There is an infinite wilderness inside us all; we have forests and beaches, daylight and darkness, canyons, mountaintops, and boundless grassy plains. When we feel trapped, overwhelmed, or like we’re just so darn tired of this quarantine business…we all have a place to escape to, a place to find grounding or serenity, a place that has no price and requires no travel. With imagination and meditation, any one of us can briefly travel to this wilderness, and in doing so, we harness a variety of psychophysiological benefits.
The trouble is, in our day to day lives we get so busy with responsibilities, worries, and even distractions that we rarely give our minds a chance to practice imaginative creativity. Luckily, our creative brain seems to turn on quite quickly with just a little bit of prompting. If you’d like to give this a try, please listen to or read the meditation below.
Tips:
- I recommend listening to this meditation in a comfortable location where, for just a few minutes, you feel you are able to let your guard down and, perhaps, even close your eyes.
- If the above recommendation isn’t an option, that’s okay. Try reading the text provided below. You may find that you like to:
a. …read a few sentences, close your eyes (or let your gaze drift with eyes open), imagine the sensations described, and then continue the process by reading another sentence or two.
b. …read the entire passage and then let your imagination wander however you choose: eyes opened or closed, laying down or sitting up, following the script, or adding your own spin.
Try this on for size:
Find a comfortable position to sit in or lay down. As you breathe, begin to picture the exchange of atoms from air to body, and body to air. As you breathe in, notice the nourishment you are providing for your muscles and tissues; and as you breathe out, feel your tension slowly begin to release as you exhale feelings of stress, anxiety, or pressure. Continue this pattern, for as long or as short as you like. Allow your breathing to deepen as you nourish your body and relax your mind.
Imagine you are standing in a forest. It is mid-morning. It is warm. There are soft, golden rays of sun that peek through layers of leaves above, as they are gently rustled by a mellow breeze. You take a deep breath. You notice the scent of cedar, the soft earthen smell of soil, and perhaps, being carried in on that warm breeze, a slight, and soothing note of lavender that is growing wild in a nearby field.
As you breathe in these pleasant and gratifying scents, you begin to hear a harmonious sound, a sympathetic and tender melody of birds, crickets, and rustling leaves. These noises seem to blend and complement one another, as though they were always meant to be heard at exactly the same time, at exactly this moment, in a place that is created by you.
As you are here, in this forest, you feel safe. It is a place, that no one can access without your permission. You decide to stay a while. Your eyes take in the surroundings, and you find a sturdy, old, oak tree nearby. As you walk toward the tree, you feel the soft spring of the forgiving soil beneath your feet. As you approach, you notice the tree’s breadth and its height. With both hands, you feel the bark. You feel the deep, woody ridges, that seem to invite the welcome growth of soft, dewy moss.
You decide to sit against this tree trunk, to unwind with the scents and the melodies being carried along the breeze. As you sit, you feel each muscle in your body slowly relax, allowing yourself to feel heavier and heavier against the steady tree, and the strong, though forgiving soil.
As you relax, you find that your attention slowly drifts back to the cleansing, forest air that is so kindly nourishing your lungs. You settle into a soothing pattern, wherein you inhale the forest’s pure air and exhale with gratitude for such cleansing. The forest seems to welcome you to stay for as long or as little as you like.
As you prepare to depart from the forest, you must remember that this forest lives within you. Though you may need to leave the forest now, it is always available for you to come back to. You can use this guide, or you can imagine the forest on your own. You can find a quiet place to sit and meditate on each aspect of the forest, or you can choose to focus on just one or two small parts of the forest for a brief few seconds when you need a miniscule escape.
By Katherine Jones, Master of Science in Counseling Psychology Graduate Student, Chatham University