Mindful Mondays|Week 14: Nature

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 Check out the YouTube video and/or the Podcast audio.

Today we are going to work on a visualization technique. I’ve chosen the background track to my vocals to mimic nature sounds, but if you are able to get outside and perhaps sit by a brook, the shore of the ocean, or on a log in the forest — this would be ideal. Today we are going to use the healing power of nature to calm our spirit and reconnect to the world around us.

Find a comfortable spot, whether in nature or in your usual meditation space. Settle down and feel the ground supporting you like a foundation. Give yourself a moment to acclimate into the setting. Look around for something beautiful, familiar, or appealing.

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If you are out in nature, keep your eyes open so you can use the place you found as a visual anchor for today’s meditation. Find a solace in this natural setting that you’ve found and visually explore without moving around. If you are inside, close your eyes and take a minute to conjure up a beautiful scene of nature that you’ve been to, a place you want to visit, or use creativity to imagine one you’ve never even seen before.

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Your mind is playing with all the textures and colors of the nature scene that you are in or visualizing. Pay close attention to those colors, the shapes, and the textures. Notice as much detail about the objects around you as you can.

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Now let’s shift the focus to listening to the sounds around you or that you hear playing on this meditation guide. Listen to each intonation of my voice, the animal or insect sounds, the water flowing, or the silence that may be surrounding you in your special space.

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Now let’s breathe in the smells of this real or imaginary world you’re sitting in. The pine, the salt water, the fresh mud, the cool air. Take some slow, long, deep breaths — not to focus on the breathing but to breathe in the smells that come into your nostrils as you inhale.

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Finally, hone in on the feeling that this place gives you. Maybe you feel your worries melting away, a sense of adventure calling you, or the ease of life as the air, creatures, or water pass by. Really ground into your heart space and find several moments of pleasure here in this safe environment. Notice that you are a vital part of this earth, that the dirt around you is life-giving, and that every living thing you can see if here because of the elements.

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Nature is a place that holds a lot of balance. It does this not by being perfectly harmonious by happenchance. It is aligned with itself despite the ebb and flow of weather conditions, climates changing, seasons shifting, the life cycle of birth and death all around, threats of predators, sometimes sparse and sometimes plentiful food availability, factors of human interruption, and many other challenges it faces. Nature isn’t just naturally balanced; it becomes balanced even in the rocking of the world and finds the stillness inside of the storm. What doesn’t kill it makes it stronger. Its viability comes from its vulnerability. It stays flexible, moving with the wind, shifting with the seasons, becoming wild or calm based on the days weather. It needs both sunshine and rain to be nourished. It doesn’t fret when a harsh winter comes; it just wriggles back into its winter form and waits. It celebrates the warm months with flowers, freshness, popping colors, and melodies of birdsongs. Nature knows not the future, but panics about it none. It is willing to adapt to conditions, to wait out the sometimes cruelty of the Mother, and to bud when it is safe to do so. It accepts its surroundings and makes peace with the living things around it. We can take these lessons and store them in our hearts. We learn harmony, glory, and vivacity from nature. Let’s take a moment to thank this living space or imagined creation in our mind. Be truly grateful for its wisdom and its ability to connect us with our inner being by disconnecting us from the crazy world we live in. We can utilize nature whenever we need space to just watch the reality of harmony and admire its imperfect perfections.

Come to a close now by giving this gratitude back to nature, reconnecting to your own body, and coming back to the space around you. Take a deep breath, and move lovingly back into your day.