Find a comfortable position sitting or lying down.
When you are ready,
Close your eyes and allow your body to relax completely.
Begin by bringing your attention to your breath.
Inhale deeply.
Notice the gentle expansion of your chest and body.
Exhale slowly,
Feeling your whole body sinking down and soften.
Again,
Inhale,
Expansion of your chest and body.
And a long,
Relaxing,
Releasing exhale.
Just take a moment here to simply breathe.
As you settle into your breath,
Allow your body to settle more fully into the ground underneath you.
Notice the points where your body meets the ground or the surface beneath you.
Take a moment here to feel how fully supported you are.
You are safe and your body can rest at this moment for the rest 10 minutes.
Keep breathing.
Notice the natural rhythm of your breath.
With each inhale,
The body rises gently.
With each exhale,
The body releases a little bit.
And slowly,
We imagine our breath travel together with our spine.
So take an exhale here first.
As we inhale,
Inhale through your nose,
Upward through the top of your head.
And as you exhale,
Imagining the air travel down through your spine towards your tailbone area.
All the way to the base of your spine.
Continue.
Inhale through the nose,
Upward to the top of your head.
And exhale from the top of the head,
Bypassing your neck,
Downward through your spine until it reach your tailbone area.
All go through your tailbone area,
Release it from there,
Down to the Mother Earth.
Now from the base of your spine,
Imagine there are roots growing downward,
Like the strong roots of a tree.
Inhale to the top of the head,
Just like how trees growing upward towards the sky,
Towards the sunshine.
And exhale,
Air travels down through your spine,
Down towards your tailbone,
And roots growing stronger and deeper,
Downward to the Mother Earth.
We'll take three more breaths here.
See your roots extending deeper and deeper into the earth,
Passing through layers of soil,
Connecting firmly with the ground.
Allow these roots to carry away your tiredness,
Your tightness,
Your stress,
Anxiety,
And let the earth absorb what you no longer need.
Continue to breathe in and breathe out deeply and consciously.
At the same time,
Let the earth feed you with grounding,
Steady,
And calming energy by connecting the earth with your roots,
To connect with the Mother Earth.
Now as we breathe as a tree,
We are becoming one.
Your body is the tree now,
Rooted,
Steady,
And alive.
Take a moment here to sense this tree within you.
Feel the stability,
The calmness,
The presence.
Notice your body from the inside.
Maybe there is some part that you feel pain,
Just observe it without needing to fix anything.
When the salt appears,
Imagine it as a new leaf forming on a branch.
Notice it,
Just a small movement.
You can silently say to yourself,
This is a salt,
That's all.
You don't need to follow it.
Just simply acknowledge there is a salt that becomes a new leaf on this tree and let it loosen like a leaf that naturally drifts in the breeze out of the branch.
Continue to observe this tree within you.
Whenever a salt rises,
See that there is a new growing leaf.
Acknowledge and the leaf will fall away like a mature leaf returning to the earth.
Release.
For the next two minutes,
Just watch the leaves coming and go.
One salt,
One new leaf growing.
The moment you notice,
You acknowledge,
Let it be,
It's also the moment the leaf will slowly fade away or fall away by itself.
And return to the calmness of the whole tree.
Take a moment here to watch your own salts,
As well as to sense your original being as a tree,
Your natural steady state.
You may even feel this tree is breathing.
You may stay in this practice for as long as you want.
Hope you can carry this steadiness and calmness with you into the rest of your day.
Remember,
Whenever you feel overwhelmed,
You can return to this practice to witness rather than to react.
This grounded awareness is always inside you.
And may this calm presence stay with you.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
Namaste.
