Butterfly meditation.
Get really comfortable,
Preferably on your back,
But you can also do this sitting up.
Lying or sitting.
Become aware of touch.
Where your body touches the floor or the seat.
How your clothes touch your body.
What do the different surfaces feel like as they touch you.
Now notice your ears,
The shape of them.
Your instruments for hearing.
And begin to use them now to listen.
How many different sounds can you find with your hearing?
Near sounds,
Far away sounds,
Different sounds come to your eyes.
Can you see anything behind your eyelids?
Sometimes it's all black.
Other times there may be different shades of grey or colour or even images.
Notice your tongue.
The tip of the tongue,
The sides of the tongue,
The bottom of your tongue,
At the back of your throat.
Can you notice any saliva in your mouth?
Swish your tongue around.
Do you taste anything?
Imagine the taste of your favourite food and swallow that taste.
Lastly,
Your nose,
Your sense of smell.
What can you smell?
Again,
You could imagine your favourite smell.
Enjoy the scent.
Now take a deep breath in through the nose and breathe out your mouth like a sigh.
Two more times breathing in.
And again.
Let's scan through your body and notice anywhere you may be feeling tension.
Your face and your head.
Relax your temples and jaw.
Relax your neck and shoulders.
Relax your arms and your hands.
Imagine they feel very heavy.
Relax.
Your chest and belly.
They move when you breathe.
Notice the expansion and contraction of this area and just allow it all to soften and relax.
Your whole back relaxed.
Your buttocks and hips.
Your legs heavy,
Soft and relaxed.
And your feet.
Your whole body relaxed.
If your eyes aren't closed,
If it's okay,
Close them now.
It's easier to relax and imagine that way.
But if you feel safer to keep your eyes open,
That's okay too.
Start to notice the feel of the air coming in and out of your nostrils.
Cool as you breathe in.
Warm as you breathe out.
Maybe you can even feel the movement of the little hairs in your nostrils as you breathe in and out.
Maybe you can feel or imagine the touch of air on your skin.
Soft.
Cool.
Picture a color in your mind's eye and see that color moving like the air.
Like a breeze swirling through and around trees and buildings.
Seeing the movement of the air in all sorts of shapes.
Waves,
Balls,
Circles and whirlpools.
The shape of how the air moves.
Let your mind's eye come to rest upon a leaf.
The leaf is gently bobbing up and down with the breeze.
On the leaf you see a small green caterpillar making its way up the leaf.
The back of its body bunches up into an arch and then the front of the body slides and moves forward and then is created over and over as its form of movement.
It's a continuous wave-like movement of bunching up and then stretching out.
She pauses at the end of the leaf and the front of her body rises up swaying from side to side assessing where she should go next.
She then lowers the front of her body over the edge of the leaf and grabs a hold underneath at the connection point between the leaf and its stem.
The rest of her body flops down as she hangs from this point.
Gently spinning.
This spot will do perfectly.
She spins a silky connection from which she will hang for the duration of her metamorphosis.
It is dark in her chrysalis.
In here.
Inside.
Amazing things are happening.
Changing.
Caterpillar has much time to reflect,
Dream and talk to herself.
Who is she?
Who does she want to be?
Who will she become?
Her home gently rocks with the breeze.
Always moving.
Even if it's just the tiniest bit.
Over time she feels herself disappearing.
It is a strange sensation.
Bit by bit she is no longer who she used to be.
She isn't actually anyone or anything.
She just is and isn't at the same time.
In her mind she slowly begins to recreate herself.
The qualities that she would like to bring into her new body are colour,
Movement and freedom.
How these qualities will come together in existence,
She does not know yet.
As she grows she can feel her new body reappearing bit by bit.
Different textures,
Different sensations.
Her body shifts and touches the side of her chrysalis.
Soon there isn't any space left in here.
Her body is crammed and she can't move anymore.
But she needs to.
She feels her transformation is complete and she is keen to move her new body.
Suddenly a blinding bright light shines into her new eyes.
A crack has formed.
Barely able to contain her excitement,
Caterpillar waits for her eyes to adjust and then begins to wriggle and push and squirm until more cracks disappear.
Her whole body is now free.
Little legs.
Wait,
These aren't little legs anymore.
Her long spindly legs cling to the remains of the chrysalis.
She is a funny looking thing.
A bit like crumpled folded colourful paper.
Hanging upside down,
Caterpillar remembers she is no longer Caterpillar.
She has metamorphed.
She is completely transformed.
Those qualities that she had created for herself,
Colour,
Movement and freedom,
Appear to be folded crumpled pieces of colourful paper that are now beginning to unfold,
Stretch and open.
She has never experienced anything like this.
Are they types of legs?
She tries to move them bit by bit,
Back and forth,
Up and down,
In and out.
They continue to open and expand and catch the breeze.
This nearly washes her off the chrysalis.
She holds on tight with her little feet.
These bits of paper,
They are wings.
She opens them wide and lets the wind take her.
She flutters and flutters throughout the air.
She is flying.
She is a butterfly,
Colourful,
Moving and free.
The sound,
Yarrrm,
Echoes all throughout the air.
Your life is similar to Caterpillar and Butterfly.
You will go through many changes in life,
Where you will not recognise who you were before,
As if the old you has completely disappeared and a new you is in her place.
We are always changing and growing and dreaming and creating.
Each one of you,
Each version of you is important and special and necessary for the creation or recreation of the next you.
Spend a little time here,
Floating through the air and talking to yourself.
Now it's time to land back on earth.
Feel the earth under your feet.
Wiggle your fingers and wiggle your toes.
Take a deep breath in through the nose and out the mouth like a sigh.
Blink blink blink blink your eyes and take a big stretch and get back to your morning day or night.
