This is Susan Ginsberg with Stop and Breathe with your River Meets Lake visualization.
Please sit or lie down in a comfortable,
Quiet place and gently close your eyes if it's safe for you to do so.
If you're already doing so from a previous exercise,
Now is a good time to make any necessary movements or bodily adjustments to get as comfortable as possible.
Begin to soften your face.
Gently roll your shoulders down and away from your ears.
Connect with your breath as you begin to follow your inhalations and your exhalations.
Imagine that you're floating down a beautiful river stream.
The sun is streaming through the surrounding trees,
Sounds of the river flowing,
And you're totally at peace.
Imagine in full detail all of your surroundings,
The beautiful blue water,
The green fragrant trees,
And the steady sound of the flowing water.
You suddenly notice a little opening or a gap where the water begins to veer off the path that you're on and it branches off to the right.
So you gather some large rocks to stop this errant current,
But you still notice the water is seeping through the bottom,
Underneath the rocks.
During pebbles,
You begin to place them underneath the rocks,
Creating a dam so as to redirect the water back to its original and straight path.
It works and you're off and you're flowing in the right direction,
Straight ahead.
It's once again peaceful and all is well in the world and in this beautiful,
Glorious day.
Suddenly the water begins to veer off to the left,
Not all but just another small stream off the main flowing path.
So you gather some more rocks,
You place the large,
Heavy rocks in the once again deviant path.
It's not enough but you know what to do.
You've been there,
You've done that.
So you gather some pebbles and you plug the gaps so as to keep the water flowing straight ahead.
You're floating again at peace and bliss.
When you begin to reach a spot,
A spot in which you can nearly see the entire way down,
Down to where the river current meets a vast and beautiful lake.
You notice immediately that there are multiple sub-streams very similar to the ones that you corrected.
They have branched off,
Far too many to plug up with the rocks and the pebbles.
A heat flushes through your entire body.
How can you ever control all of these extra offshoots of water?
And then another glimpse approaches,
One in which you see all of the streams,
Including the one that you're on,
Lead to this beautiful boundless lake that you're aspiring to join with.
Suddenly you get it.
There's no need to control,
Stop,
Or even change the streams.
Because all of the streams have led to the lake all along.
So you breathe a sigh of relief and you just let go.
And you just go with the flow.
Continue to just picture yourself floating down this beautiful stream of water,
The one that leads to a vast lake without a care in the world,
Trusting that it's exactly where you need to be at this very moment in time.
Immerse yourself in these beautiful,
Peaceful surroundings,
Allowing yourself to surrender to the current and know fully well that the path that you're on is leading you exactly where you need to go.
5.
We are still here at this sacrificialeconomic center near quiet
