by Jan Bond
Secret Garden is a calming meditation that guides you through a peaceful, hidden garden where you can relax, reflect, and recharge. Surrounded by nature’s beauty, you’ll find stillness, clarity, and a gentle escape from everyday stress.
Transcript
Hello, Welcome. Jan Bond here. Come along with me now. Come along to relax and perhaps find some wonder. Finding a space where there'll be no disturbances for you. And get your body prepared, Get your mind prepared for this time. Take a nice breath and allow your eyes to close down as you let that breath go. It is now the time to allow yourself, With your body and your mind, To let go of today. What has happened, The business and what may be ahead of you. Because now this is your time that really is just for you. So as you lay there, Imagine every fibre of your body relaxing. Like a great weight being lifted from your shoulders. Feeling your stomach and your chest lifting as you allow a sense of the air around you to come in with an in-breath. And then feel it, Experience it go back as you breathe out. Notice your shoulders, Arms, Hands, Legs, Neck, Head, Whole body in fact. To now let go of tensions and worries that might be anywhere that you're holding on to within your own being. Just let them go. Imagine if you like, They just simply melt away from you like snow in sunshine. Just breathe deeply and relax. Encourage your thoughts to soften now as again there's a focus on your breathing. Will you let in an image now of a walled secret garden? Drift your mind to it. It will become more and more into focus the closer you look. Now we need to get inside to the secret garden but look, There's a door and with every breath all of this gets clearer and clearer. The door becomes very evident to you and you take a better look. You can see its shape, Its size, Its texture. It becomes more and more real to you. There's the handle. How far up the door is the handle? Just breathing relaxed and clear. How interesting is the door and its handle? Now take it further and reach out. Feel the handle. Turn it. Feel the door as it moves on its hinges. Listen to the sounds in the operation of it, How it opens. And as it does open you move through the space and it allows you to move to the other side. Now you're inside the secret garden and there right in front of you in the beginning of the garden there's a long stairway. That long stairway leads to an old cottage. So the natural thing to do here is to begin to climb the long stairs. It takes you upwards. The cottage is old. It's an old world garden. Everything about the space seems magical and spiritual. Begin climbing. Hear the creaking treads here and there. Let your feet guide you. Feel a calm excitement of what might lay ahead of you. You do feel very welcomed here. In fact you feel at home. And as you get to the top of that old staircase, All of your cares and worries, You just notice that they've been left behind you. It feels so good, So light, Airy, Carefree. Your breath allows release and lightness. The upper cottage feels safe. It feels loving. There's warmth and light and it greets you. Light shines throughout the interior of the old cottage, The ancient old cottage, And there's a warmth, A loving airiness and it seems to cloak and surround your whole being. Each movement you seem to get more immersed, Deeper into that sense of calmness. It feels so right, Feels so good to you. At the top and ahead of you, The ancient cottage sits amongst and over the secret walled garden below. Windows allow light in. The windows allow the sky in. The windows allow the view from this amazing sight below you from the garden. Now find yourself moving towards one of the windows. You pick one because it's got a big comfy chair and it appears to be waiting just for you. It's sort of inviting you to just release into it and you do. You're aware and you familiarise yourself to the textures and the smells, The old yet comforting, The shades and the vibrations. Eons and eons of wisdom, Life, Have been in this space. Have others experienced this care and this serenity? You are finding the chair comfortable. It has a back to it so you can just lean back and feel that back support and feel so comfortable. And what escapes your mouth, Your body next, Is a big releasing sigh, A letting go of internal whatevers and you feel a real shift in your energy. What is it? Relief? So sinking into the comfort and into the support, Momentarily let your eyes close down so you can best feel the space around you. Feel the energy, Feel the peace. Further sinking, Release. You feel so very fluidly, Contentedly relaxed. Then on opening your eyes, Your awareness takes on more clarity I guess. And there as you look through the windows, Especially the one in front of you, Your mind more and more at ease. You find that it's raining outside. So then you get mesmerised and you watch the rain. It silently drifts down onto the garden below. You find that drops begin to stay on the outside of the window. There are drops falling gently from the eaves of the roof, From the sky, From the clouds. Rivulets now begin sliding down the glass, Then plopping below. Flowers, Bushes, Trees, Hedges, All open and glistening to the moisture. Listen to the soft fall. It's a gentle symphony of droplets. It lulls you even further and relaxes you even further as your breath continues to calmly bring you deeper and deeper. A water fountain bubbles below in the centre of the garden. Now begin to follow it as it begins to overflow. And as you continue the releasing process, Perhaps or maybe not, You'll be aware that there isn't a care either physically or mentally as you seem to have allowed such a deep sense now of peace to enter your heart and your mind deeper and deeper. Below you, New energy moving through the garden, New vibrations, Healing, Renewing, New senses and new feelings, Fresh, Flowing, Moving. Then in an instant, The rain disappears. The whole garden takes on that sparkly gem appearance as golden shafts of sunlight manifests throughout the entire garden. Colours pop. There's a dance of energy throughout it, Of life. Take a moment to reacquaint yourself now with your breath. A large rainbow now arcs itself in the sky above. Whilst all of this life, This energy flows through you from the soles of your feet, Through your legs, To the palms of your hands and up your arms, Tingling new energy. Up through your body, Simultaneously the front and the back, Through your neck and right through your head, Fresh, Tingly new. It's not easy, But you do raise yourself up from your chair. Once again, Your feet guide you back through the cottage, Towards the top of the stairs. Still, That peaceful, Wonderful stillness here, As you begin to descend. Again, The reality of creaky treads, Ancient living energy, Until you reach right through to the very bottom. The vibrant energy, The life, The beauty, And not least the renewal. At the bottom of the stairs, You find you're right in the garden proper. Just stand momentarily and allow yourself to listen. Tinkling sounds of the fountain, Perhaps. Residues of droplets from plants and from the eaves. So fresh, So very clean, So invigorating. Soak in this life, Into your new carefreeness. Breathe it all in. Then, Whilst you're there in that garden, Look upwards. Just feast your eyes on the magic of the rainbow. And as you feast your eyes, Make a wish. No matter how small that wish or how large your wish, Make it now and declare it out to the sky. Declare it to the rainbow above the garden. Let it be caught, Let it be dealt with by the energy that arcs across the sky. Magic, Wonderment, Encased in beauty. The beauty of colours, The beauty of colours. Let this secret place, Let the ancient cottage wisdom and the givers of life, The rain, The sun, The rainbow and all the living plants here, Let them all deal with it. Let them all deal with your wish. Your new lightness, Your new calmness, Your new carefreeness. Bring it all with you. As you once again return to that door, That secret door that allowed you to enter here into the secret garden. Taking the door's handle once more into your hand and turn it. Feel the big sturdy realness as that door moves on its hinges. It makes a gap enough for you to move through it. And then once more, Your consciousness returns back to your physical body, Back to your breath, Back to the space that your breath uses. Awareness now for the newness of you and how very wonderful you feel. Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti, Peace be with you.
