Pam Z

Cortlandt Manor, NY, USA

Sheila Morgan

Mornington VIC, Australia

Tharangani Rajapaksha

Sri Lanka

Sonia

Ireland

Paula

Kihei

LizW

Pennsylvania, USA

Susan

Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Ginger

Santa Fe, NM, USA

William

Virginia, USA

Omaya Saad

Florence Grunfelder

Kitchener-Waterloo, ON, Canada

Geli

Iga Win-y-Frid

Shannon T.

Karen Falconer

Hemel Hempstead UK

Astrid

Dortmund, Germany

Heidi

Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Kathy Guilbert

Seattle, WA, USA

Margarete Kromar

Oshawa, Canada

Secular

Recovery & Healing

Healing

Nature

Self-Compassion

Visualization

English

This meditation will help you release the old and make space for new thoughts and emotions. It will show you a way to letting go of the past and opening up to the future while being mindful of the beauty of now.

Declutter Your Mind & Let It Go

 Hello and welcome. And thank you for taking this time to connect with yourself through this meditation. First you need to find a quiet place in which to rest for a while. And once you do, take a moment to get into a comfortable position, either sitting up with both feet flat on the floor or maybe lying down. Either way with your body fully supported so you can relax completely. Once you are comfortable, allow your eyes to gently close. Or if you prefer to keep your eyes open, lower and soften your gaze to bring your attention inward to your breath. Settling in now, begin by taking a few slower and deeper breaths than you would normally take. Breathing in slowly through your nose and blowing the air out slowly through your mouth. With every inhalation, imagine breathing in calm, relaxing energy. And with each out-breath, imagine blowing out tension. Breathing in calm relaxation. Breathing out and letting go of stress. Now letting go of controlling your breath. Just allow yourself to trust in the abundant wisdom of your body to breathe just right. Sending down now and relaxing even more. Taking a moment to scan your body from the bottom of your feet all the way to the top of your head. Noticing any areas of tension lingering. As you can scan, breathe into any areas of tension. Calm and relaxing energy. And releasing the tension through each out-breath. At the same time, allowing any tension that remains to be just as it is. Breathing in, breathing out. Just as you are. If at any time your mind starts to wander, refrain from judgment. Just gently bring your attention back to your breath. Focusing on the areas in your body that you feel the breath the most. Perhaps tracking the breath as it enters and leaves the body during each breath cycle. Breathing in. Breathing out. Calm and relaxed. Now with the power of your imagination, picture yourself standing in the middle of a large garden. Filled with an assortment of trees, bushes, flowers of a variety of colors and sizes. Perhaps take a look around and notice any structures in the garden. Such as an archway covered in jasmine or ivy. Or perhaps a bench or hammock. In one corner there is a garden shed and against the shed leans a rake and some other garden tools. Gazing up you see a blue, clear, expansive sky and you feel the warmth of the sun on your face. There is a gentle spring breeze and it soothes your face as well. Looking around again you notice that there is a gate at one side of the garden that leads into a clearing and then a path into a distant tree line. Spending a few moments to take in all of the beautiful colors and breathe in the scents of the trees and flowers. You begin to realize that this garden symbolizes your life and all of your experiences up to this present moment. As you look at the ground under your feet and all around you, you notice that along with many plants and budding flowers, there are a lot of dried, crumpled up leaves left behind from autumn and winter scattered here and there. Looking more closely you see there are even areas where the leaves are packed down forming a damp carpet, blocking some of the plants from reaching the light of the sun. These leaves represent negative experiences, feelings or messages that you have received from others and internalized. They also represent negative beliefs about yourself or others as well as all of the negative energy that you have received through others. You know that the world is full of positive and negative energy. Words from other people's gardens can be swept up in the wind and blown into our own. Deciding it is time to clear your space of this negativity, you get the rake and begin raking all of the leaves through the gate, pulling them into a big pile in the clearing outside of the garden. A safe distance away from the beautiful trees, plants and flowers you have planted throughout the years. Once you have cleared out all of the dead leaves and the pile is ready, you decide to burn the pile and get rid of these leaves permanently. You know that other leaves will come, but you can clear them as well. Periodically, as you maintain your garden, keeping it clutter free and allowing all of the plants to receive water and sunlight in order to bloom to their full potential. Setting fire to the leaves, you watch as the smoke rises up higher and higher until it trails off into a thin tail, eventually dissipating into the sky. As the fire burns out, you feel lighter and free, unburdened. You are able to open your mind and heart to new experiences, positive energy and good health. And you can feel this throughout every cell and fiber of your being. Reaching in your pockets now, you find seeds you have been meaning to plant for quite a long time. It is time to replenish your garden with healing herbs and bright flowers. You know instinctively where to plant these special seeds because you have been tending your garden your entire life, pushing them down into the earth and covering them lightly with the soil. You pet them gently and then give them just the right amount of water. As the time passes, they grow stronger and healthier, second by second. Even though you cannot see them at first, you know that they are under the surface, germinating and sprouting, pushing their way up through the earth and into the light. Trusting this process, you can leave nature to do its work. You are free now to relax on that hammock or garden bench and just enjoy the beauty that is a result of your hard work. Trusting now, you return to your breath and find that it is flowing smoothly and easily. Your heart and mind have so much room now for new things to grow and flourish. You decide that caring for yourself regularly is worth the effort because you feel so much freer and at peace, cleared of the negative energy that you had been absorbing. In fact, you decide to spend more time in awareness of your body, emotions and thoughts. So you know when to tend the garden the most. Keeping it clear of negative clutter, abundant with positive energy is your new goal. And now feeling renewed and refreshed, wiggle your fingers and toes, breathe in deeply to move more energy throughout your body. Stretch your arms and legs and open your eyes, feeling wide awake and feeling great. Thank you for joining me for this guided meditation. I hope you enjoyed this experience and that it helps you release the old and make space for new thoughts and emotions. Namaste.