Meditation Script: The Stillness of Winter
Welcome to your mat, to your bolster, to your pillows. Light a candle and see the flare of the wick, hear the pop of the light, feel the warmth of the flame, smell the singe of the fire and taste the stillness within. Close your eyes and rest.
Welcome winter's grace, breathe in, breathe out. Repeat...again...and again...until stillness envelopes you into a deeper sense of quietude.
So too, winter brings quietude, stillness and rest. Most days we work to fill a void, be it money, or love, or hunger. We fill our lives with everything that is next. The next paycheck, the next text, the next meal. Winter is nature's hibernation. Winter is telling us to rest.
It is a time to move more slowly, with intention, across the slippery ice of life, plan your present movement in order to avoid crashing down with the next movement. Start with your breath, find presence. Observe without moving, use your awareness to feel the boundaries of your skin, notice where you are warm, where you are cool. Be present within your protective sheathing.
In winter, we cover ourselves to protect us from the chill, in order to keep our corporal essence warm. Likewise, we must protect our spirituality with a layer of pure intentions. Winter is a glorious time to slough those things that do not serve us, our obsessions, our bad habits, and cover ourselves with a new devotional blanket. Woven with threads of peace and love.
Sit in warmth and notice that life can be lived in patience. When the snowstorm hits, instead of cursing the loss of power; consume the opportunity to cease the must's and the want's. Respond instead with patience and gratitude.
When the storm subsides, observe the noise-deafening grandeur of a white field of snow. Unmarked by any creature. Notice the reflected glisten of sun sparkling-off the snowfield, like frozen diamonds of light. Within you lies the very same essence of the sun's energy, glimmer your worth to warm your soul. Focus on the stillness between snow and sun.
Notice the transparent icicles deforming the image of nature through it's frozen glass and the slow drip as this ephemeral beauty of nature transforms and deliquesce back to the earth, seeking a place of rest before the freeze of night. Confident that tomorrow brings another day of transformation.
Lengthen your thoughts and your body, expand into the vastness of white, above find blue skies, an amber sun and billowy clouds. Find warmth without, find warmth within. Bask in your earthly form. Embrace the tangible, release the elusive. Like the transformative powers of ice, reinvent yourself along your journey; practice peace within movement.
Notice your breath, the coolness as it enters the body, the warmth as it leaves, know that you have the power to change and sometimes it is as simple as just taking a breath. With each breath, the energy within, fueled from without, becomes aligned, balanced, and complete. You will emerge from winter's respite apt and allineated. You will emerge from this meditation rejuvenated with an incandescence of truth to thaw your path.
The most expansive peace comes from spiritual presence. Winter is the time to fill your rarified cup to the brim with fluffy snow and when friction arises, know that patience renews and what was cold thaws into a pool of good-intentions and now your cup has room for more of you.
As you emerge from you meditation, take time to move with awareness. First your fingertips and toes, ankle and wrists, followed by a wake-up stretch. Keep your eyes closed for as long as possible and use your other senses to enliven you from your respite. Touch, Smell, Hear and Taste and when the light from without finally reaches within absorb the warmth.
Welcome winter's grace, breathe in, breathe out. Repeat...again...and again...until stillness envelopes you into a deeper sense of quietude.
So too, winter brings quietude, stillness and rest. Most days we work to fill a void, be it money, or love, or hunger. We fill our lives with everything that is next. The next paycheck, the next text, the next meal. Winter is nature's hibernation. Winter is telling us to rest.
It is a time to move more slowly, with intention, across the slippery ice of life, plan your present movement in order to avoid crashing down with the next movement. Start with your breath, find presence. Observe without moving, use your awareness to feel the boundaries of your skin, notice where you are warm, where you are cool. Be present within your protective sheathing.
In winter, we cover ourselves to protect us from the chill, in order to keep our corporal essence warm. Likewise, we must protect our spirituality with a layer of pure intentions. Winter is a glorious time to slough those things that do not serve us, our obsessions, our bad habits, and cover ourselves with a new devotional blanket. Woven with threads of peace and love.
Sit in warmth and notice that life can be lived in patience. When the snowstorm hits, instead of cursing the loss of power; consume the opportunity to cease the must's and the want's. Respond instead with patience and gratitude.
When the storm subsides, observe the noise-deafening grandeur of a white field of snow. Unmarked by any creature. Notice the reflected glisten of sun sparkling-off the snowfield, like frozen diamonds of light. Within you lies the very same essence of the sun's energy, glimmer your worth to warm your soul. Focus on the stillness between snow and sun.
Notice the transparent icicles deforming the image of nature through it's frozen glass and the slow drip as this ephemeral beauty of nature transforms and deliquesce back to the earth, seeking a place of rest before the freeze of night. Confident that tomorrow brings another day of transformation.
Lengthen your thoughts and your body, expand into the vastness of white, above find blue skies, an amber sun and billowy clouds. Find warmth without, find warmth within. Bask in your earthly form. Embrace the tangible, release the elusive. Like the transformative powers of ice, reinvent yourself along your journey; practice peace within movement.
Notice your breath, the coolness as it enters the body, the warmth as it leaves, know that you have the power to change and sometimes it is as simple as just taking a breath. With each breath, the energy within, fueled from without, becomes aligned, balanced, and complete. You will emerge from winter's respite apt and allineated. You will emerge from this meditation rejuvenated with an incandescence of truth to thaw your path.
The most expansive peace comes from spiritual presence. Winter is the time to fill your rarified cup to the brim with fluffy snow and when friction arises, know that patience renews and what was cold thaws into a pool of good-intentions and now your cup has room for more of you.
As you emerge from you meditation, take time to move with awareness. First your fingertips and toes, ankle and wrists, followed by a wake-up stretch. Keep your eyes closed for as long as possible and use your other senses to enliven you from your respite. Touch, Smell, Hear and Taste and when the light from without finally reaches within absorb the warmth.