So,
Sitting in a comfortable seat,
Whether you're sitting in a chair,
Your feet can be firmly on the ground,
Your back nice and straight,
Or you're sitting cross-legged,
That's also fine on the floor,
Your hands can be on your knees or in your lap,
And your chin just dropping slightly and if you like you can close your eyes as this is a visual creative practice,
Maybe it would help if you closed your eyes.
And thank you for showing up today,
Thank yourself for showing up today,
You really are doing yourself a good thing,
Making yourself a great offering in terms of your wellness,
Your mental wellness,
You can feel grateful to yourself for that,
So whatever obstacles,
Anxieties,
Or fears,
Or frustrations that we have today,
Let's let them go,
Let's let them go on the breath,
Let's breathe in through the nose,
Breathing in,
And breathe out through the nose slowly,
Just let go,
Let go of what doesn't serve you today.
Let's take in another deep breath in,
And then slowly breathe it out through the nose,
Letting it all go,
Feeling those obstacles melt away,
Let's take one more deep breath in,
Breathing through the nose,
And out the mouth,
A gentle sigh,
Release,
Release,
Coming now to a normal breath,
Breathing gently and smoothly,
And just feel a sense of relaxation,
Perhaps more now than when we logged on.
So I'm going to take us on a little story,
I want you to imagine that you have been walking for many days,
You're alone,
And you come to an ancient ruin,
The top of a hill,
And it's beautiful,
It's like an ancient temple,
It could be African,
Or Greek,
Or Asian,
Or whatever you sort of picture,
Maybe pillars and steps,
And in the center of this place is a beautiful pond,
It's really really large,
And its waters are quite deep,
It's late afternoon,
And in the center of this pond is a magnificent lily,
Lily flower that we have,
Or a lotus you can imagine,
That sort of flower that grows in the water,
It's magnificent in its color and painted with whatever color you like,
Your favorite colors,
And you approach the pond and this lily or lotus makes its way to you,
And amazingly it's big enough for you to sit in it,
So you climb into it and you're sitting on this flower comfortably,
Very comfortably,
And it floats back to the center of the pond.
And you just feel amazing,
Like it's quite a magical experience,
It's very beautiful,
It's very quiet in this place,
The view is remarkable from the pond,
All around,
It's all open around you,
These ancient ruins,
These walls,
These pillars,
But it's very soft and peaceful,
And the sun is slowly setting,
You're just loving sitting there,
And I want you to imagine that the petals of this flower,
Each petal is your value,
Is a value,
Whether it's authenticity,
Loyalty,
Integrity,
Etc.
Each petal of this flower is a value,
And it's giving you immense happiness and joy,
And it's so beautiful,
It gives meaning and beauty in your life,
So you're just sitting comfortably resting on your values in the shape of this beautiful flower,
This lily.
Just use your imagination,
Why not?
And if your mind starts to wander into thoughts,
Gently bring it back to this imagery.
And a cloud appears overhead,
Clouds of sort of a darkish cloud,
Nothing too threatening,
But enough just to drop a few,
Just a little few raindrops into the pond,
And sitting on our values,
Sitting on the lily,
We notice in the mind that there are drops,
Little drops that cause a ripple in the pond,
And the ripple goes outwards.
We can imagine this pond just like our mind,
That as we sit,
Thoughts,
Sensations,
Sounds are like these little ripples,
Little drops that happen every now and then,
That cause a ripple through our awareness,
Through our consciousness.
That you're safe and dry because you're resting on your beautiful values,
Supporting you.
Just resting,
Observing every now and again,
A thought that drops down,
Causes a ripple,
And then goes away.
The more you relax,
The less drops fall from the cloud.
The mind becomes very still,
Like the dark waters that we float on.
That these thoughts and feelings and sounds are very natural,
Just like rain from a cloud,
It's very natural,
But it doesn't cause us to fall in.
We remain dry and comfortable,
Sitting on our lily or our lotus.
And the longer we sit,
The happier we feel.
It's almost that by practicing our values,
It just increases our level of well-being and happiness.
It removes so many obstacles,
Irritations.
Then,
We have peace of mind,
Amen.
And when you're ready it's time for the flower to move to the edge of the pond and you can step off and we're ready to face a brave new world.
But we can always come back to the pond anytime we like.
Dissolving this visualization and let's take in another beautiful deep breath,
Dropping the chin down and breathing in through the nose and side out through the mouth.
And when you're ready you can lift your chin and open your eyes.
Thank you for going on this little journey with me today.
