Welcome to this Changing Seasons Mindfulness Meditation.
We're exploring the transition into autumn.
So to begin with an invitation to settle into an upright,
Dignified posture or lying down,
If that's what your body feels called to do today.
Keeping your eyes open or closed,
Listening to your needs and then dropping into the felt experience of your body.
What can you notice?
Points of contact with the earth,
Tingling,
Flow of energy around your body.
What's here?
What's present for you today in this moment?
Nowhere to go,
Nowhere to be but here.
Perhaps having a sense of the air touching your skin,
The fabric of your clothes against your body,
Beat of your heart,
The rise and fall of your chest as you breathe in and you breathe out.
As we move from this thinking,
Analysing,
Judging mind into simply being.
Being present with our bodies,
Listening to its story.
What can you notice in your body?
Now an invitation to look back,
The season that has passed,
Summer.
Bringing to mind all the things you enjoyed the last season.
Perhaps the warmth of sun on your skin,
The feel of sand beneath your toes,
The lightness of your clothes,
The summer drinks,
Treats,
The people that you've seen,
The moments and memories that you treasure.
Bringing to mind all the things that you've enjoyed one by one.
And as best you can,
Bringing your attention to the felt sensation of what your body experiences as you explore these moments that you're joyful or grateful for.
What are the felt sensations of those experiences?
Perhaps there's a hint of sadness that the season's over.
What does that feel like in the body?
Being present to the emotions.
Do they have a shape,
A colour,
A texture,
A movement?
What can you notice?
And now an invitation to bring your awareness to the upcoming season of autumn.
What's lying ahead of you?
What are you looking forward to?
The smell of fallen leaves,
Putting on a beloved jumper you've not worn for a while.
The changing colours,
Sounds and smells that the new season will be bringing for you.
It's awaiting you.
All the gifts in store for you,
One by one.
Notice what bringing up those things feels like in the body.
Where do you feel them?
Perhaps scanning from your head down to your toes.
What can you notice?
Feel excited,
Anticipation of what the new season will bring you.
Apprehension.
What do you notice?
Where is it in the body?
Would it have a shape,
A colour,
A texture,
A movement,
A sound?
Does it feel heavy,
Light?
Bringing a childlike curiosity to your experience.
Remembering that there's no right or wrong way of doing these practices.
We're simply exploring what it is to be us.
What it feels like to transition between seasons.
Now bringing your attention to your breath.
Your in-breath and your out-breath.
There's a constant movement in the body as you breathe,
Even in those slight pauses.
Just as there is a constant changing of seasons.
Nature and life are in constant movement.
We are constantly transitioning.
Ever-changing,
Constant flow.
The breath.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Knowing that the breath is always there for you as an anchor,
As is your body to listen to,
Pay attention to and anchor into the present moment.
Moving and stretching in whatever way your body is calling for you to do.
And an invitation to just take a moment to think about the transition from this practice.
What do you need?
What does your body need for you to do?
Moments that follow this practice.
