A Nature Meditation

A guided meditation to help you to pause and connect you to nature and the season. To pause and feel into your connection to what is all around you. That beauty, that wonder, that magnificence that is always there if we take the time to see it and to feel part of it.

Transcript

So this is a meditation that I wanted to share with you which is about connecting to nature and with the aim of getting outside of even just paying attention looking outside and that is to help you do that.

It's something I've been talking about in classes and it's a beautiful time of year to do that as well.

So I just want to give you a little pocket of time to experience the season and just how it is today and just to notice the amazing,

The wonder and the beauty that is all around us all of the time.

The small things,

The big things and that constant changing that day to day,

Week to week,

Sometimes minutes and minutes but also month to month and as the seasons roll by and the years there is always something unique and something new just to connect to and so for this meditation if you can actually go outside,

Maybe that's into your garden or into a park or balcony or if you don't have a garden,

Even opening a window just to allow your senses to engage with the outside and with nature and then that will allow you to fully experience nature,

To be in nature just in this moment so it's also a little prompt for you to do that and just to notice how that makes you feel.

So taking yourself to whatever place,

Outdoors,

Works for you.

You might sit directly on the ground,

You might lean against a tree,

You might sit on a chair,

On a bench,

Maybe you even lie down.

Perhaps you could take off your shoes,

Maybe your socks and maybe you can feel the grass or the earth beneath your feet and you might notice is it cold,

Is it warm while you're sitting,

While you're lying,

Is it dry,

Is it damp or wet,

Maybe there's dew,

Maybe it's rained,

Does it feel soft or scratchy or tickly perhaps,

So just noticing that and then just bringing yourself and letting yourself settle and as you do that you might want to close your eyes or you might want to leave a soft gaze,

Really up to you and what feels right as you practice right now and just really letting yourself settle into the support beneath you,

Behind you,

Whatever that is and could you just let your body soften into that support,

Could you acknowledge that feeling of being held,

Being held by the earth and just dropping into that and just sensing feeling in,

Noticing what you can feel against your skin,

So whatever you're sitting or leaning or standing on or against,

Does that feel soft or hard,

Can you feel your clothes,

Maybe they feel loose or tight,

Maybe they feel quite crisp,

Maybe they feel soft,

Maybe you're wrapped in a big coat,

Maybe you're wrapped in a blanket,

Maybe you have lots of layers on,

Maybe very few but how does that feel,

Just sensing in to the skin and what you can feel,

What that is feeding back to you,

Perhaps there's a breeze and today is that breeze cooling or chilling,

Is it quite light,

Is it barely there,

Is it not there,

Maybe it's quite fierce,

Maybe there's a warmth,

Maybe it's the sun against your skin,

Perhaps it's your face or your hands or arms,

Shoulders,

Maybe your legs or your feet,

How does the warmth feel today,

Knowing that the sun is warming the earth and as the sun warms the earth,

Supporting germination,

Seeds,

The plants and other creatures,

Birds,

Mammals,

As it gets warmer,

As the months move through onto the next,

Towards the summer,

The solstice,

That sunshine,

The warmth of the sun gets stronger,

Gets longer in duration each day,

So enjoying the thought of that warmth that's to come,

Maybe more sun,

More warmth against your skin and just taking a few slow easy breaths now as you just pause to rest here,

Sat,

Standing,

Lying against the earth and even if you're sitting on a bench or a chair,

You are still connected to the earth by that object,

You are still resting on the earth and just let your breath wash really slowly in and slowly out,

Just notice it,

Notice your own breathing,

Notice its rhythm and the cycle of your breath,

The inhale,

The exhale,

Just with a sense of ease,

A softness,

Let it be relaxed,

As you breathe in and breathe out and just like the cycles of nature,

Of the seasons,

Of the years,

The breath is a cycle too within the body that draws inward from outside,

Brings the breath in and then releases it back out into nature,

So as your breath comes and goes,

The inhale and the exhale,

Each breath unites you with all that's around you,

So there is a connection to nature through the breath and with each breath that you take,

Perhaps you could just soften,

Release,

Relax your body a little,

Just letting go,

Just into that support of the earth that is holding,

That is supporting you and just letting your breath be easy,

Fluid as it comes and goes and then could you let your attention now just come to what you can hear,

Could you just come to listen and could you just come to notice what you're hearing right now in this very moment,

Perhaps it's your own breathing that you can hear,

Perhaps it's very quiet where you are,

Maybe it's quite loud as a whole symphony of sounds that are vying for your attention,

Maybe there's rustling of vegetation,

Of leaves,

Of grass,

Maybe you can hear the wind,

A breeze,

Maybe there's rain or hail even,

Perhaps there's a bird song,

Maybe a number of different birds,

Maybe there's a lightness and a brightness to that or a shrillness,

Maybe there's a wood pigeon,

A cuckoo,

A crow,

There could be squawking sounds of magpies or a beautiful song of a thrush or a blackbird or a robin,

All of these birds right now are searching for mates,

So making their nests and cosying them ready to be parents,

Maybe you're listening to this around the dawn chorus where there's lots going on,

Maybe it's later in the day,

Maybe you can hear insects,

Maybe the buzzing of bees that have started to reawaken,

Maybe the sound of crickets or other people,

The sound of lawnmowers as the grass starts to grow,

Whatever the sounds,

The songs,

Whatever you can hear that is orchestrating in your ears,

Just go from sound to sound,

Just noticing as you hear that,

Just go gently and easily,

Just noticing sounds near to you and further away,

Whether they're natural or man-made,

Whether they're calm and go,

Just listening,

Just notice what you hear without any judgements and then perhaps you could let your attention just drift now to what you can smell,

Really check in with your nose,

Your nostrils as you breathe and as you inhale,

What can you sense there,

What fragrances,

Maybe there's the smell of freshly cut grass or morning dew,

Maybe there's that smell after some rain,

Maybe you can smell bluebells nearby or blossom from a tree,

Apple blossom,

Cherry blossom,

Maybe there's other flowers open around you,

Just noticing what you smell,

Maybe there's a cup of coffee nearby that you can smell,

Just noticing what you can sense and pick up through your sense of smell as you rest here a little,

Pause here now and then if your eyes have been closed,

Could I invite you to let really slowly your eyes to just open and just a pause to notice what you can see,

What is around you,

Maybe gently looking upwards,

Looking towards the sky,

Maybe noticing the colour of the sky,

Its intensity,

Maybe it's a clear bright blue,

Maybe it's a dull dark grey,

Maybe there's soft fluffy bright clouds,

Maybe there's a moon above you,

Stars above your head,

If you can see the moon if it's evening time,

Maybe you notice its shape,

Maybe the sun is shining,

Maybe there's rain falling,

What can you see above you?

And then what else can you see,

What is going on in nature all around you,

Really in this late spring now,

Spring very established and manifested itself in these longer warmer days,

Maybe there's a lush green growth,

That potential beneath your feet,

Noticing where the green has already thrown up above,

Come above the soil surface,

Maybe there's green peeping out from the brown of the branches on bushes and trees and hedges,

Maybe you see that this potential that they've held all winter long is now bursting forward into this late spring season and noticing that,

What colours can you see,

Maybe there's a lush verdant bright green,

What colours,

What names are conjured up,

Maybe it's a moss green,

A grass green,

A lime green,

A fresh green,

The leaves that you could maybe see,

Are they dark or light or dull or shiny,

What are their shapes,

Maybe there's raindrops like pools glistening on the leaves,

A little bit like pearls,

Maybe there's dew on the grass,

What other colours perhaps you can see,

Maybe it's blossom,

Pink,

White,

The blue of a bluebell,

Pops of colour of tulips or other flowers that are irises,

Other things that maybe you see,

Maybe there's movement as the flowers dance in the breeze or insects flying around from flower to flower,

Just noticing all of nature's work happening around you maybe,

Supporting the plants,

Beautiful big bees,

I've noticed flying around,

Bumbling from flower to flower,

All part of this amazing system of nature,

All intrinsically linked and something you are very much part of.

There's a busyness even of nature as you relax into the calmness that it brings us,

Maybe you've noticed there's birds hopping around,

Maybe pulling worms,

Maybe hopping from tree to tree carrying little twigs or moss to make their nests,

Maybe flying through the sky,

Maybe they're hidden in the trees or the hedgerows but you can hear them,

Just drinking in this wonder,

Drinking in nature all its majesty,

Just being present to how far it stretches in all directions and how just you can draw that in,

Take it in and be part of it,

Maybe there's a feeling of awe,

That feeling of just wow,

Look at all this around,

Just feeling this sense of connection to nature,

Being part of it,

Savouring it,

Drinking it in and just taking a moment just to ask yourself what is good about this moment,

What am I drawn to or how is it making me feel,

Just pausing to notice,

Savouring this time,

Spending as long here as you have and of course you can spend as long here as you want to just taking it all in but pondering those two thoughts,

How does it make me feel and what is good about this moment and when you're ready to you can carry on with your day but come back to this again,

Just come back to this noticing,

This pausing in nature,

Daily if you can,

Noticing what's different,

Savouring this magnificence of our natural world.