5 Minute Forest Meditation – Guided Visualisation
Yoga Teacher: Emily Ruth
Hi, I’m Emily Ruth and I’m a yoga teacher out here in Morzine in the French Alps. I’m teaching Vinyasa and Yin yoga as well as leading guided meditation and visualisations. I teach open classes in town and I also run yoga events and retreats in the mountains, many of these involve combining hiking and the outdoors with yoga and meditation. I think it’s such a great opportunity to be able to combine these two things together into one experience!
So today I want to share with you a guided visualisation which you can use anywhere you are. You don’t necessarily have to be out in nature (like I am today in this beautiful forest in Morzine), you can equally practice this back at home or wherever you feel comfortable!
To start with it’s really important to be in either a comfortable seated position or lying down on the ground so wherever you are you can support yourself. Maybe bringing a cushion or even just sitting on a chair if that feels better, or maybe bringing a pillow, a blanket or a bolster underneath your legs, if you’re lying down.
When you’re ready just take a moment to find that comfortable seat or find that comfortable place to lie down or stand up and just take a moment to settle in maybe closing down the eyes letting go of the day. Allow yourself to begin to notice your breath, noticing that flow of air as it moves in and out through the nose. Feel the area of the body that you’re breathing into, feeling the belly rise with every inhale and relax
with every exhale.
Continue to keep your focus on your breath, visualise yourself now walking out of the space you’re in, away from all the building, busyness, the crowdedness. You keep walking steadily and calmly, finding your pace, your rhythm and your breath. The scenery around you begins to change as you reach the edge of a forest. You enter following a tiny path, only big enough for one, deep into the trees. You can smell the lush pine scent all around you, the freshness of the air falls over you, cooling and releasing all of its beautiful energy into your body.
You stop, touching your palm to the tree next to you, feeling it’s rough dense back carved out over hundreds of years and you absorb his knowledge, wisdom and truth. You feel his strength grounding inside of you, take in all of the beauty of the forest around you. The wildflowers at your feet with buds bursting into life, beams of sunlight breaking through the canopy lighting anything in their path. You look up and see a vast canopy of treetops swaying in the breeze as if dancing creating the rhythmic hum of the forest.
You feel at peace just you and the greatness of nature around you, at one with each other, coming to an understanding: that you’re simply the same, created from the same stardust, grown from the same earth, gently vibrating energies, reconnecting.
We’re going to keep this essence of peace within of connection to something greater with us now as we continue to follow our breath. Allowing the energy to flow through us, stay here now following your breath for as long as feels right for you. Or as long as time allows. I hope you enjoyed this guided visualisation today and we’ll see you in the mountains soon.
