Hello and welcome.
Wherever you are right now,
At a desk,
In a chair,
Maybe stepped outside for a few minutes,
Let yourself arrive here fully now.
You don't need to be anywhere else for the next few moments.
Maybe allow your eyes to close softly.
Take a breath in and let it go.
Again,
Breathing in whatever the morning has brought and releasing it on the exhale.
One more and on this exhale,
Allow the busyness to settle just a little.
Bring to mind now a loch.
It stretches out before you,
Wide and still,
Cradled between mountains that have stood for longer than memory.
Water is dark,
Deep peat brown and slate grey,
And today,
In this moment,
Is perfectly calm.
Not a ripple,
Not a breath of wind.
The reflections of the monroes sit in the water as clearly as the mountains themselves.
The sky above is vast and quiet.
You are standing at the edge of the loch.
The ground beneath your feet is soft,
Heather and grass,
Slightly damp.
You can feel the cool air on your face.
Notice the surface of the water.
It's like a mirror,
And like all mirrors,
It doesn't hold on to anything.
Every reflection that has ever fallen across it,
Every cloud,
Every bird,
Every passing storm,
Has come and gone.
The loch remains,
Clear beneath,
Unchanged.
This is the nature of your mind too.
The morning may have brought ripples,
A difficult conversation,
A rushing from one thing to the next,
A worry that kept resurfacing.
This is natural.
Ripples are not problems.
They're just weather,
Passing across the surface.
Reach down now,
And pick up a smooth stone from the water's edge.
Feel its weight in your palm,
Cool and solid and real.
This stone represents the thing that has most occupied your mind this morning.
You don't need to name it precisely.
Just let it rest in your hands.
And gently,
Drop it into the water.
Watch the ripples move outward in slow,
Perfect circles,
Growing wider and slower and softer,
Until the surface is still again.
The loch is still,
And beneath its surface,
It always was.
Bring your attention now to your body.
Feel the ground beneath your feet,
The weight of you held by the earth.
Scan slowly upwards,
Your legs,
Your belly,
Your chest,
Your shoulders.
Notice,
Without judgement,
And simply arrive back in yourself,
Back in your now.
Take a slow breath in,
Filling the lungs fully,
And a long exhale,
Releasing the last of the morning's tension.
You have everything you need to move into the afternoon.
The clarity has always been there,
Beneath the surface.
You have simply returned to it.
Begin gently to bring your awareness back to the space around you,
The sounds,
The light,
The earth beneath you.
Come back now,
To your now.
Take one more easy breath in,
And exhale and open your eyes when you're ready.
The loch remains still,
And so are you.
Thank you for sharing this practice with me.
Have a beautiful day.
