Garden Guided Meditation – Real & Imagined
September 1st, 2022
GARDEN GUIDED MEDITATION – Real & Imagined
September is my favorite garden month. The gardens are lush with flowers and foliage and mostly on their own. There is some weeding here and there, but it’s too late to plant for this growing season, too early for fall planting. It’s a month of rest. There is a wabi-sabi quality, the imperfections are there along with the perfections.
FIND WONDER & CONNECTION
Now is a perfect time to spend some time rediscovering wonder and connection with nature. Late summer and early fall gardens* are beckoning. Guided garden meditation answers the call. It is a perfect way to fully experience five senses and open heart and mind.
WALK-BY GARDENS – Seeing & Sensing Little
Spending slow time in a garden with a guided meditation is unlike the usual way of visiting our own or other gardens. All too often when we experience spaces like a garden, we spend a few seconds looking at different objects and scenes that catch our eye. All too often, we experience gardens in a walk-by, or even run-by, way trying to see everything and in some ways seeing and sensing little.
SACRED SPACE of NATURE
Sacred Space is usually thought of as only for religion. But the word Sacred actually has much broader meaning. It means “set aside” as a special place. A “holy” place. The work “holy” comes from the root “whole”. A garden is a “Sacred Space”, a “holy” space set aside from other settings that allows use to experience the wholeness of our human senses and center mind and body.
CONNECTION WITH NATURE
With this garden meditation, the goal is to let the listener slow down and fully experience the connections of what is happening outside of the body and inside. In a state of relaxation with guiding words, there is an exchange and a unity of senses, mind, heart and the heart of nature.
REAL & IMAGINED GARDENS
This garden guided meditation can be experienced outside in a garden, or in a garden of the imagination. The meditation allows an experience of the fullness, the wholeness of body, mind and heart. The fullness of a garden in an actual physical space, or through our imagination, can both be experienced with this meditation.
SLOW GARDENS, A WHOLE EXPERIENCE
The goal of this meditations is to let the listener slow down and fully experience the connections of what is happening outside and inside of the body. In a state of relaxation with open mind and heart our senses become enlivened in the garden. There is an enhancement of our senses of sight, scent, touch, sound and taste.
PHYSICAL GARDENS OR GARDENS OF THE IMAGINATION
There is a choice to be present in a physical garden, or a garden inside the mind and heart. Everyone has a beautiful safe garden within their heart. It may be a place of childhood, a place visited, or a place of dreams. It often takes time to discover, or rediscover. Sitting quietly and letting mind and heart be guided in this meditation lets you enter into and explore a garden of your imagination.
ANY TIME
This meditation is available anytime. Please let it guide you to a full experience and connection with nature, in your own garden, ones you visit or the one within.
GARDEN MEDITATION – Wholeness & Connection – 15 minutes and 9 seconds long.
Here is the meditation. I recently wrote the meditation and recorded it. The audio recording can be accessed on smart phones and computers. It is available at any time online. It is started and paused with an arrow showing on the narrow image. It lasts 15 minutes and 9 seconds. It can be paused at certain points if desired.
Please open and enjoy.
ENJOY, CREATE AND EXPERIENCE GARDENS & NATURE COMPLETELY
*Actually gardens call to us any time of year. Please use this meditation year round.
Note: Visit Missouri Botanical Garden’s Exhibit, Botanical Resonance, will be on display until March 23, 2023. There are two guided meditations available in the exhibit. They are lovely and a great way to experience the beautiful gardens of our local favorite botanical treasure.
