Welcome to Right To Be You,
A creative sanctuary where I invite you to join me on a guided journey and then if you choose to arrive on the page and greet what has emerged during the meditation.
Begin by closing your eyes and finding a comfortable position.
Give yourself permission to sink in and let go and feel the support of the surface beneath you,
The cushions behind you.
Allow yourself to be held effortlessly by this space.
You have taken the step to show up for yourself today and now you have an opportunity to arrive more fully,
More deeply,
A mindful arriving and presence.
As you settle into the space,
Call your attention to your breathing body.
So often we move through the world with our breath entirely out of our awareness.
So I'm inviting you now to welcome in three deep breaths.
Breathing in through your nose,
Expanding your belly as you inhale fully and then slowly exhaling through your mouth.
Feeling a complete release as your belly deflates like a balloon and then again.
Breathing in through your nose,
Expanding your belly as you inhale fully and then slowly exhaling through your mouth,
Deflating like a balloon.
And now one more time,
Lengthening your in breath,
Deepening your out breath.
When you have completed your three breaths,
Just let your breathing return to a natural rhythm,
Noticing the space you have created inside of yourself to feel more at ease,
More relaxed,
Like choppy water transforming into gentle undulating waves as a storm recedes.
We all carry storms inside of us,
Habitual tension in our muscles,
Our backs,
Shoulders,
Jaws or storms in our minds,
Brewing anxieties and worries or storms that arrive as endless demands or caretaking or list making.
Let us practice together,
Breathing in calm skies,
Silky water,
Breathing out turbulence,
Tightness,
Any urge to perform or prepare,
Just you,
Just breath,
Just us breathing together,
Softening,
Letting go.
And if there are certain thoughts or tensions that are clingy or stubborn or critical,
Refusing to loosen their grip as they do,
Just offer them more breath and more space,
Acknowledge their presence,
But practice not identifying or attaching to them.
You might even try naming them,
Worry,
Stubbornness,
Hurt,
Criticism,
Cynicism.
They too belong,
Like dark clouds floating in a clear blue sky,
They are in constant motion passing through with each inhale and with each exhale,
You hold the power to disperse these clouds by simply bringing your attention back to your breath.
I now invite you to imagine you are walking through a beautiful forest,
A forest lush with ancient trees and patches of bright,
Colorful wildflowers.
The sun is dappled through the uppermost branches of the trees crisscrossing the ground beneath your feet.
You are walking slowly through this forest,
Completely present and fully alive to all your senses.
This forest is your picture to paint and to immerse yourself in.
What do you need this forest to be?
Let's begin with the temperature.
Is it a cool and shady autumn afternoon or are you bundled up on a crisp wintry morning?
Is the air on your skin warm like early spring or hot like a lazy midsummer?
Is there a light breeze or are the branches perfectly still?
Is it a dewy dawn or a twinkling twilight or perhaps another point in the day?
And as you take each step,
What can you hear?
Your feet crunching through leaves or twigs,
The lilting orchestra of the birdsong as they fly between the trees,
Resting and nesting.
Can you listen to the leaves whispering in the wind?
Or perhaps if you are very still,
You can hear the murmurings of the wondrous web of tree roots holding their own quiet conversation below the ground.
While you continue to rest your attention on your inhale and your exhale,
What can you smell?
The freshness of green pine,
Wet,
Dark soil,
The earthiness of the tree bark or the clearing sweet scent of sage carpeting the forest floor.
As all your senses spring to life,
You begin to feel more dimensional and attuned and the thought that something inside of you is missing or needs fixing evaporates like steam into the ether and in its place,
A lovely lingering feeling of love,
Acceptance,
Compassion for all you have been through.
You breathe into that feeling,
Even if it is unfamiliar.
The birds and the leaves and the roots of the trees are all communicating to you that to hold yourself with kindness,
Tenderness,
Care is truly your birthright.
We come to the forest to reclaim what belongs to us and to let go of everything that doesn't.
We come to the forest to shake off the weights we drag around in our day-to-day lives,
To dance through the trees with ease and flow,
To commune with the creatures and plants that live amongst us,
To feel more interconnected to all beings and to the maternal energy of earth and her rising and setting companions,
The sun and the moon.
We come to the forest to feel energetically held in alignment between the ground beneath us and the skies above us.
We come to the forest with gratitude and grace and wishes with wings,
Wishes that fly wherever we send them.
So feel yourself totally present in the forest,
Your breathing body relaxed and your imagination open like a portal to your deepest intuition.
Now that you have fully arrived,
You can make room for another's arrival of your choosing.
Who joins you here?
Is it a past or future version of yourself?
A loved one who has crossed over into the afterlife and comes with a message?
A magical creature with a story to tell?
Perhaps a friend or a family member who you want or need to connect with?
A wise elder with creased skin and shining eyes who appears with an offering of words or a gift?
Take a few quiet moments to let a deep knowing inside of you reveal exactly who this visitor needs to be.
Whoever or whatever arrives,
Offer them your wide open attention and your wide open heart.
I'm going to take the next few minutes to be silent and allow you the space to connect with your visitor.
Listen for any words or messages or feelings that nourish this exchange.
Now very slowly and gently bid your visitor farewell with a hug or a kiss or another meaningful gesture and thank them for visiting.
And as you gradually transition from your inner landscape back to this outer landscape,
Open your eyes with a soft focus.
Take a moment to hold your hand to your heart and breathe into that space before gently stretching your arms above your head or out to the side.
As a further invitation,
If you feel called to the page,
Pick up your pen and write continuously for 10 minutes using the timer on this app.
There is no right or wrong way to do this.
Just arrive on the page as you did in the forest with all your senses alert and your heart open.
You can forsake punctuation or explanation.
Just write what you feel compelled to express.
You can write about your time in the forest,
Your visitor,
A memory,
A wish,
A message,
A feeling.
The page is beckoning.
Give yourself permission to write to be you.
