Even though, the World Meditation Day is honored at the same time as the Winter solstice, on Dec 21st, there seems to be another alternative celebration today May 21st too, so I decided to share one of my own meditations that I like doing after practicing an hour of yoga asanas. And, since we’re in the culminating phase of the element of wood, before we enter the element of fire for summer, according to Chinese Medicine, what better opportunity than to mirror this with a guided meditation, visualising being a tree.

Begin by sitting down with your back straight in the lotus position. You can sit on your yoga mat or directly on the floor. You can also sit on a pillow to be more comfortable and make sure your pelvis isn’t tilting. Take a deep breath and fill your lungs. Exhale firmly. Now, begin to breathe softer and slower. Inhale through your nose and exhale
through your nose and throat chakra with your mouth closed. Repeat.

Count your breaths in fours. Inhale and count to four. Hold your breath for four counts. Exhale and count to four. Pause your breath for four counts. Inhale again and continue with this. After a while, it will become your natural way of breathing through the meditation. In the pause, you can feel stillness. Close your eyes.

Turn your focus onto your root chakra. Feel the mat or the floor underneath you, so that you are very present. Then visualize roots coming out from underneath you and into the ground. With every inhale you gather roots, with every exhale you send them deep down.

Feel your spine. Think of it as a tree trunk. Not too stiff, so it can be flexible in the wind. But not slouched either. Sit up on your sitting bones. Connect your spine with your roots.

Now open your crown chakra and visualize how your energy field right above your head, is like the crown of a tree. Feel it opening and expanding. The tree unfolding its leaves and multiplying in a green cascade.

Visualize a channel, like a straw, on top of your crown, going directly up into the sun. Feel it filling up yourself with light and letting it flood all the way into your roots. Perhaps you only feel it above yourself and the roots below yourself. This is fine. With time, when the energy flows freely through your spine, you can embody the
tree. Continue to sit like this and just breathe for a while.

Take a deep breath and open your eyes again. Close with your hands together in prayer position and feel the peace. Namasté!