Learning to slow things down

This week I would like to share a Guided Meditation from Creative Writing for The Mind, Body & Soul. Guided Meditation is one of my favourite ways to slow my life down and learn to focus my over active mind. I find that when I take the time to treat myself to meditation, I have the greatest days because I am slowing my life down, slowing my mind and using that mind power for something good. Just read through this meditation and follow the bracketed instructions, take you time and make it your own experience. Meditation is not met to stress you out there is no right our wrong, if you can picture it and fully go there in you mind you are doing it right.. Enjoy

THE ORANGE

This morning my mind was racing, worries and stress soon crept in, feelings of being trapped and that nothing in my life will ever change played on my mind. I acknowledged my feelings and what was happening to me, I began to slow my thoughts down by closing my eyes and taking deep breaths and only paying attention to my breathing.

As I sat cross legged on my blue yoga mat, I just breathed deep and slow. I closed my eyes and pictured my tree standing before me, my safe place, my old friend. I walked over to my tree and ran my hand over its grainy bark feeling its nooks and crannies. I then stepped inside my tree I sat cross legged in its trunk levitating in the centre of it. I began to breathe in through its leaves and out through its roots, just making oxygen and paying attention to how my breath was flowing with its circulatory system. My breathing became one with the tree, with everything flowing together in through the leaves and out through the roots and back again. (Take the time now to go to the tree and enjoy the peace and calm of just being a tree and only enjoying your breathing. In through the leaves, and out through the roots.)

Once completely relaxed, picture yourself driving a red Ferrari (choose any car you dream of driving) through the rolling hills of an orange plantation in Florida. You come across a huge plantation that is filled with trees, large, old, vibrant trees stretching as far as your eyes could see. These trees are covered with ripe oranges. The sight is mind blowing, the green trees and the oranges highlighting the green background. You pull over the car at the side of the road just on the gravel shoulder. You get out of your car and stand there with amazement at the beauty before you. (close your eyes now and picture this image)

Before you are rows and rows full of orange trees stretching so far you cannot see the end of them. You walk across the street and stand at the edge of the plantation and a gentle breeze blows by, and the smell of fresh oranges ignites your senses (feel the breeze and imagine the smell). You walk into the plantation and say to yourself “I am going to eat one of these oranges.” You bend down and take your shoes and socks off, and leave them at the edge of where the freshly groomed grass leading to the plantation starts. As you walk forward you let the grass massage your feet with every step you take.(Take the time now to walk in that grass, feel it.)

You approached a fabulous mature tree, its limbs are huge and it has a wonderful shape to it. All of its limbs and branches create an intricate umbrella above you, shading you from the hot sun. You looked up and see the perfect orange, round and so vibrant, filled with juice and ready to burst at any moment. You reach up and have to stretch every muscle in your body to reach this orange and pluck it from its branch. The orange is the size of a soft ball and it is heavy ,ripe and ready to eat. (Picture this orange and imagine its weight as you hold it in you hand.)

You walk away from the tree with your prize, and you see an old fashioned hand pump off to your right. You take the heavy, swollen orange over to the rusty pump and begin to pump up and down on it, before you know it the pump is bursting out fresh cold water from the depths of it’ well. (Picture the cold water rushing out and the feeling you have as it hits your hands.) You hold the orange in your left hand and pump the water over it with the right, washing the orange clean. Through the corner of your eye, off to the left you see a small round wooden table, it is only about one foot tall and about twelve inches around and there is a wood bowl sitting on. The bowl is about half way filled with orange peels, and there is a white cotton towel there as well for drying your hands off afterwards. You walk over and sit cross legged beside this table.(Picture the table now, try and see the detail as you walk over to it.) You take the ripe orange and take a bite out of the bottom of it. You pull the centre of the peel out with your teeth. The juice covers your face and the taste is out of this world, like no orange you have ever tasted; tangy and sweet at the same time. So fresh, your taste buds are put into overdrive.

You place the centre of the orange peel in the wooden bowl, and you begin to peel the orange with care. You dig your thumb in between the peel and the flesh of the orange and pull it back. (Imagine what is happening now. What sounds do you here as the peel is pulled away from the flesh of the fruit?) With each piece of orange peel you remove, your hands are drenched with its juices. You suck the juices off your thumb as you place the peels in the bowl.

Once the orange is peeled, break it in half and place one half on the table and the other half you will carefully peel each layer off and eat. The pieces of the orange melt in your mouth, each one sweeter than the one before. (Imagine the taste explosion with every bite you take, how each piece is an experience.) You finish the first half and move on to the second.

The second half you just pick up and take a big bite, and the orange explodes in your mouth, all over your face. The juices are running down your face and neck but you don’t care, you just take another bite and enjoy this moment fully; the tastes, the sights, the smells and the sounds of this wonderful experience. After you’re finished, you take the white towel and clean yourself up. You walk over to the hand pump and you wash your face off with the cold well water. You slowly walk over to where your shoes and socks are at the edge of where the gravel meets the grass. You slowly put your socks and shoes on. Before you leave, you take one more long look at this wonderful plantation. (Imagine what this place looks like, try to burn it into your mind and see, hear, smell everything.) You get back in your red Ferrari and drive away.

Now go back to the tree and breath deep and long once again, just taking air in through your leaves and out through your roots. When you are ready, step out of the tree and walk around it and give it a hug. Open your eyes and you are calm and happy, free from stress and feeling strong and proud!

The power of my mind blows me away at times. The times that I have spent stewing and worrying and sinking deep into a depressed state was a waste of my mind power. But then learn to create such a wonderful and vibrant place in my mind truly shows the power that each and every one of us has over our thoughts.

Sometimes I think that people like me who are blessed with an overactive mind just need a way to put that power to good use, and learn how to focus and draw on the good and not the bad in life. I say blessed with an overactive mind now, but before I thought I was cursed and only saw the bad in life. But to do a meditation like we just did is proof that our minds are capable of doing so many things in life, that just learning to focus and most of all practice ,practice, practice is the most important factor when learning new things and truly being happy.