When you feel distraught, take a moment, bring your awareness to your heart and breathe. Let your breath soothe you.
When you feel unsettled, ground yourself by walking barefoot on the Earth, or hugging a tree and come home to nature. Let the sights and sounds, the smells of nature calm you.
When you feel ungrounded, come home to your roots. Plug yourself into Earth energy by hugging a tree or imagining your energetic roots sinking deeply into the Earth.
When you feel exhausted, rest awhile and come home to your inner spirit, the part of you that never tires, that lasts forever, that will never lead you wrong.
When you are worried or anxious, come home to this present moment of your life. Release regrets for the past and worries for the future for several beats of your heart and feel the peace as you breathe in and out.
Come home to your heart and body, to the present moment. In this way, you will live a true and authentic life.
When fear in your body feels too much, when the voices of doom and gloom and ugly rants on the news on social media get you down, when you can’t settle, when your head is filled with anxiety, go outside if you can.
You will feel more clarity and greater calm when you go outside without your shiny device, your ear buds, your blinking object.
If it is not safe to go outside, to breathe the air, imagine yourself in your favorite spot in nature. Use your inner vision to go to a place you love and feel completely safe and comfortable.
Move in comforting ways, walk slow or fast, swing your arms, breathe in the fresh air, move through the shifting shade under old and friendly trees, notice the sights sound smells and the feel of your chosen place on this Earth.
Summer grasses
Let your awareness reside in your heart, your body, your senses. Let thoughts from your logical mind and the demands of your ego float in and out like clouds, knowing they are not reality. Do not give them any power by clutching or grasping onto them.
Notice the colors of your world, the flow of the creek or river, the animals and birds, the plant life, the clouds, sky patterns, tree growth, the blooming flowers.
Feel your feet meeting Mother Earth. Feel her support of you. Feel your lungs filling and emptying as your chest rises and falls. Feel the movement of your limbs swinging in rhythm.
Feel the energy of fear leaving your being with each out breath. Feel anxiety melting away as you hug and lean on a friendly tree, letting the tree with deep roots support your weight and connect your heart to the heart of the Earth.
GCW in fall
Let the weight of your worries drain away into the earth for this moment. Mother Earth will neutralize the energy of excess fear, anxiety, and dread.
You may be absorbing unpleasant emotional energy from the collective mind, from other people and groups. Let it go! Let it drain away into the Earth. It is not yours to carry.
When you can get out of your head and spend time in nature, you can rediscover peace.
Just be, for a moment or an hour, like a child without a care, living in grace, enjoying all that life has to offer your senses and your heart.
Lie on the earth, soaking in her familiar healing energy. See the petals fall like snow flakes from spent wildflowers. Look up into the layered treetops. Above and beyond them the circling birds of prey riding the updrafts.
Watch the clouds drift and shift and assume fanciful shapes, then morph into something new. Watch the treetops sway and dance, hear the leaves whisper, watch the dappled shade dance across the green grass, tiny colorful birds visiting, feeding, bathing, taking flight.
In this moment you judge nothing; you fear nothing. You have no worries, no doubts, no distractions, no need to hurry. You exist in the divine grace of this moment and the next and the next.
For this moment you have no agenda. You soak in life, absorb the vibrations of nature, understanding your oneness with All- That- Is. For this moment, this hour, your being has no need of words.
Let yourself relax into this pure silence and pure grace of this moment, merging with all that is.
In this way you rediscover the heart of your inner child.
Step out into the sunshine! Feel the sensations and rhythms in your feet, ankles, legs, knees, hips, spine, shoulders and arms, neck and head as you contact the Earth and move forward.
Grandmother Cottonwood
Aim to pay attention to your body, your breath, your beautiful surroundings and let those swirling worries, fears and the self argument go for now.
Leave your phone at home. You’ll be fine without it for an hour and you will confound those corporations that want to track and catalog your every move…
Breathe in the golden morning air. Feel the rhythms of your breath and blood, the movements of your body and your head balancing on your neck, the swing of your arms as you move forward, the beat of your heart, your feet contacting the earth and rolling forward, stepping out in rhythm. This is life, dear ones.
Feel the harmonious movements of your body slow dancing to the beat of your heart.
Immerse yourself body and spirit in nature around you. Can you sense the subtle energy of the trees, their protective branches sheltering you? Can you feel the solid earth beneath your feet and toes; The soil full of life supported by the living bedrock of our Earth deep below; the deep rooted grasses, sighing in the wind; Song birds calling, moving from branch to branch, wings flashing; Larger birds of prey soaring and circling higher above the trees, soaking in the sunlight….
Prairie grass
Now, if you walk by flowing water, the stream moving down toward the big river eventually merging and becoming one with all waters. This sparkling creek water dancing as it passes; carving out steep banks over the years, bringing trees down in late winter floods, creating sandbars, depositing silt and gravel, bits of shell, Holding life within its gold and silver waters.
Rediscover the ancient and simple practice that heals and calms- walking in nature.
Dear ones, do you feel anxious and
overwhelmed? Is this your go-to vibration, the default setting for
your life?
Let me tell you something… When you feel anxious your energy vibrations are broadcast to others around you on the frequency of anxiety, otherwise known as the fearful network.
Anxiety can spread like a virus as others feel the vibrations and absorb them. Others around them may sense the anxiety and perhaps take it on, broadcasting it as well. This can cause a cascade effect in the web of life, a distortion in the energy of many thousands of people.
This anxiety virus makes so many lives less than they might otherwise be, causing unhappiness constriction, a dimming light and power, a fearful outlook. Is this what you want for your children and your loved ones?
You can learn simple energy techniques (here’s one) to center, balance and bring harmony to your life. You do not have to live this way!
There is help available! Ask for help from your medical doctor, counselor, energy healer, shamanic practitioner and other trusted healers and helpers.
Let nature heal you as you breathe in the fresh air, rest under a spreading tree, walk along a beach, with nothing but the rolling waves and wheeling birds for company.
We are all filaments connected in this great web! Our energy vibrations affect each other.
When you calm yourself and your vibrations, you heal the world and help create a more peaceful planet for all beings.
Betty’s note: You can find many simple energetic calming techniques on YouTube. I like those from Donna Eden.
In times of trouble, times of grief, reconnect with the earth, your home, the solid foundation of your physical life.
Reconnect with her flowing waters, rhythmic waves, rooted trees, plant life of all descriptions, strong winds, thunderstorms, dense stones, fertile soil, her buzzing, flying, gliding creatures. Lay your body in the damp sand of a beach, the grasses beneath a large tree.
Lean against me and those of my tree community. Let us support you. Let us heal your spirit.
We are not inert unfeeling masses of atoms laidout in various interesting patterns, but living breathing knowing energetic beings who share this planet with you, who benefit when you thrive.
Let yourself reconnect with the joy and delight of childhood as you lay in the grass, smelling a sweet clover blossom as if for the first time, observing a firefly at dusk, looking up in awe at the moon and stars.
Know once again, and feel the peace, oneness, and belonging to our earth that will heal and renew your tired spirit.
Dear ones, when you are hurting, let nature soothe you. When you need a rest, let nature refresh you. When you need space, let nature provide a refuge.
Pair of geese swimming in the evening
When your heart grieves, nature gently embraces you with her fresh greens in spring, her new shoots, her bursting growth, flowing water, swiftly moving cloud formations, impromptu thunder showers that threaten, break with intensity, then dissipate and roll away to the east, leaving a pure blue sky.
Let nature soothe your soul with the deep rich colors of autumn, the dappled and shifting shade on a hot summer day.
In winter, the deep silence enfolds you, even in the coldest cruelest months there is a stark beauty , an elegance of light and dark of bare reaching branches against the pure white snow. Breathing the pure clear air, walking through the quiet woods, moving your body can bring serenity to your day.
Snow covered wildflower
Once again in spring the wildflowers open and share their delicate beauty with all who take the time to notice. You see a haze of pale green about the woods as new leaves unroll.
Nature can soothe with her steady rhythms, the stream, deep and running fast in spring, frozen in winter, always new yet ancient, timeless. Changing seasons, the return of geese and ducks and robins, nest building season, times of incubation, hatching, fledging and flight.
Let yourself lean back against a tree and absorb the loving energy, feel the solidity, let it anchor you to the earth. Here you can create a stronghold for your heart and mind and body. Here you will find a peaceful refuge when times are hard, a place of solitude, renewal, and safety.
Pay attention to your feelings as you commune with nature. Playful squirrels might bring laughter and fun, the bright colored songbirds might help you feel hopeful, the drumming of the woodpeckers and their bright markings, the breeze through the branches can give you a backdrop of peace. Twin fawns observing you from a thicket can bring a sense of awe.
Let nature soothe, heal, comfort ,and restore you. In every moment, you will find a new possibility in her healing powers to discover and appreciate.
Allow yourself time in nature each day. Take her in through your senses to renew and restore your life.
Can you imagine with your heart and mind and all your senses, your body dissolving and becoming one with a stream of water? First, imagine yourself there in the stream, floating. Feel the silky water supporting your body as you float.
Now breathe and relax any tension in your head and face, your neck, shoulders, trunk, arms and hands, back, buttocks, legs, feet and toes.
Feel your physical reality gently dissolve and merge with the stream of water, allowing more and more space between your cells, letting any pain or anxiety drain away, releasing all worry, all fear, just letting yourself be. Don’t worry about breathing as water, it will come naturally.
Sunlight on shallow water
Can you imagine your cells gently becoming water droplets and moving easily with the flow of the current? Can you imagine yourself growing transparent? How does it feel, smell, look and sound like?
Nothing is more relaxed! You are suspended in the water, one with the water. You are the water!
There is nothing you have to do, nowhere to be, nothing to grasp, clutch, hold on to or resist. There is no need to hold yourself up, to think or worry or fight against. You float free, allowing the current to carry you.
Can you feel yourself flow easily around boulders, rushing where the stream bed is steep, falling over stone ledges, standing still in deep pools? Can you feel the warm sunlight striking the water and see it bending into the vibrant colors of the rainbow?
Now your stream merges with a larger river. Enjoy the beautiful landscape as you drift past; the trees, the wide river valley, as you flow smoothly, one with the life-giving water.
Now after many hundreds of miles, you enter a huge estuary, full of birds and wildlife of all descriptions, drawn to the life-giving waters. The river widens out and becomes salty as you enter the ocean surf and move out beyond the crashing waves into open water. Finally, you are home, where all water joins to become one. Here you can expand even more, suspended. One with all that is.
Enjoy the sensation of oneness with the water as long as you want to. Allow the water to clear and heal you. Allow it to sustain and support you. Let yourself be.
When you’re ready to call back your physical being and find your way back to solid earth, let your feet touch the floor, tap your cheekbones and chest, breathe.
Revisit this water journey whenever you want to relax and know your oneness with all that is.
Must you intoxicate yourself? If so, intoxicate yourself with the summer day.
Lose yourself in the shifting and dappled shade under a friendly tree, the breeze moving through the grasses like waves on the sea.
Female red winged blackbird
Feed your spirit with the shimmering silver leaves on the crown of a cottonwood tree, birdsong, insect music, cloud patterns, rushing water in the creek weaving patterns in the sand and silt, the scent of wildflowers and tree blossoms…
Come under the influence of the soft morning air embracing you, the hoot owl at dusk, patterns of sunlight and shadow in the leafy neighborhoods, soaring birds riding the thermals, the hot sunlit air…
Surrender to the beating of your heart, the breath flowing in and out of your lungs, the weight of your body and limbs as you let yourself rest, as you allow the earth to support you
Fall in love with the moon waxing to full, filling the night sky with her silvery light, waning to new, repeating her ancient cycle without end.
This is your world, your precious gift. Give yourself to it, body and soul.
Ask Grandmother Cottonwood 