Mindfulness Stop 7

Make sure your volume is on: "Mindfulness - Chinese Bridge"

Show transcript

Close your eyes and bring your awareness to your breathing. Take a few slow and deep breaths, allowing your entire body to calm down, to relax, to become full of ease and completely comfortable. When your body is at ease, then your mind can much more easily be at ease as well.

Just enjoy for a moment how everything right now is peaceful. You are still. You are quiet. And even if there are noises in your environment, you can be quiet within. Right now, there is nothing to do, nowhere to go. Just being here, right now in this moment.

As you walk along the path that leads from the rear of the lake, you notice there is a moon shaped Chinese bridge coming up ahead of you. You walk towards that bridge. And once you arrive at the bridge, you take in its detail, its markings. Look at its structure. What materials is it made of? what colour is it? What shapes can you see it consists of? Criss-crosses, spheres, bends. Take in the wood, how it feels. What are the patterns in it? Where does the light hit the wood? Are there any shadows on the bridge?

Let us start walking mindfully and very slowly, taking in the sounds of the gravel beneath your shoes, the crunching crushing sand and stones. Walk to the middle of the bridge, look at the scene around you. What lies around it, and on the surface of the water? Can you see lilies and lily pads? Take it all in now. Investigate the water - can you see the refection of the bridge on the surface of the water? Can you see yourself? Does the water move? Look over both sides ... where does the water flow? Is there any natural debris that sits and flows under the bridge?

Find a leaf floating along the surface of the water. For the next few minutes, take each thought that enters your mind and place it on the leaf and let it float by under the bridge. Do this with each thought – pleasurable, or neutral. Place them on the leaf and let them float by. If your thoughts momentarily stop, continue to watch the water . Sooner or later, your thoughts will start up again. Place those thoughts on leaves and allow them to float along.

From time to time, your thoughts may hook you and distract you from being fully present. This is normal. As soon as you realize that you have become sidetracked, gently bring your attention back.

Now take a few deep breaths in and out, continue slowly over the bridge, take in mindfully your surroundings and the island that the bridge leads to. Take as much time as you want, and only when you are ready walk back over the bridge and onto the path to continue your walk around Staunton Country Park.