
The rope creaks.
You smile.
This world is yours.
You are centered and serene.
You take a moment sitting here to absorb this peace.
The green light kissing the landscape and the path you have tread is life-giving and comforting.
The wind carries all the birdsong,
Rustles the green,
Ripples the water,
Caresses your face.
Sitting here exists to support and uplift you and bring you back to your truest self.
Imagine now that you see a door in the trunk of a tree.
Your swinging slows to a gentle stop.
You stand and walk towards it.
Honeysuckle vines arch the frame,
Blossoming and fragrant.
You reach for the handle and open it.
The first thing you see when you open the door is endless sky.
It is sunset here.
The horizon is a watercolor of orange and yellow and purple,
All seamlessly faded together.
The clouds are feathered and saturated with color.
Beneath it is a dazzling desert in the middle of its transformational ritual.
The day creatures are tucking themselves into their dens for the evening.
A quail family,
Each with feather bobbing on its forehead,
Skitters across the sand in front of you.
A lizard makes its way under a bush,
Leaving a weaving line and footprints behind it.
The heat of the day is dissipating,
Leaving only dregs of itself in the dry wind and the dirt under your feet.
Every step you take crunches in the grains of an ancient sea under you.
Feel the warmth of the desert in its breath as it caresses your face and your arms,
Tugging softly at your hair.
Feel it in the earth holding you up.
Feel it deep in your skin,
Warmth in every cell,
In the vivid expanse and its setting sun.
There are mountains reaching up with bare,
Jagged fingers piercing the sky.
The sun is slipping from its place now,
Beginning to hide.
All of the life here loves her and worships her in the thrum of hummingbird wings and the thump of jackrabbit feet and the soft rustle of wind through the mesquite and the blooming creosote.
And as she finally sinks behind the deep blue crags,
All of the stars are born.
So many you could not begin to count them.
You settle yourself on the ground,
Letting each of them have a good look at you.
How beautiful,
They say.
You are unique in all the world.
You marvel at each other,
The light within you reflecting back at them.
You are shining in the darkness.
Breathe in this truth.
You are light.
Beside you grows a yucca,
To look at it one could never know how far it has searched for water,
But its roots are deep.
Beneath its jutting leaves and flowered stock,
Its root plunges 30 feet into the ground.
Feel yourself grounded here.
Where are your roots?
Where is your nourishment?
You are feeding yourself even now,
Replenishing your parched soul in this very moment.
Think of the minerals you gather where you are placed in your life.
Think of the people who nourish your heart.
Feel gratitude for the richness you are blessed with in the space where you grow.
The moon is a shining crescent.
Coyotes begin singing to it.
Let your heart sing too.
Breathe in the richness of extremes,
The way the heat creates gratitude for the relief the cool brings.
Breathe gratitude for your resilience,
The depth of your roots.
Rest here for a moment.
As you sit here,
You hear the call of gulls.
There is a large rock to your right.
It is as tall as you are.
A door has been carved into it.
Stand and grasp the knob,
Pulling the weight of the stone door open.
A rush of salt and spray greet you.
As you cross through the threshold,
The sand beneath you is now finer and softer between your bare toes.
It is gypsum white,
Half swallowing the balls of your feet as you walk towards a vast ocean.
The wet shore is scattered with shells.
You bend down and pluck one.
It is a half shell.
Dark and coarse against your fingertips,
It has clearly been battered on its journey to land.
Flipping it over reveals a beautiful,
Smooth,
Iridescent concave.
It shimmers pastel blue and purple and white.
This shell housed a pearl.
Its outward appearance is deceiving and may be served as protection.
You put it in your pocket and keep walking.
Garlands of kelp are strewn across the beach.
The leaves are thick and damp when you walk on them,
Their bulbs pop with hollow snaps under your weight.
You make your way to a tide pool where little sea creatures are vulnerable and exposed.
You hold a bright orange sea star strangely heavy with muscular arms,
Feeling its tiny buds like the texture of your tongue.
Their round sand dollars smooth and white as bone.
Urchins with dark spines line the edges and the rocks are encrusted with clinging barnacles.
There is movement in the shallow water.
Crabs scuttle along the bottom.
Stranded fish swim in circles waiting for the tide.
You look up at the beckoning water.
Waves splash playfully against your shins and then pull away,
Sinking your feet into the earth.
Feel it rush against your ankles,
An optical illusion that you are moving when standing still.
The water is clear here.
Even when you get waist deep,
You can see to the bottom.
Schools of little fish swirl around you,
Weaving themselves between your legs,
Their slick scales tickling your skin.
The water is warm and pleasant.
You lean back into it,
Letting your feet bob to the surface.
You float here,
Upheld,
Safe,
The sky above you a blue eternity.
Clouds move,
They're cotton and fluff over the sun.
The shadows pass over the land and sea,
Across your face,
Muting the light for strings of moments of bright and dark,
As if speaking in Morse code.
What would the sky have to say to you?
Your ears are submerged as you float.
The sounds of another world envelop you,
Muted,
Gurgling bubbles,
Lapping,
The endless soft pull and crash of waves against the shore and against your skin.
You are alone and yet surrounded by life.
You are supported,
Balanced,
Free.
Breathe in your freedom.
When you return here,
It may offer you something new each time,
Some new element or a new way to experience the atmosphere.
You may climb a tree or find a cave.
Your created world may look completely different,
A castle or a mountain,
Whatever is peace to you.
What matters is that you find stillness and strength and renewal by coming.
Do not be surprised if a guest waits for you on occasion upon your arrival,
Someone who can give you exactly what you need in that moment.
You won't even have to invite them consciously.
They will be revealed to you.
Your heart will provide.
Call upon your sacred space as often as you desire.
Embrace the certainty of your creative ownership here.
You are a world maker.
Take one more look at this beautiful precious place.
Breathe it in.
Hold it.
And release.
