Shelley Jo

Wyoming, United States

Chrissy

Massachusetts, USA

Selena Lael

Hawaii, USA

Journey into the roots of a banyan tree to face your fears and reconnect with a resilient part of yourself.

English

Journey to a majestic Banyan tree and gently explore the hidden, mysterious parts of yourself. Meet your inner child with love, offering comfort and courage for the unknown. This meditation supports gentle healing, self-discovery, and a sense of calm confidence.
Music: Meditation-background by SoundtrixAudio.

The Banyan Tree Of Courage

Hello and welcome. I'd like to welcome you here to this time together, to this experience and this guided meditation. And this is based on something that I moved through and a deep awareness that came up and an aha on a, I'll say a breakthrough. And in order to do this, I'll start with paraphrasing something from a story that I had read in When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron. And she spoke of when she was younger, she had a friend of hers that had reoccurring nightmares. And every night she would have this nightmare of being chased by monsters. And she'd go to bed the next night, again, she'd have that nightmare again. And she was telling Pema about this when Pema was also a youth. And this would happen night after night after night. And then Pema said to her, well, have you ever stopped when you're being chased to see what the monsters look like? And she said, no, I never thought of that. And so the next time she next night, when she had the nightmare within the nightmare, she stopped. And she went up against the wall. And she looked and saw what the monsters look like. And to her surprise, they weren't as scary as she thought. And as she saw them, they shifted. So they came and rather than being like these scary faces, like, maybe they had like three eyes. And she was like, huh, that's not so scary. And then the next image came and it wasn't as scary as she thought. And when she noticed this, the images kind of faded. And then after this, when she woke up, she didn't have any more nightmares. So this story that I have read that I'm paraphrasing reminds me of what happened within this awareness of mine. And what happened was, I was on the yoga mat, doing asana. And I don't like it. And basically, I was struggling. And it's something that I've always struggled with. I haven't done it a lot. But whenever I would, I would get thoughts like, this is awful. I hate this. When is this going to be over? This is painful. Oh, my God, you know, things like that. And the person that I was working with, and that was conducting asana said, we can look at our practice of asana as life, how we feel about life. And when she said this, in that moment, I'm on the mat. And I started to cry. Because I realized that there was a part of me that thought all those things about life. I hate this. When is this going to be over? This is painful. I can't take this anymore. You know, thoughts like that. So here I am crying. And it was okay, because it was a safe, very, very safe held container. But when I came out of it, I had this realization and I worked closely with parts. So it was it was a really big aha for me. And that's what I'm going to bring into this meditation now. This awareness of either running from monsters, running from something that we feel might be scary. But when we stop to take a look at it, such as me on the mat, when I saw that it wasn't so scary after all. So I want to bring you into an experience, a guided experience of similar of what I went through with my part after this awareness on the mat. So I invite you to settle in. Just allow yourself to soften. Take a deep breath in. Cleansing breath and a sigh out. And another breath like this as we settle in together. Sigh out. Allowing your face to soften, your body to soften, and your eyes to gently close if they're already not. Or soften your gaze if that feels better. And allow your jaw to soften. Maybe gently place your hands on your thighs, hands facing up. And allow your sit bones to feel heavy. And now we'll take a journey. And in this scenario, we are in a beautiful paradise. You can picture Hawaii. And in Hawaii, they have a beautiful tree called the banyan tree, which was gifted by India to Hawaii. It's this beautiful, magnificent tree. And the roots, what's special about this tree is the roots grow magnificently above the ground. So instead of it have to fully be under the ground, you can see these beautiful roots. And then they have long vines hanging similar and what you would see and depicted in Tarzan where he would like swing long vines like that. So just picture the biggest tree that you can imagine with these long, beautiful vines and this beautiful canopy that spreads a hundred hundreds of feet. So as you stand under the tree, you're looking up at its magnificence, feeling the shade under this canopy. And I invite you to bring in a part of yourself now. Or it could be the light of your soul. Whatever comes up for you. Just picture these beautiful vines and these beautiful roots that are not only below the ground, but coming up massive out of the ground. And these roots create these little hidden passageways within the tree. And this is where it might be a little bit scary for you, you right now, or even a part of you. But you feel brave. And inside the tree are these little hidden passages, portals. So as you start to step onto the roots that are growing, you head into one of these little passageways. And they're dark. And a part of you might feel a little afraid, like the girl did in that dream. But you decide, like she did, I'm going to go into the darkness. I'm going to stop and see the metaphorical monster in the dream. And in this case, the darkness. And as you head in, you start to walk into this little portal, this little hidden doorway within the roots. And when you walk in, you see another part of yourself. A hidden part that you are so afraid to walk into this darkness of the tree, of the portal, that you had not seen this part of yourself before. And this part is sitting there and they made, they made do. They made a little area to sit and they gathered up some branches and other things to keep them warm. They even found some cloth to wrap themselves in. And they even made it fun. They did some things, you know, they were playing with sticks and rocks and other things. And they look up at you and they see you and they show you this. That even though they were hidden, really, really hidden in this dark place that you were afraid to enter, and that they were afraid to go into, go into the darkness. They see you now. And they show you the place that they made. Allow yourself to feel this. To feel that they're okay. And that they found shelter. And now, most importantly, they found you. And you now sit down beside them and you explain that you didn't know that they were here. And as you connect, if it feels right, they might want to be held or just connected with you. And you hold them in your arms. Or you connect by looking in their eyes. And you say, I didn't know you were here and I, too, was afraid to walk into the darkness. But I'm not afraid anymore. And I'm here now. And with you, you have a backpack full of all the tools that you now have in this current day. And you show them all the tools that you have. Maybe you've taken classes. You update them on all the things that you do. And you put this in their backpack so they have it. It's like a little Dora backpack. You give them a map and a compass in case they get lost again. You give them a flashlight in this backpack in case it gets dark again. And any other tool that they might need, they can find in this backpack. And you give that to them and you just sit with them and hold them. Connect with them. Take some deep breaths into this connection. And you can feel the softening, the connection, the happiness, the joy that's still inside of them. And as they continue to show you around, you're just in awe at their resilience, their strength, their ability to hold their joy through it all. And they are amazed that you are them. All grown up now. And you might even ask them, how old do you think I am? And they might say, I don't know, but kind of old. That's what some of my parts have said to me. Or they might even have an idea. Allow for this connection. Show them all of the things that you've learned, all of your wisdom. Catch them up as you connect. And take some deep breaths with them, holding them in whatever way they need. When you feel ready, you can offer them to come with you. Now, they could come with you into your current space or to an imaginary place. Whatever feels good to them, they can choose. And if they choose to come with you, they can put their backpack on, pull out their flashlight, and you have your own. And walk through the portal together, shining their light, shining your light. And as they come out of the tree with you, holding your hand, walking into this present moment, connected with this part of you that was so resilient and was so hidden, and is now integrating with you, coming, connecting with you. And as you look back at the tree, you both smile. As you walk away slowly into this present moment together. Take some deep breaths into that connection. Into your own strength. Into your own resilience and light. And most importantly, into the full remembrance and wholeness of who you are. As they walk away, they come into the present moment and make a pact for this connection and integration. And I invite you to slowly start coming back into awareness, into your own body. Take some deep breaths as you slowly wiggle your fingers and toes. Maybe some slow, gentle movements with your neck. And I thank you for sharing this journey with me. The journey of reconnecting with our parts, especially the really hidden parts of us. And I invite you to come back to this meditation or a snapshot of this moment at any time that you need to connect with a part of yourself. Thank you for journeying with me, for sharing your practice, and I love you because I can. Have a beautiful day, and namaste.