Deep Rest Body Scan + Nidra + Forest Visualization

Embark on a serene journey that blends the art of deep relaxation with the enchanting essence of nature in this guided meditation. Begin with a comprehensive body scan that invites peace and serenity into every part of your being, setting the stage for profound relaxation.

Embark on a serene journey that blends the art of deep relaxation with the enchanting essence of nature in this guided meditation. Begin with a comprehensive body scan that invites peace and serenity into every part of your being, setting the stage for profound relaxation.

Can be used for sleep or whenever you want a deep rest. Photo by Elias Tigiser.

Transcript

Welcome to this relaxing guided visualization of a temperate forest journey.

You can begin by making yourself comfortable,

Creating a space of relaxation where you won't be disturbed and can focus for a while.

Allow yourself to make any necessary adjustments and let the body become symmetrical,

Keeping the hips and arms and legs at a roughly equal distance apart.

Let the palms gently face upwards and let the fingers relax and curl naturally.

Let the lips and face and mouth soften.

Let your attention come to the back,

Noticing how it touches the surface you're resting on.

Feel the lower body becoming heavy and relaxing more deeply.

The whole right leg,

The whole left leg,

The whole lower body becoming heavy.

And now the right arm and shoulder,

The right hand and fingers,

The left arm and shoulder,

The left hand and fingers,

Both arms and shoulders and upper back all becoming heavy as you relax more deeply and breathe more fully.

Feeling the whole body now as a oneness of sensation,

As you let a soft focus gently rest on the breath.

Imagine yourself at the edge of a lush temperate forest.

The air is fresh and crisp,

Filled with the scent of pine and earth.

With each breath,

Feel yourself becoming more relaxed and grounded.

And as you step into the forest,

Feel a sense of calm and serenity.

As you step into the forest,

Feel a sense of calm enveloping you,

A sense of feeling at home.

And as you look down beneath your feet,

See the pine,

The oak and the maple leaves,

Enjoying the sound of their crackling underfoot as you walk.

And you pause for a moment to take it all in,

Feeling the earth beneath you solid and nurturing.

And imagine the scene now becoming even more inviting,

Feeling at home and at ease.

As you look around,

See where the sunlight peers through the trees,

Hear a gentle and soothing wind rustling through the leaves.

And you see now a beautiful place to rest,

Somewhere you feel safe and at home.

With each breath,

Feel yourself drawing in the energy of the earth,

The vibrant and verdant energy of all life,

As a light suffusing your whole body.

Feel this light adjusting itself to meet you where you are,

The intensity of the light,

The movement of the light,

Moving at just the right pace so that you can receive its beauty,

So you can feel its motion as warmth over your whole being.

A light of love and the earth and vibrancy,

Tuning itself to you and stimulating your heart,

Your mind and your senses.

Feel this light inviting you into an empathic imagination.

The trees and plants,

Wands and flowers,

The trees and plants want to be known by you.

They invite you to imagine your feet as roots delving down deep into the earth.

Imagine the roots of your body exploring the subsurface of the soil,

Seeking out water,

Investigating the soil for the right temperature,

Sending out the root filaments as if you were stretching your body,

Feeling that subtle soil electricity,

Feel the electric connection of the soil between your roots and the nutrients,

See your roots navigating the complex dynamic architecture of living soil,

Seeking out those collaborative relationships with fungi and bacteria,

Communicating with other roots of other plants,

An entire community and ecosystem as you move down and out.

Feel the cool moist soil rich with life and nutrients,

And as you deepen your breathing,

Breathe all the way down into your roots,

Breathe all the way down into your roots,

Feeling any tension in your feet being absorbed and dissipated by the earth,

And let the way you release this tension be beautiful,

Be an offering.

See tension the way the earth sees it,

As living energy,

A beautiful need,

Life moving towards life,

The way our adventures in the greater story of things comes to rest,

A longing for ease,

For a sense of home and belonging.

See any remaining tension being recycled into the underlying essence of its energy,

Feel your body becoming heavy as this natural restoration process continues,

And as you root down further,

Feel the wisdom of the soil,

Feel each layer of soil a year of decomposition and restoration.

Notice how the soil is made up of the transformation of the past,

Accepting and affirming everything,

And transforming it into nourishment.

It is showing you the possibility of transforming your own past into a nourishing present,

So that everything that has happened and exists inside of you can be like soil to grow new seeds of life.

Feel the past and memory inside of you,

Recomposing itself into its higher expression,

Becoming a life-giving soil inside of you,

Through which seeds of future intentions may grow.

Feel this loving wisdom calming your whole body,

Moving up and down the body as light,

Adjusting itself to meet you just where you are.

Look around you and notice the ancient strength of trees,

Their calm presence,

The storms that they've weathered,

And the wisdom of weathering those storms.

You feel awe and inspiration at knowing just how much these trees have gone through over the hundreds of years they've existed.

And you see on their trunks and their branches the stories they tell.

You see the branches on the forest floor that they've let go of,

And you see that these branches were not lost,

But have become homes for other beings.

You see how the tree,

Just by being itself,

Nourishes life around it.

The birds that nest in them,

The squirrels that have eaten their seeds.

Feel yourself taking in some of this wise,

Ancient energy of these incredible trees,

As you feel your energy rooting down into the earth and rising up towards the sun.

Taking a deep breath in now,

And feeling the wave of relaxation that converges from the top of your head and the bottom of your feet into your abdomen and lower back.

Feeling that stream of energy flowing through the forest also flow through you.

You start to hear a gentle water in the distance,

A gentle stream.

You feel a peace and tranquility begin to flow through you at a deeper level now.

You feel the abdomen begin to relax,

And the lower back surrender more into the surface beneath you.

You become more afloat,

And you begin to feel the water in the distance You become more fluid and flexible,

Like the water in the distance,

Allowing these beautiful energies to flow through you.

Seeing a blue light now,

Seeing the water in all beings as a blue,

Beautiful light.

You see your own body as infused with this flowing blue light.

You look up at the sky and see the water from the clouds and the water in the trees,

Pumping up from the roots and flowing up and down the tree's veins in xylem and phloem.

You see this luminescence flow between all beings,

Feeling at home equally in all of them.

Watch how it allows itself to move from one being to another,

Giving life wherever it rests.

Feel how this blue light of the water stimulates your very unique individuality and lets all beings be themselves.

And you hear the sound of this shimmering blue as water,

And it stimulates your sense of feeling at home,

Knowing it too is resting and dancing in you.

And as you breathe,

You see this blue light emanating from your breath into the trees nearby,

And you see the trees breathing a blue into you,

This watery light emanating between clouds and trees and plants and animals,

Feeling that communication through the water that you all share.

Feel this blue radiance wanting to be known by you and wanting to merge with the green of the earth.

Feeling these two lights begin to match your energy,

Adjusting themselves to meet you where you are.

Feel the beautiful blue and green light moving up and down your body,

Restoring a sense of clarity and connection and feeling hints of ancient remembrance of the true face of things in the greater-than-human world.

And as you breathe more deeply,

Bring your focus to the upper chest and back,

Focusing on the breath where each inhale is like a wind rustling through the leaves,

And each exhale is that moment when the wind stops and the leaves settle again,

Dropping into a deeper sense of ease and relaxation.

Feeling the lungs expand and contract,

Noticing the in-breath and out-breath like small waves crashing on a lake,

The rhythm of the waves being played by the moon at a distance.

And our own breath played by some inner orchestra,

Some mysterious mixture between diaphragm and consciousness.

Feel how the rhythm of breath interacts with the rhythm of leaves and oceans.

Feel how these rhythms,

Your heartbeat,

Your breath,

The shorelines,

Are a more primordial music composed of rhythm instead of just sound.

Feel your participation in this vast symphony,

Feeling the harmony of this participation increase as you deepen your breathing,

Feeling the relaxation spread to your arms and shoulders and hands,

Imagining what it would be like if your arms extended out like branches,

Flexible and strong,

Blowing in the wind,

And let your shoulders drop and surrender more into the surface beneath you,

Bringing your attention now to the shoulder blades and noticing the space between the shoulder blades.

Noticing more where the lower body touches the surface beneath you,

The lower back,

The legs,

The feet,

Feeling the whole lower body and the whole upper body,

Now both of them all at once,

Feeling the whole body and the whole upper body.

Letting your whole body rest into the surface,

Letting your breathing deepen as you feel yourself so held,

So supported by the surface you're resting on.

And allow your awareness to rest now on the neck and the head,

And imagine a dappled sunlight of a forest clearing warming your face,

The beautiful sunlight not too intense,

But feeling warm and cozy,

Letting the muscles in your neck and face and head relax,

Softened by this gentle light.

You feel the forehead and the eyes relax,

Feeling the body release and feel heavy.

And now with the entire body relaxed,

Surrounded by the nurturing embrace of nature,

Feel a deep sense of connection with the whole body,

Feel a deep sense of connection with the intricate web of life that surrounds you,

Feel at one with the earth and its rhythms.

As you look up to the forest canopy,

You see the sunlight filtering through the leaves of tall oaks and pines.

With their sturdy trunks and sprawling branches,

They stand as living embodiments of strength and resilience.

Feel these trees offering their wisdom and strength and resilience to you.

Feel yourself opening to this teaching of strength and resilience.

As you look at these trees and receive their wisdom,

You feel your own wisdom stimulated inside.

You feel new capacities and sources of strength.

A green light starts to emerge from the trees and it stimulates your own inner wisdom as it dances and swirls around your own wisdom,

Your own strength,

Your own resilience.

You start to notice new capacities to meet life with resilience in the same way that these trees have borne winds and storms.

They impart their teachings to you and help you remember that you too have the strength to bear the storms of life,

That you too have the resilience to be flexible and flow in the strong winds of change,

And that you too are capable of rooting further into something that does not change.

Feel the trees wanting to share this with you,

Adjusting this wisdom to meet you just where you are,

Finding just that light and just that intensity that you can receive easily and joyfully.

Taking a deep breath in and imagining the forest floor,

Noticing delicate ferns and paths.

You sense that there is something ancient about these paths,

That perhaps they started as deer trails or certain plants grew,

And then as rain came down,

They became small streams of water.

And then as rain came down,

They became small streams,

And then these small streams became rivers,

Rivers that all of the animals would flock to when they needed water and rest,

Or just to hear that beautiful music of a running stream.

And then as time went on,

Perhaps the rivers dried up and shifted.

Now they became a trail.

As you look around you into this forest,

You see that every single tree,

Every single curve of the ground and the soil,

Every single bird nest,

Every single home that every animal is made,

Is woven from a long history.

From a long history.

Something more ancient.

Something that was passed down from generation to generation.

You see that you're not just a visitor here,

But you're part of history.

As you look around,

You start to see the tracks and trails of all sorts of animals.

You see that they are the novels,

They are the poems,

They are the stories written on the very landscape itself.

The way a living time makes itself known.

And as your breathing deepens in and out,

You notice that the animals,

Too,

Have left their rhythms on the landscape as routines and habits.

Just like us,

They have their favorite places to go.

Just like us,

They have the places they call home,

Where they feel safe.

You feel some ancient camaraderie come over you.

Some biological and evolutionary connection to all animals.

You feel a sense of compassion.

You feel that deeper truth that all beings want to keep living.

And you feel that beautiful,

Precious grief of recognizing impermanence.

That we have such little precious time here to share together.

And that recognizing this can focus you,

Can make you feel more alive,

Can make you remember what's deeply important.

And as you imagine yourself moving through these ancient paths and ancient rhythms,

You begin to hear the sweet melodies of birds.

You notice the beautiful,

Calming lull of insects.

You begin to feel that you are part of a symphony even more now.

Noticing that so many animals around you are singing.

So many animals around you are expressing themselves in the world,

Wanting to be known,

Wanting to be seen,

Wanting to be heard.

And as you hear this beautiful song and hear how it relaxes your whole body,

How it makes you feel that sense of beauty and mystery,

It begins to stimulate with a loving and calm light,

The throat,

The mind,

The heart.

You begin to feel a light nurturing the heart,

The throat,

The mind,

The heart.

You begin to feel a light nurturing the heart,

The throat,

And the mind,

And see seeds of songs of beauty that want to come through you.

You see how the birds make the landscape itself a song,

A form of beauty.

And you start to notice that there is a beautiful song inside of you too.

There are beautiful words inside of you.

There's a beautiful silence inside of you.

There's something that wants to be known and express itself,

And that by doing so will make the world more beautiful.

We see how the birds practice their song.

They enjoyably work their skill and train their attention on becoming as beautiful as they possibly can be.

They care for their feathers.

They take time to make a beautiful nest and a home.

Feel yourself opening now to the teachings of the birds,

Their energy and vibrancy.

You notice a gentle rustling,

A gentle rustling,

And you see a deer grazing peacefully with its ears tuned into the surrounding environment,

But feeling calm in your presence as your own calm and your own sense of belonging makes all the animals around you feel at peace in your presence.

Open now to the teaching of deer,

This sensitivity,

This grace,

Taking in the teaching of a gentle strength.

You start to notice that all of the animals and all of the plants have so many teachings,

And that as you learn to connect with them,

As you learn to witness and watch them,

You can take on some of their teachings,

Carrying them,

Honoring the animals and the plants themselves by carrying their teachings and embodying them inside of yourself in your own unique way.

And as you take in these teachings,

This wisdom,

As you feel yourself resonating with this strength,

Resilience,

Gentleness,

Peace,

As you feel yourself looking at the water,

Seeing how clear it is and feeling a clarity arise in you anew,

You begin to touch that place of gratitude inside even more deeply now,

Feeling a sense of wonder and curiosity,

What a wonder it is that we get to be aware of being an animal on this planet with all these other animals and beings.

What a wonder it is that colors can seem so beautiful,

That things can taste so good,

That a soft wind on a dry day can feel so soft,

That the sound of water can bring me to a state of peace,

And that all of these things and so many more show us the truth of our ancient connection to all of these things,

And that they are always poised to help us remember who we really are.

Feel a sense of gratitude arise in your body now,

As you listen and adjust your energy of gratitude to the beings around you so they can receive it,

And as you listen to the energy of gratitude,

You begin to feel a sense of joy and a sense of peace,

And you begin to feel a sense of joy and a sense of peace to the beings around you so they can receive it,

Feeling that authentic sense of gratitude that meets the life around you with a genuine praise,

A recognition of our common roots,

A recognition of our common dependence on the earth and the sun and the waters.

In whatever way feels appropriate to you,

Feel yourself express this gratitude,

Feel the source points of gratitude within you increasing,

Clarifying,

Radiating out effortlessly and beautifully to the beings that they express thankfulness to,

And as your journey through this tranquil forest comes to a close,

Take a few more deep nourishing breaths,

Feeling the richness of the forest's air filling your lungs,

Revitalizing every cell in your body,

Feeling that sense of communion and gratitude to the plants and animals for living their lives as embodiments of wisdom and grace.

And acknowledging the interconnectedness of all life,

Gradually now bringing your awareness back to the present moment,

Noticing the sensation of the air on your skin,

Taking a few deep breaths in and out as you wiggle your fingers and toes.

You can stretch your arms and legs if you like,

Awakening the body in a gentle and loving way,

Bringing your attention now to the sounds around you in physical space,

Letting them anchor you back into your current environment,

Noticing any light against the eyelids,

And when you feel ready,

Gently opening your eyes,

Taking in the light and shapes of the room or the space that you're in,

Allowing yourself to come back fully,

Feeling grounded and present.

And as you reorient yourself to your day,

Carry with you the sense of peace and connection you've experienced feeling refreshed and rejuvenated with the deepened sense of harmony within yourself and within nature,

And that this work that you did here today may have stimulated an openness or a new connection to the species around you,

To the trees around you,

To the plants,

And the insects.

And as you look around in your physical life,

You may begin to take note of just how interconnected you are with the life around you.

Notice any new questions arise around the species that you live with.

In the days and weeks that you are here,

With a final deep breath,

Fully return to your surroundings now,

Feeling ready to take whatever next step makes sense for you in this moment,

With a renewed sense of calm,

Clarity,

And connection that is as nourishing as it is ancient.

Blessings,

Friend.

May you be well.

Reviews

Lovely imagery woven powerfully together with the wonders of scientific discoveries about the living world. Join the Novasutras Group with me on Insight Timer, for more work like this https://insig.ht/9XFWnXDgLHb 🙏💚🌎