A Labyrinth What is a labyrinth?
It is a purposeful meditation.
Walking forward,
You can use any kind of material to make a labyrinth.
Rocks in a circle,
A straw path,
Corn fields,
Lines drawn in the sidewalk with chalk.
Wendy Baumgardner writes,
Today,
There is no set ritual for walking a labyrinth,
But there are books and lectures to assist you in performing a labyrinth walk.
The essential advice is to enter the labyrinth slowly,
Calmly,
And clearing your mind.
You may do this by repeating a prayer or chant.
Open your senses and focus on the process of taking slow and deliberate steps.
Bring to mind a prayer or spiritual question to contemplate during the walk to the centre.
Reaching the centre,
Pause to reflect,
Pray,
And listen for an answer or more profound revelation.
Now begin the return journey.
Pray or reflect further.
Upon exiting,
Absorb the experience with continued reflection,
Prayer,
Or journaling.
Thank you,
Wendy.
This particular audio file is a guided labyrinth created by poetry and suggestion.
You are welcome to walk at your own pace.
Stop the audio anytime.
Have your own personal experience.
Tips for walking.
Walk slowly and with awareness.
First,
Become aware of the breath.
Inhale.
Follow the breath from the tip of the nose.
Is it hot or cold?
Past the eyes,
Down the throat,
Through the heart to the stomach.
Notice how far the breath feels comfortable in the body.
The labyrinth view.
As you breathe deeply,
Call to yourself an image.
The labyrinth inside of you is deep and secure.
Its walls are deep and you are safe inside.
Step lightly and purposefully.
Pause and breathe.
Continue your way down,
Courageously going deeper inside of yourself.
You travel down the path.
Pause and breathe.
As you travel down the path,
Pausing and breathing in your own time,
You notice that you are getting closer to your core center.
The part of your boundaries that holds your heart.
What does it look like here?
Are your walls hard or soft or crumbled or wire or something else?
No judgment here.
You built these walls for a good reason.
Just notice.
Continue to the end of the path.
The center of the circle.
Now feeling more relaxed.
You pause and breathe.
Feeling different as you travel now away.
Walking to the end.
Pause and breathe.
What has changed during your journey?
Does your body feel different?
Please take three long breaths before you connect again to your surroundings.
Breathe in deeply through your nose,
All the way up to the top of your head and back down through the bottoms of your feet.
And again.
And the longest breath that you can manage.
You have come to the end of this guided meditation.
