Sarah V

Woody Point, Australia

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Kelly L.

Albuquerque, NM, United States

Ceri

Bath, United Kingdom

Explore a sacred natural space using your senses and imagination to find deep stillness and inner nourishment.

Spirituality

Health & Happiness

Presence

Guided Imagery

Consciousness

Visualization

English

We are in a liminal state, in these times of uncertainty, where our 'nomal' connection with nature is disrupted. This is a simple guided practice suitable for all, connecting into a sensory space from within to a natural environment that is sacred and profound to ourselves.

A Nature-inspired Sensory Practice

 Hi everyone, I'm Sue Lancaster and I am continuing to offer up meditations for everybody to help us through this difficult time of 2020. So my offering to you today is again inspired by these crazy, crazy times we find ourselves in. This is a time when we are feeling pulled inward literally and metaphorically and often it feels to me without our consent nor our desire to do so because now there's not any choice. The always present and taken for grantedness of our outside world is no longer available necessarily, certainly not easily, and our expectation that we can touch and see and feel our natural surroundings of this outside world feels in part a whimsical notion. Nature is such an intrinsic part of our lives and our enforced absence beyond our own small green space should we be blessed enough to even have one can have a lasting legacy effect. So taking the time to just invest into our own green health supports our own mental health and it spends time connecting into the sensory basis of our interconnectivity with nature and can provide something of a real soothing balm. So the meditation we're about to share today is a simple guided meditation for and inspired by nature. So join me if you will as we invoke our love and our connection to nature in which we are very much part of this essence even though we may feel a sense of loss or bereft from our lack of nature and fusion in these days. So we connect into our senses, we connect into our sense of anticipation, to the smells and the sounds, the feelings of our senses. This is a time to let your imagination thrive, let your senses flourish. May it be of benefit to you. So come meditate with me. Please sit or lie down because the main option here is that you choose to be comfortable and let your body support this practice not hinder it. And if you need to take the time to settle into your preferred stance then do because it is worth the investment right now. And when you find you are comfortable in how you've sat or lay in, close your eyes and we start to give thanks to our bodies. Because it's through this perfectly imperfect body of ours and our powers of our imagination that this whole world exists. And so we take a moment to connect into our breath. Your breath comes in and your breath goes out. It's a simple and profound practice. Because it's our breath that takes us out of the busyness of mind, full of noise and chatter and brings us softly down into our bodies. So we breathe in and we breathe out. The breath, the bridge that connects us to our whole. So as you breathe, feel the wholeness of yourself with a sense of calm, a welcoming conscious awareness. Just spend a couple of moments dropping back into you, not just your mind but to you. So please join me now on a journey to your senses because we are sensory beings and we experience this world through the realms of thinking, through feeling, touching, seeing, tasting, hearing, even if some of these senses are more retuned than others. And through our connection to our senses, to this space of personal profoundness that we can hold our state of imagination. So as we're going into a connected, imaginative space in our meditation, I invite you to bring to mind a place or a space in nature where you feel a sense of connection, a place where you feel at ease, a place where you feel safe. This space is sacred to you. This place symbolizes nurture. It symbolizes freedom. It symbolizes interconnectivity, life, nourishment. It's joy. There's no need to rush or grasp at your space because it's there. Just welcome it in, even if it surprises you by its presence. Come on in for it's right now. And spend time connecting to this space in your mind's eye, even if it's a different space to what you expected because you know nothing is permanent. And if you're not a soul that finds it easy to see, you're not a visual, imaginary type, then how does this place make you feel? For imagination and sensing is far more than just seeing something internally. It is a unique experience to everyone. So as we refine our noticing a little more, what is it you sense? Maybe there's a gentle breeze brushing across the trees, allowing the leaves to ebb and weave and flow on the gentle dance of the wind. Maybe the sun is shining high and bright in the light blue sky, casting a warming, soothing ray upon your skin. Or maybe it's night time and you're under a beautiful full moon casting her luminous glow across the earth, lighting all she touches with an ethereal silver glow. Maybe there's flora and fauna surrounding you, meadow flowers, long wisps of sea grass moving into the dance of the wind's breeze. Is there a scent of lavender wafting across the landscape? Or maybe you are by the sea and you can smell this fresh, clean, salty air. So as we connect more into our sensory perception, as we slow down further in our relaxed and welcoming state, we can drop a little more deeply into our stillness and we can notice a little more. Maybe we have company. Maybe there's a field mouse rattling around the grass, I don't know. Or there are bees. Or the birds in full song. These are simple suggestions. But this is your place, your space. So give it and yourself the reverence you deserve by spending time sensing and feeling and hearing and touching. Just allow yourself to breathe and be, sinking into your stillness in this sacred place. Right now, all we have is time. This time. This moment. Use this wisely and consciously. Notice how you feel in your sacred space. Check in and see what's invoked within you. What's your emotional state telling you right now? Because all of this isn't separate to your reality because you are creating it right now. And although this is not always going to be present in your conscious minds, it can be connected to in some form or other at any time you choose. To let all your senses pervade your entire fullness of being. Allow yourself to sink into your very core. Let this fuse into your marrow, to the essence of who and what you are right now. And just see if you can embody these qualities, welcoming them in as if they were your own. In the last moments of our practice together, in your space of stillness, let's just touch into your heart. How do you feel now? What's the truth of your feelings right now without dressing, without construction? And notice the true sense of you here and now. Not right nor wrong. Just a reality within the noise of life's voice. Just here in your true deep connection. Just allow yourself now to sit or lie. Just stay in this space in which you are right. Your conscious effort, nothing to imagine back into this time, this place, this physical space in which you're at. When you're ready and in your own time. Thank you.