In this meditation we're going to do a visualization exercise.
I normally do this when I struggle with meditation,
Struggle with focusing on my breath.
We're going to sit on the beach and just enjoy the waves coming in and out.
So get comfortable in whatever posture you choose,
Whether you're just sat at a kitchen table or on the floor or maybe you're lying in bed.
In a moment we're going to take three deep breaths.
This is a way of connecting our mind and our body together.
So I'm going to count to three and then we'll breathe in deeply and we'll hold it for a couple of seconds and then we'll release it gently and then breathe easy.
So here we go,
One,
Two,
Three,
Breathe in,
Now hold it,
Hold and now gently breathe out through the mouth while relaxing your shoulders,
Relaxing your body and now just breathe easy.
As you're breathing in just think calm and as you're breathing out think relax.
So breathe in calm,
Breathe out relax.
And let's do another deep breath,
One,
Two,
Three,
Breathe in and now hold it,
Hold and now breathe out slowly through the mouth,
Relaxing all your body,
Relaxing anything that's left behind.
Breathing in calm,
Breathing out relaxed.
One,
Two,
Three,
Breathe in,
Hold it and now breathe out,
Gently relaxing the rest of the muscles.
Now picture a nice warm beach,
There's nobody else there and you're sat on the sand just in front of the shoreline and the sea is coming up to your feet and going away again.
Just perfectly balanced every time.
It comes up as you breathe in and it just goes back down to the sea as you breathe out.
Imagine you can feel the sun on your face,
You can feel the sand if you put your hands down beside you.
Just keep focusing on sitting beside the shoreline.
You can look around if you like,
Take notice that perhaps there's rocks either side.
Maybe there's some boats out in the water.
Just gently keep breathing in and out with the tide where you can feel the water just come up and just touch your toes and then it fades away again back out into the ocean.
And you can see the way the sand gets wet and then it just dries slightly as the water it as much detail as you can.
Feel the sand between your fingers if you're playing with it beside you.
Now in a moment we're going to stand up and we're going to walk off the beach feeling all refreshed and nice and relaxed and ready for our day.
So then stand up now and start walking.
You can feel the sand under your feet.
Each step you take you feel the sand just give away slightly.
It's all nice and warm and you can feel the sun on your back as you're walking away.
You can hear the sea fading away behind you.
Now if you open your eyes and come back into the room shake your arms out and just move your body around.
How does that feel?
Does that just feel nice and refreshed?
Does that feel nice and calming?
It's a nice way of it's a nice simple visualization that you can do anytime and it takes the pressure off meditation.
It takes the pressure off just taking a little time out.
Meditation is about focusing.
It's about bringing yourself to present.
It's about being here.
And although visualizing in that way takes you away from here it doesn't because your mind is still always here.
Thank you.
I'm Stephen Webb.
