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Flowing with Change Meditation 3 – 2020_04_20 17.57

This guided meditation is to help people to deal with nervous or unsettled energy. It begins with using the breath to move the energy out of the body. Followed by imagery that helps the listener connect with the natural world as they sit by a babbling brook. The listener is then instructed to become the water and learn to flow with change. This is also a great meditation for those that want to work with the element of water. It is best listened to while sitting and with the use of headphones.

Flowing with Change (script)

Copyright Angela Levesque 2019 – Feel free to use for personal use.

Find a comfortable place to sit with your bare feet flat on the floor and your back supported. Close your eyes and begin to follow your breath. Drawing the breath deep down into the belly.  Exhaling slowly and completely.

Now bring your attention and awareness to the top of your head. Breathe in slowly as you move your awareness down your face and into your shoulders. Letting the muscles of your face release and relax. Pausing for a moment at the shoulders and the neck. Noticing the subtle movement of your shoulders at they rise and fall with the breath.

On the next inhalation move your awareness down into your chest. Let your breath fill the rib cage and on the out-breath, move into a deeper space of rest and calm. Now move your breath and awareness into your lower abdomen and hips. As you slowly breathe in, let the area fill and expand with the breath and release slowly and completely on the exhalation.

Now allowing your awareness and your breath to flow down into the legs, letting the thighs soften as the breath moves through them.  Now let your awareness and breath continue to flow over the knees and into the lower legs. Again noticing that with each breath you move into a deeper space of rest and calm.

And finally now allowing your breath and awareness to flow all the way down the body and into the soles of the feet and out into the earth beneath you. I’d like you to do a scan of your body – slowly moving your awareness from the top of your head down to the soles of your feet.

Is there anywhere you are holding onto extra energy? This energy might take the form of restlessness or the feeling of wanting to move or fidget. It’s the same energy that has you checking your phone or feeling ungrounded. Take a moment to acknowledge that feeling, and just witness it. Do not try to change it or satisfy it, just let the restlessness be in your consciousness for a moment or two.

Now returning to the breath, see if you can take that restless or nervous energy and fold it into the breath. Letting the energy get swept up in the breath and then letting it flow out of the body with each exhalation.

As you fold that nervous or restless energy into the breath, you are letting the breath provide a vehicle for its release. And with each subsequent of exhalation, you move into a deep place of calm, peace and relaxation.

Now we are going to take this practice one step further and as we learn to flow with change.

Now I want you to imagine sitting safely on a log at the edge of a babbling brook. Your feet are in the cool but comfortable water. There is a faint scent of wildflowers in the air. You can feel the warmth of the sun on your face and a sense of peace in the body. As you breathe in, your whole being softens and expands with the breath. And as you breathe out, a deep sense of comfort and ease flows down the body and into the brook.

Just take a few moments to be really present and take in these beautiful surroundings.

I want you now to focus on moving your breath into the babbling brook. Taking in each breath and allowing it to flow down the body and into the brook. As you do this you feel a deep connection between you and the natural world. You understand that you and the natural world are not separate but part of each other. And as the brook flows gently by, allow yourself to surrender to the flow. Connecting yourself to the natural flow of life.

Now I want you to expand your awareness slightly, seeing if you can be the water for a moment. To explore what it would feel like to flow with ease. Not moving to fast or too slow – Just flowing at the perfect pace, in the perfect time.

And just like the breath, allow the water to be a vehicle for any unwanted energy. Letting the pent up energy be released by the breath and flow out and away in the water. Letting the water carry away any stress, or stagnant energy leaving you feeling refreshed and balanced.

Take a few moments and move with the water, letting it take what you no longer want to hold onto and allow yourself to receive rejuvenation and peace in its place.

Pause

Now I want you to bring yourself back to sit on the log at the edge of the brook. Feeling the cool comfortable water on your feet and the warmth of the sun on your face. Notice the deeper sense of connection between you and your surroundings. The deeper sense of peace and groundedness. Remembering that you can come back to the flow of water anytime your life seems too hectic or out of control knowing that you can come back to this movement of ease and grace.

So much of our suffering comes from trying to stop the flow, to stifle the restlessness, but relief comes from being able to flow with change. By connecting to the movement of the natural world and seeing our ability to do so with ease and grace.

Now bring your awareness back into your body as you sit in the chair. Feel the firm ground beneath your feet. Take a deep breath to bring you back to your body. Become aware of your surroundings and when you feel ready, opening your eyes, aware, and alert.

© Can Stock Photo / urcis
Music credit Interstellar_Studios
Music credit worldwidesounds