Guided Forest Meditation

Grounding is something that can be done on its own as well as in preparation for yoga or meditation.  It helps you to feel calm, in your body and relaxed and can be a tool to promote health and well-being.  Find a comfortable place sitting, in a chair, or even lying down.  

You can link to a video below or make a recording of the below story with your own voice and listen to it.

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You see yourself walking through a very fragrant meadow.  It is green and there is green and the wind is rustling gently through the grasses.  There are wildflower of every imaginable colour.   As you walk through the field you see the edge of a forest.  It is green at the peak of spring and full of many beautiful trees that you know, and also many tree you don’t know.  As you walk closer to the forest, you notice a path leading in. You continue walking, along a softly lit path.  The path could be dirt, or small stones.  However you imagine it in your minds.  And as you walk through the forest you hear the birdsong, and smell the damp, fragrant, spring smells.  As you continue through, you begin to see a clearing in front of you.  As you enter the clearing, you know this is a place you have been before. It is a safe place that is for you.  There is a natural seat in the middle of the clearing. It could be a tree stump, it could be a stone seat.  Make your way there comfortably. And sit down, adjusting yourself to the light in the clearing.  Perhaps you are sitting in the shade with a bit of dappled sunlight coming through, and it is comfortable and warm.  Look around your clearing and notice flower and shrubs and more birds and their sounds.  And as you sit there in your clearing, you realize that you would like to be like one of these tall trees surrounding you.  And you decide to with your next in breath to let all of the tension out of your body falling off you like water into the earth.  You could take your hands from where you are and touch the earth.  And root yourself down like a tree growing.  Right now you are the seed, and the roots are growing out of your seat and fingertips, into the earth.  All the way down into the rich, dark, cool earth below.  Connect and stable from your base.  And like all seeds you root down first and then you begin to reach up.  You can feel it through your body and reach your body and arms above becoming a tall trees reaching towards the sky.  You can keep one hand down and one hand reaching up expanding, with the breath.   Become the large tree taking all the oxygen and sun above.  And you root down to get water and nourishment. Take a few moments to be the tree in your safe, fragrant clearing.  Hear the sounds of the birds, and the wind rustling in your own leave.  Feel the earth below you.  And now come back to your own body. Wiggle your fingers a little bit.  Feel yourself in your stone or wood seat.  In your minds eye, stand up and begin to walk down the path from your clearing, leaving the tree that you created to visit any time you like.  As you walk a bit further from your clearing you begin to open your eyes a little bit.  Maybe you are still experiencing yourself in the meadow on the edge of the forest.  Take a final deep breath in and a deep breath out.  Experience how you feel. 

Maybe you’ll want to do some yoga now, or another meditative practice.  Or perhaps move on with your day.   This website has a lot of free guided meditations.