I was listening today to a speaker who was discussing several of the key points that the COVID situation is having globally on society and individuals. Whilst we are still extremely lucky in Australia, there are similarities with those in less fortunate countries as fluctuating lockdown restrictions leave us with more shifting values and concerns as people deal with them differently and, perhaps, not as we would. Our own vulnerability is being heightened leading to more compassion for others and care within our immediate community.
By being more physically distant (not as we are told ‘socially distant’) we confront and are made aware of our own boundaries both within ourselves and in the outside world. Inevitably, this leads to an increased self-awareness on many levels; a bright spotlight potentially showing things that have been hidden or buried for many reasons within ourselves. We know we cannot have light without the shadow and so we need to embrace both to be whole and balanced.
By allowing connection to an awareness of source, deep inside that is free and limitless, gives your being a freedom that cannot be confined and no lockdown can constrain. The meditation below may assist to embrace this awareness and is offered with much love.
Close your eyes. Find a comfy seat at a clearing in a beautiful forest. Watch the lengthening shadows grow as the setting sun of the evening casts colours across the horizon. Follow the awareness in your body down to where you feel a centre of gravity, it may be towards the base of your spine or your stomach. Take in a deep breath. Connect with your centre of gravity. Breathe out. Become aware of being seated on the ground with the earth beneath you. Smell the earth, feel the rocks, the moisture, all the creatures in the earth. Feel your body slow down to the rhythm of the earth. Breathe in and out slowly. Feel the earth energy rising up through you to your centre of gravity. Sense the trees around you, see their trunks rising up to the sky. Breathe in the scent of the trees into the centre of your body, sense their protection around you and the energy of the sky above. See the bright energy from the sky coming down to you from above. Breathe in and feel the energy of the sky meeting the energy of the earth in you. Gradually, open to the sense of your body, sitting in the forest. Be aware that your body is part of the natural world, there is no separation between you and nature. Your body is part of the nature. Nature is right here always within your own being. Give thanks for the natural environment within our body, in our fingertips, our heads, our feet. The natural world is part of us and we are part of nature. Become aware of the room around you, open your eyes. Be fully present here and now.
