Allowing your shoulders to fall down away from your ears.
Taking two or three deep,
Releasing breaths in through your nose.
Out through your mouth.
And on your out-breaths,
Just soften that little bit more each time.
And remember that it's okay to move during the meditation if you need to.
Adjust your position.
Move around.
In a mindful way.
Notice your discomfort and then.
.
.
Work out where you're going to be moving.
And then settle back down.
Maybe even take another releasing breath when you resettle yourself.
I'm starting to feel into the sensations.
On the skin of your body,
Feeling the weight of your body against your chair.
Maybe your back against the back of the chair.
Your feet touching the floor.
Your socks or your shoes.
Feeling the gentle touch of your clothes against your skin,
Maybe areas that.
.
.
The clothing feels soft and light and maybe other areas where it feels tighter around your waistband.
And are you able to sense the feeling of air moving across your face or your hands?
A very subtle sensation of a slight movement of air,
The coolness of the air touching the skin.
Can you sense the sensation of your hair?
Against your scalp.
Your eyelids touching each other along the line of your eyes.
Maybe your lips,
Top lip,
Touching bottom lip.
Allow your awareness to go a little deeper of touch sensations or sensations inside of your body.
Are you able to sense the beating of your heart and the rise and fall of your chest and belly as you breathe?
Maybe you can feel some movement in your abdominal organs.
Are there any areas that feel quite pleasant and comfortable inside your body?
Or other areas that might feel a little unpleasant.
Are you able to hear your heart beating or your breath moving in and out?
Sounds within the room,
Perhaps the music or the oil diffuser.
All the sounds entering from outside the space we're in.
Are there any visual sensations?
Are you able to see more than just darkness behind your closed eyes?
Shades of light and dark or colour.
Perhaps images.
Or maybe just darkness.
Perhaps you can smell the oil diffusing.
Spicy.
Harvest oil blend.
And as you breathe in and out.
Sense that crispness,
That slight crispness in the air that tells you that the seasons are changing.
As the mornings and the nights become cooler.
And you're witnessing the change in nature.
Leaves changing colour.
Birds behaving differently.
Garden,
Moving into more of a hibernation stage.
A general slowing down of nature.
And perhaps you can visualise a warm coloured light energy just above your head.
Maybe it's a yellow or red or orange colour,
An autumn colour.
Now as you breathe in and out,
You might like to invite that warm energy into your scalp.
Sensing the warmth.
The softening and slowing energy moving through the muscles of your scalp.
Creating a softness.
Allowing it to flow down over your ears.
And the back of your head.
With that light filling the whole of your head,
Your mind,
Your brain.
Feeling any tension dissolving.
As that autumn energy infuses through all the tissues of your face.
Your eyes,
Your nose,
Your jaw.
Bringing a sense of softness and restfulness.
Which flows down your neck and throat and across your shoulders.
Allowing your shoulders to drop away even more.
Perhaps you can feel that tingling energy.
Moving through your shoulder joints.
Your muscles,
The skin of your shoulders.
Tumbling down both arms.
The outside skin of your arms.
Letting go.
And that restfulness moving deeply into your muscles and your bone.
Almost like they're taking a pause after a busy period of work,
Physical work.
Gently dripping away any tension.
Allowing your arms,
Your hands,
Your fingers.
To rest fully now.
Glowing autumn energy moving down through your chest.
Your tummy.
Drawing with it,
Not just restfulness,
But perhaps reflection.
Reflection of how summer has been.
How the year has been so far.
And then letting that energy move all the way down through your hips.
Your thighs,
The skin,
The muscles,
The bones.
Gentle,
Warm.
Orange colour.
Soaking in,
Marinating through all of your anatomy.
Moving down through your knees like a tide.
Bringing that gentle energy right through your calves,
Your shins.
Into your ankles.
Your feet receiving the glow.
The warmth.
And the rest.
The stillness translating into restfulness for your feet.
Your ankles,
Your legs,
Your torso.
Shoulders,
Arms,
And hands.
Your throat and your neck.
Your face.
Brain and your scalp.
Deeply resting,
Releasing.
Letting go.
Any final bits of tension.
Dissolving into the aether.
And starting to picture yourself perhaps.
A beautiful place in nature where there is lots of autumn leaves.
Noticing the colors.
Perhaps there's still some green.
Noticing the yellows.
The orange,
The red,
The brown.
As you stand in this beautiful place,
Perhaps you can hear the soft fall of the leaves making their way down to the earth.
On their way to the ground.
To find their way back into the soil.
To gradually disintegrate and enrich the soil.
To feed the very trees that gave them life.
Perhaps you can smell.
The leaves.
Trees.
The soil under your feet.
Perhaps you're walking barefoot.
Through the soft leaves,
Feeling perhaps some warmth,
Some dampness under your feet,
Hearing the crunch of the leaves.
Now perhaps you're drawn to sit on a log which feels very warm in the afternoon sun.
Gentle breeze rustling your hair,
Rustling the leaves.
You might consider what autumn leaves you have that you can let go of.
Are there things you can allow to fall away?
Perhaps jobs or tasks or loads that you're carrying.
Perhaps you decide right now is the time to shed those things.
To make space for rest.
To make space for the new.
As the seasons move on.
Or perhaps just to make space for you to hibernate,
To look after yourself over the cooler winter months.
Picturing cosy blankets and nourishing warm drinks.
Long nights.
Plenty of sleep.
Healthy soups during the day.
Knowing that it's okay.
Even nature takes a breather.
It's okay for you to take a breather.
To look after yourself.
Simply staying with that image.
Of autumn surrounding you,
But also autumn creating opportunity for you.
To let go.
To rest.
And just to be.
Slowly on your next in-breath.
Sense the fragrance in the room.
Sense the crisp air moving in through your nose.
Filling your lungs.
When you're out breath.
Maybe there's still more softening.
And then turning to your other senses,
The sound.
From far away,
From outside.
And all the way.
To your own sounds of your own body.
Feeling the internal and the external sensations.
What is your body telling you or what is the outside world telling you?
As you start to reconnect to the room.
To the group,
To the afternoon.
You might like to give your head a really nice slow nod.
And maybe a shake of your head slowly,
One side and the other.
Waking your hands with a big stretch and a fist.
And letting your hands just rest onto your heart.
Reconnecting with any insights.
That you might have had during the meditation.
Perhaps they're translating into a plan.
A plan for more self-care,
Warm drinks,
Nutritious soups over winter.
For rest,
For creating space.
And for continuing to let go of what you might like to let go of.
Your very own autumn leaves.
Allowing them to fall,
To create.
Fresh nutrition.
As they move on.
Out of your life.
Nothing is ever lost.
We continue to learn.
Continue to grow.
From all that's passed through our minds and hearts and bodies.
Taking a big sigh and opening your eyes whenever you're ready.
