This is a recording by Gemma for the owl and the coconut.
This is the mountain meditation.
So bring in your feet onto the floor if you're sitting in a chair.
Feeling your back slightly away from the chair,
So you're in an upright but not uptight position.
And closing the eyes or just taking a neutral gaze,
Looking at nothing in particular.
Settling into the body,
Feeling the feet on the floor and the body in the chair.
Taking a few moments to be present in the body,
Feeling these connection points.
The soles on the feet connecting to the floor and being supported by the ground beneath you.
And the body in the chair,
Who you're sitting in a chair,
Feeling into the sitting bones.
Just letting go on an out-breath.
And just noticing how you are in your body right now as we settle into this practice.
Beginning to imagine a mountain.
Perhaps flicking through in the mind's eye a few options of mountains that you might like to choose to explore in this practice today.
Or maybe just registering a blank.
And either way just staying with this guidance.
And if possible bring into mind one image of a mountain.
And noticing what this image looks like.
Any colours on the mountain.
Any weather.
What the season might be.
And noticing the height and the scale of the mountain.
And noticing where the mountain meets the earth.
And the contact of the mountain in the earth.
Maybe through the earth,
Deep into the earth.
Noticing the horizon around the mountain,
The sky perhaps,
The foreground.
Seeing the whole solid strong mountain before you.
And noticing perhaps the idea of how the seasons change on the mountain.
So perhaps in the depth of winter the mountain's covered in snow.
The cold.
The trees have lost their leaves.
The animals are hibernating.
The cold snow dominates the mountain.
And so and still the mountain remains solid and strong.
And the spring comes and brings the sun.
And the snow begins to melt.
And the rivers and the streams rise again and flow again.
And the animals wake up from hibernation.
And baby animals start to be born.
And buds start to come onto the trees and the flowers.
And still the mountain remains stable and strong.
Grounded and rooted into the earth.
As the seasons change around it.
The summer comes,
The flowers,
The trees,
The activity,
The snow is melted.
Perhaps visitors,
Humans come and go and climb the mountain.
And still the mountain remains solid in structure.
And the autumn comes and the leaves fall from the trees as the trees prepare to go through their cycle.
The flowers die away.
The animals start to gather ready for the winter food stores.
And still the mountain remains solid and strong.
Grounded and rooted to the earth.
And let's play with the idea of what would it be like to be this mountain.
To take on some of the strength of the mountain as it endures all of these changing seasons,
All of these visitors.
And yet it remains as it is,
Connected to the earth,
Grounded,
Strong and solid.
Perhaps our heads are the tip of the mountain.
Maybe a sprinkling of snow or coolness in the head area.
The shoulders and the arms are the slopes of the mountain.
Taking on in the base this connection to the earth and the groundedness as we feel what it might be like to embody this sense of strength.
Feeling rooted and grounded.
Noticing how it feels within this imagined space of becoming the mountain.
And just playing with this idea.
Perhaps using this meditation with your eyes open and maybe with your eyes open and making art in your journal.
To explore this mountain and to embody the mountain.
Noticing perhaps as the seasons come and go.
I knew the mountain remained solid and strong and rooted.
Grounded in to the ground.
Perhaps taking this sense of strength into your next few moments.
Perhaps the rest of your day.
Using this creativity to come to whenever you feel like you need a moment of strength.
Just feeling into that imagined idea of becoming the mountain.
And just letting this go for now.
Feeling into the contact of the feet on the floor and the body in the chair and the breath in the body.
At your own pace.
Just breathing in and breathing out.
Ring.
