Greetings friends and welcome.
In gratitude I offer you this special meditation created for the solstice.
And in this little enchanted journey we will explore the magic of our breath and our hopes and wishes for the coming solstice time.
Let's begin simply by creating our space.
You can pause to take some time to light a candle or some incense or simply to wrap yourself in your favourite warm blanket.
Allow yourself to be supported and warm and cosy.
You may be lying down or you may be seated,
Whatever is most comfortable for you.
Let us come to our place of rest on this special solstice day or any time around the solstice for us to celebrate this time.
As we perhaps close the eyes or let the gaze be soft,
We begin to allow ourselves to be supported.
You can notice whatever is beneath you,
Soft cushions or blankets or carpet or mattress.
All these things that connect down,
Down,
Down into the earth.
Those foundations that support us.
Those foundations deep below us of earth and rock are solid and stable.
We are connected and we are supported.
And as we allow the body to fully relax,
Release and let go in our restful place,
We may more easily perhaps bring our awareness to the breath.
As the body relaxes,
As we draw our awareness in,
Letting noises from the outside world or busy thoughts gently drift away.
Here we may bring the attention to the breath and know that this breath is not an action you are taking,
But it is you.
You are your breath.
You are this rise and fall,
The easeful rhythm.
And being at one with this breath,
We envisage now,
At solstice time,
Within our chest,
The space where the heart dwells,
We will envisage a word,
A wish for this time.
That word might be love or peace,
Acceptance or forgiveness.
It might be two words.
It might be self-love.
It might be let go.
Allow yourself time to envisage this word,
Whatever it may be for you.
And we may,
Within the space of our heart and chest,
See this word.
Or perhaps we envisage it as a colour or an image.
It dwells within our heart space as our wish for this time and this season.
And we will feed this wish with our breath,
As our breath.
So each inhale we draw in,
The chest expands,
And this wish is nourished.
And each time we exhale we can let go of any doubts,
Any tensions,
Anything that may hold us back.
Every inhale we nourish the wish,
And every exhale we're letting go,
We're settling and oozing into our space.
And as we breathe into this word,
This wish,
It expands each time we inhale,
Radiating out from heart and chest,
It fills the body,
Expanding through the hips and down through the legs,
Expanding through the arms,
To the hands,
And then expanding,
Rising up through to the top of our heads.
Here,
At this special time,
We are our breath,
And we are our wish.
Filled with a sense of hope and possibility,
And filled with this wish,
Filled with that beautiful breath,
We find in our mind's eye a gentle light shining from us,
As if we are a glow,
Like a sparkling star we may see in the sky this solstice.
We create a little starlight of our own,
We glow with this wish,
With this word,
With the nourishment of our breath.
And as the time comes,
Perhaps to gently move,
Stretch or wiggle the body,
Take your time to move and stretch in any way that feels nice or luxurious to you as you gently unravel.
If you would like to join me,
If you are laying down,
Perhaps we gently make our way to seated,
And just to finish our practice today,
We'll take a nice deep inhale and just reach the arms to the sky,
And then as we exhale,
We'll let them fall to the earth.
When you are ready,
You may gently open the eyes and I welcome you back.
Thank you so much for joining me today,
So I send you my love and gratitude,
And finally I send you all bright blessings for a beautiful solstice season.
