Becoming The Mountain

So we're going to start by taking a few deep breaths.

And this mindfulness practice can be.

.

.

Ideally it's done from a seated position,

Either in a chair,

Or perhaps on the floor,

Resting on a cushion.

But if you need to lie down,

Of course it can be done from lying down as well.

If it's safe to do so,

You can close your eyes.

If you're comfortable closing your eyes,

Allow them to gently shut.

And then we bring our awareness to the parts of the body that are in touch with the floor or the chair,

To the sensation of contact with the cushion,

The back of the chair,

The seat of the chair.

Just take a moment to really feel supported in whichever position you're in.

And then we can bring our awareness to some body parts just to kind of come into a more alert body aware state.

Starting at the tips of the toes,

Feeding the tips of the toes,

All the sensations at the tips of the toes.

To the feet,

Ankles,

Lower leg,

Knees,

Upper leg,

Hips,

Abdomen and tummy area,

Chest,

Shoulders,

Arms,

Neck,

And head,

All the way up to the crown of the head,

Without labeling these sensations,

Just feeding them as they present themselves in this moment.

And if we're sat up in a chair,

Try to sit as upright as possible with a sense of purpose and resolve,

A sense of strength and intention in your position.

Feel that the spine is being drawn upwards from a deep reservoir of strength that rises from the pelvis all the way up the spine to the crown of the head.

The arms can rest lightly in the lap or on the knees.

Rest yet alert and wakeful.

And then moving into the visualization,

Beginning to imagine in your mind's eye a mountain,

Magnificent,

Huge,

Whether it's from a memory,

Real life experience,

Or maybe something you've seen in a book,

Or just like an archetype of a mountain,

Make it the biggest,

Grandest,

Boldest,

Most magnificent,

Beautiful mountain that your imagination can paint in your mind at this moment.

Looking at it from afar or up close,

Notice the colors that are reflecting from it.

Notice how tall the peak or the peaks are.

Notice any water features,

Lakes and rivers,

Or flat meadows,

Forests and pastures.

Notice all the qualities of this mountain dominating the landscape,

Solid in its structure.

Notice the roots of the mountain buried deep into the crust of the earth,

Unmoving.

Maybe the top is blanketed in snow.

Maybe as it's autumn,

There's fiery red or autumnal colors as the forests that climb.

The lower pastures are red and gold as the leaves begin to turn and fall.

Just observe from your position,

Magnificent,

Beautiful,

Huge,

Massive mountain.

And then in your mind's eye,

Begin to absorb the mountain,

The qualities of this mountain.

As you internalize its attributes,

The peak becomes your head and neck.

Your sloping arms become the sloping granite rock sides.

Your sit bones,

Knees become that rocky base rooted down into the earth.

Take on the feeling of stability,

Of solidness.

Take on that feeling of being rooted into the earth.

With every breath,

This visualization and feeling becomes stronger and stronger as you become completely still,

Strong.

Like this living,

Breathing mountain.

See the wide panoramic view that you have from the peak,

Noticing the land around you.

Just maybe the odd city or town,

Maybe some smoke from fires curling up towards the sky,

Maybe farmland,

Maybe you can see the coastline in the distance.

See from this vantage point,

The whole landscape as one.

And from this still unmoving point,

Notice the change in the seasons.

In spring,

The budding of the trees,

The leafing of the bushes,

Birthing and nesting of animals,

The melting of the ice and snow as the rivers and streams that meander across the mountain slopes begin to swell,

To foam and to bubble as they make their way down,

Taking rocks and other debris down with it.

Notice the fresh,

Maybe slightly warmer spring rain as it lashes against the sides.

Yet the mountain remains unchanged,

Simply observing the change in season.

It remains still,

Unaffected.

Moving into summer,

In all its fullness.

The mountain is bathed now in warmer light,

Perhaps only snow remaining at the very top.

Or in some sheltered places where there's no direct sunlight.

Animals,

Trees,

Forests at their fullest,

Abundance of food,

Rivers full of fish.

Just notice all of this.

Notice how the mountain remains the same,

Unmoved in the face of the changing season.

And now the mountain moves to fall,

To autumn.

Leaves turning a golden colour before they fall.

The first snows reaching the highest points,

Adding to the unmelted snow at the very peak.

A slow growing blanket of white descending from the utmost part to the lower slopes.

Falls beginning to slow down the first ice appearing in the lakes and the ponds and the rivers.

And still the mountain remains unmoved,

Quietly observing in stillness and silence the changing of the season.

Followed by the quietness of winter.

Movement has all but ceased,

Except for a few animals maybe searching for food.

Carpeted now in full white fields of pristine snow,

Frozen waterfalls,

Glaciers.

Feel the cool stillness of the winter from this unmoving,

Grounded and rooted,

Still position.

The mountain remains unchanged before those first drops of melting icicles and glaciers that welcome in the start of spring and the start of another cycle.

In addition,

Observe the weather.

From sun to soft rain,

Snow and sleet,

Pounding hard rain,

Violent lightning storms,

Vicious howling,

Cruel winds,

Soft breezes.

All of it directed and absorbed by the mountain,

Yet still the mountain remains,

Unchanging in its stillness.

The mountain simply observes the passing phenomena of the changing seasons and weather and allows them to simply be meeting each one in the moment that it arrives.

And people may come to the mountain.

Maybe you see tourists,

Walkers,

Hikers.

Some admire its beauty,

Some aren't fussed.

Some attempt to climb,

Some see it as too much of a challenge.

Some just simply observe,

Others walk past.

The mountain is unaffected by other people's perceptions and assumptions and just simply watches these interactions remaining unmoved and unchanged.

We can take on the qualities of this mountain,

Strong,

Grounded,

Unmoving,

Observing.

And we may have our own personal weather that arises,

Good,

Bad,

Sometimes overwhelming,

Yet the inner essence of who we are,

A still,

Unmoving,

Grounded awareness remains unchanged.

And the more we can meet and honour the challenging weather that comes to us,

As it will to everybody,

In each moment,

The more we can meet it from this place of strength and stillness,

The easier it will be to integrate those experiences into our daily lives.

When we see the cycles around us just like the mountain does,

Such as youth,

Middle age,

Old age and passing,

We all experience these cycles.

Meeting these completely natural cycles from this place of grounded awareness and stillness will allow us to fully meet them with openness,

Acceptance,

Allowing them to be lived the best possible way they were supposed to be,

Allowing them to be integrated in the fullest possible way.

It's not to deny that difficult,

Challenging experiences happen,

But that we can choose to meet them from a place of grounded stillness,

Of silent awareness,

If we want.

If ever we feel,

Or if this visualisation resonates with you,

You can always take a few minutes,

Just as we've done now,

To sit like the mountain,

Feel that sense of resolve and strength in your posture,

Feel a sense of completeness and wholeness,

Visualise and then integrate the attributes that the mountain has.

And then to close,

We can come back to the breath,

Just taking a few deep breaths,

Coming back to the sensation of contact with the floor,

With the cushion,

Perhaps the back of the chair,

And then bringing your awareness to the feet,

Lower legs,

Upper legs,

Feeling back into the feet,

Hips,

Abdomen,

Chest,

Feeling the arms against the side of you,

Hands resting in the lap or on the knees,

Feeling the shoulders and chest,

Neck,

Front of neck and back of neck,

All the way up to the crown of the head,

Coming back to a fully awake full,

Awake alert state of awareness,

And then you can slowly open the eyes.

Just take a moment to focus on one spot in front of you,

Just to have a further bit of grounding just in case sometimes you can feel a bit sort of disorientated.

Sometimes it's nice just to rub the palms of your hands into the eyes,

Cheeks,

Or to press the palms of the hands into the floor.

Begin to take a look around,

Coming to sense your surroundings a bit more,

And then closing off with any personal intention that you might have.

And I'll see you next time.