The birds are singing, the grasses are sprouting, and the days are becoming deliciously longer. It's spring in Sedona!

This past weekend marked the passing of the spring equinox - one of the days when all places on Earth experience equal days - 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. From here on out - at least in the northern hemisphere - we are sailing into warmer days and a renewal of life.

So dig in! I have a seasonally attuned meditation to share with you in today's video - one that will help you pull the energy of spring up into your body so you, too, can bring forth new and vibrant life energy to your being.

Enjoy!

Hi friends it's Michele Mattix of Sedona Meditation Experiences with another episode of Sedona Meditation Adventures. This is my mostly weekly show where I come out and explore the beautiful terrain of Sedona Arizona and places in the region while exploring the inner terrain of yourself and exploring tools like meditation and mindfulness.

Thank you for joining me this week. It's lovely to have you here. And happy spring! This is the first spring, 2021, episode of Sedona Meditation Adventures. We just had the spring equinox this weekend. And what a beautiful time of year it is.

The spring equinox, of course, is the time of year when we move into a longer period of day length in the northern hemisphere. On the spring equinox, it's when day and night have equal lengths. That's literally what ‘equinox’ means in Latin - equal night. So 12 hours of day 12 hours of night everywhere on the planet. And then as we continue to move around the sun towards summer our northern hemisphere days will get longer and the nights shorter so it's a lovely time of rebirth and all the beauty that springtime brings.

It is still a little early - we just had some snowfall in Sedona last week and we may yet have more, but it is technically spring so happy spring to you. What happens here in spring everywhere is life starts to pop up out of the earth. Little plants - little grasses, the trees start to slowly bring more moisture and little leaves start to bud out - some trees a little earlier than others. But life starts to pop up and it's a great time for you to be in rhythm with that within your own self.

Winter is the time of rest where we kind of go dormant for a while and with spring comes rebirth. Spring brings with it the return of water - pulling the moisture up and letting yourself leaf out like a tree or whatever imagery works for you.

So today I'd like to guide you through a meditation to help with that process. This is something that was taught to me by my acupuncturist who I try to see when the seasons are changing as it's a time when the body can be challenged. I just like to make sure everything's running smoothly. He gave me this beautiful meditation to imagine myself like the trees, you know pulling moisture – ‘watering the wood’ he called it - so pulling the moisture up through the tree and up to where the leaves can start to blossom out start to bud out.

The meditation is really that visual. You can imagine that you have roots that are sinking down into the earth pulling the moisture up to rehydrate your body - or the trunk of your tree if you want to think of it that way - and bringing that energy up so that you can blossom and take advantage of this beautiful springtime.

Won't you join me? Make yourself comfortable. If you can do it outside, why not go outside. Find a beautiful spot where you can sit and if you can't do that it's okay to be inside. But give yourself the time and the space to really get into the meditation. Don't do this while you're trying to multitask or certainly not when you're driving a car or operating any heavy machinery. Just devote yourself to the next few minutes of meditation and make yourself comfortable.

And when you're ready go ahead and close your eyes. Let's begin by taking a few long, slow, deep breaths at your own pace. Letting that exhale carry away your worries

Letting yourself sink into this moment that we share together, even though we're separated in time and space - and you can allow your breath to become natural.

And as you watch yourself breathe make any adjustments to your posture. If it feels right you can straighten your spine gently tuck your shoulders back a little to help open your chest. You can tuck your chin in a little to straighten and lengthen the back of your neck. Let the places where you carry tension relax. That may be your tongue and jaw your forehead your shoulders. Stomach and diaphragm. Hips.

And as you breathe at your own rhythm let your breath take you to the places in your body where you need to relax and just let the tension release on the exhale.

And now bring your attention to the energy dropping down through your body all the way down to your feet. The parts of your body in contact with your seat, cushion, the ground.

And let the energy continue down into the earth.

You can imagine that you have roots just like the trees and the grasses and the other plants.

And those roots reach deep down into the energy of the Earth.

Providing not just nourishment and moisture but life force energy.

And you can imagine your roots reaching into the moisture. Moisture that's held in suspension in the soil.

Moisture that's been in the earth all winter and it's ready to come up - up into your body so you can imagine that moisture is coming up those roots. Visualize it flowing up the front of your body.

Slowly pumping its way up to your belly, your chest. Up your throat, your mouth, your nose and eyes - all the way up to the top of your head.

And with each breath you can imagine that flow of moisture - that energy of spring - moving up through your body and feeding the blossoming buds of new life that you can imagine are blossoming from all of your pores.

We'll meditate like this, with this imagery for a few moments.

Visualize that moisture and that spring energy coming up from the Earth, bringing moisture and energy to your body, all the way out to your skin - as if these are your leaves that are just forming and getting ready to bud.

And as you get into the rhythm of this springtime return of moisture and energy just imagine what kind of tree you are - what kind of flowers or leaves are forming under your skin.

How are you expressing the joy and the rebirth of spring within your being?

And though it's not time yet to let that blossom out you're making ready for when that time comes.

And as you make ready, you can imagine what is it that you want to express through your leaves and your flowers and your being.

Let that energy flow through you.

Nourishing your skin. Nourishing your body. And putting you in rhythm with the season.

I'm going to ring the tingshas to bring us out of this meditation.

It's a very simple imagery to imagine the moisture and the energy of spring coming up from the ground, up into your body, and nourishing yourself - bringing you into harmony with the season. It's something you can do these days of early spring.

Thank you for meditating with me today! It's always good to be in harmony with nature and the seasons are an easy way for us to do that. The seasons, the cycles of the moon - these large cycles that we all notice and that are easy to tune into.

Are you going to be coming to Sedona soon? If you are then let's come out and do a meditation experience together! It truly is the meditation experience of a lifetime.

Thank you for joining me this week. I look forward to talking with you again next week. Until then be safe and be well. T