Mindful Story Time

Optional Introducton to the Story to prepare us for our journey

Sit comfortably or lie down, whatever is most comfortable for you… you may close your eyes or keep them open. If you wish to keep your eyes open, then do not focus on anything, just keep your eyes soft and gaze down to relax them…

Feel yourself grounding in this present moment, here and now… Feel the force of gravity acting upon your whole body… feel it anchoring you down deeper and deeper…

Now, notice your breathing. Without any judgement, is it shallow… or deep… heavy… or light? Just observe your breath…

Next, breathe in feeling your belly rising slowly… Observe the top of your inhalation… Then let the air out slowly relaxing your physical body… observe the end of your exhalation and how it makes you feel…

Take a second, slower breath in, do so mindfully… feel your belly rising… your chest rising… Observe how it feels when you reach the top of your inhalation… Then breathe out releasing any mental stress… Observe the end of your exhalation and what is your mind thinking on…

Now, take a last breath in, this time even slower and deeper, enjoying the perfect combination of molecules in the air that nourish you… mindfully notice your belly and chest rising and expanding… Hold for an instant… Then breathe out releasing any burdens from your emotional heart space…

Turning your attention inward…observe how you feel in your physical body… the mental space… the heart center… It is important to notice… Observe it, don’t worry about it, just observe… maybe you are calm or restless… happy or sad… or maybe you feel somewhere in between… either way, do not judge or critique, simply know that this practice will meet you where you are and support your wellbeing…

Keep breathing soft, mindful and deeply… and with each exhalation, release and let go a little bit more than before…

Let our Guided Meditation through Space now begin…

Imagine we are walking on the Earth, we can feel the soft grass… a nice breeze… the warming sunshine on our skin… we imagine ourselves being explorers of the cosmos wearing a space suit. We feel energized by our adventure about to begin and embark on a journey through our imagination.

We take a big jump, so high and fast that we start to exceed the escape velocity of the Earth, and are able to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth… We begin to move deeper into space.

Deeper in space, the environment changes. Can you feel it in your skin? The temperature outside the suit is really cold, but inside your spacesuit the temperature is just perfect. Not too hot and not too cold.

We breathe in… and we see Earth, the entire Earth. It is our home. She is our Mother Earth. Everything we love, everything we know is there… We feel a deep awe in our heart center. She looks so beautiful in her earth colors, forest greens and ocean blues… with soft white clouds surrounding her.

We only see one Earth… there is no separation between countries… we see either land or water with no barriers between them. We see a planet. An incredible planet that has been able to give birth to humans like our families and all the families before us… we realize how much the Earth has given us for millions and billions of years… We feel grateful to be part of this living planet.

We keep breathing in mindfully, and as we exhale we relax and release a little bit more.

We see our planet becoming smaller and smaller as we get farther and farther away… we see the Moon close to the Earth like they are dancing together… and we feel awe at their connection. They are bound together by this invisible connection… Our Earth and its one and only Moon are tidally locked to each other as they move through the universe in a cosmic dance… They are truly beautiful…

As we continue to connect with our breath, we feel how we are floating in space, we feel weightless… floating in awe… our bodies relax… every part of our body lets go of any earthly restraints… We are safely free floating across space and enjoying the most beautiful sights ever seen…

Breathing in slowly and mindfully, as we breathe out, relax and release even more…

We can see the Sun now… carefully as always, we want to protect our eyes. We notice there is no day or night time and wonder how so…? The answer lies in our atmosphere. When we are on Earth, we are under the protection of our Earth’s atmosphere… Our atmosphere scatters the light of the Sun making the days bright with sunshine… but from the perspective of outer space, there is no day or night, only the planet traveling across the universe within our solar system.

From space, we can see the stars clearly, they don’t twinkle… We notice now how other planets are becoming visible as our Earth looks smaller and smaller…

Closer to the Sun, we see Mercury and Venus…If they were either in front or back of the Sun, we could not see them anymore… they get lost under the Sun’s umbrella. They are only visible from our perspective when they are not in front or behind the Sun.

Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest in the Solar System, is only a little bit bigger than the Moon. It has almost no atmosphere, so just like from Space, we can always see the stars, even when it is daytime. If we were able to lay down on Mercury we would feel our bodies lighter than on Earth, This is because gravity depends on Mass and Mercury has less mass than Earth. If we were able to be there with no space suit we feel extremely hot if the Sun is reaching our bodies, but if we are on the shade of a crater for example, we would freeze. Mercury, just like the Moon, makes us feel extreme temperatures, and the reason for this is the lack of greenhouse gases.

Breathe in slowly and as you breathe out release and let go a little bit more…

We jump from Mercury and notice that the escape velocity here is less than on Earth, so it is easier to continue our journey, this time to Venus…

Venus looks so incredibly beautiful from Earth, but getting closer to Venus shows us a different reality. Venus is the hottest planet of the Solar System, hotter even than Mercury. And unlike Mercury and the Moon, it is always hot, at daytime and nighttime. The reason for this is the incredibly thick atmosphere and the greenhouse gasses in it. Some of those gasses are in the form of sulfuric acid clouds, so, if we were able to smell Venus, it would smell like rotten eggs.

We breathe in and as we exhale we release and let go even more than before…

Now Mars is visible. We see it! It looks like a red planet moving around the Sun. We stop here for a moment to wonder about Mars' history. There used to be water and now it is very dry. We wonder about impermanence, and how rock solid planets can still have fragile systems… It helps us appreciate how beautiful it is to live on Earth in a time where she is full of hospitable life. We realize how delicate life is, and so we awaken to the desire of protecting our home planet. In this journey we are on, we get to see the planets moving around the Sun… we are far enough that we can appreciate this.

As we continue our imagination journey through space, we wave hello to other explorers, the rovers Curiosity, Ingenuity and Perseverance as we pass by Mars and approach the asteroid belt.

With our protective spacesuit, we breathe calmly as we move through the asteroid belt. The asteroids are really far apart from each other, so we can move through them easily. We start to notice how huge the solar system truly is…

We continue breathing mindfully as we move even farther away, exploring deeper into space… How are we feeling? Are we filled with New Understanding and Awe!? or are we frightened because we are really far away from our Earth? Maybe we are having both feelings…? Or maybe we know everything is okay - this is our imaginary journey in the Solar System and we are perfectly fine… we know we can come back to our beautiful Mother Earth any time we want to… Earth gives us constant support in every imaginable way… we are beginning to appreciate her more than ever before…

Let us take a slow, deep breath in and appreciate the rich vastness of space… the Earth looks smaller and smaller as we get farther and farther away… but somehow she looks even more special…

We reach Jupiter… and we see the colors of Jupiter’s atmosphere, the stripes with different shades of brown and red… we can see it all with the eyes of our minds. We see its faint rings… We also see the Big Spot, a huge storm on Jupiter’s atmosphere that is even larger than our home planet… We see so many Moons orbiting Jupiter… it looks amazing… but within all those Moons, we recognize the 4 Galilean Moons! Those Moons are so large and so interesting… On the moon Io there are many volcanoes, we can even see a volcano erupting cryo lava. Jupiter is a fascinating planet… How lucky we are to have seen it up close…

Now take a slow, sweet breath in, and as you breathe out release even deeper than before feeling even more weightless and relaxed…

With our next slow breath in, we look forward to the view of the next planet, Saturn.

Saturn is known for its big and impressive rings. We observe that it is not the only one with rings, Jupiter also had them, but the rings in Saturn are truly astounding. We observe how they are made from particles that range from the size of a grain of sand to large rocks or even the size of mountains. We observe with awe because from Earth they look so smooth, and from here we can see how different they all are, their hues and textures.

This new perspective of truly seeing things as they are here on Saturn, reminds us of how on Earth we can see countries and cultures as unique and different, but when we see the planet from up above we see one planet with Earthlink, with us, with everyone and everything being part of a common place. We notice how we are all connected no matter where we are from. In reality, we are all one humanity…

We breathe again even more mindfully than before… and as we breathe out, we relax even more enjoying our journey through space…

This time we arrive at the icy giant, Uranus. It is a strange, unique world… It seems that it might have gone through a big collision in the past, because it is tilted in a way that its pole points directly at the Sun. It is the only planet in the Solar System that has its pole pointed directly at the Sun during its summer solstice, and directly away from it at its Winter solstice. Can you imagine what it would be like to experience seasons if our Earth poles were point directly toward or away from the Sun?

Breathing in mindfully and slowly… with our next deep exhalation, we reach the last planet in the Solar System, Neptune.

Neptune is another icy giant, with rings as well, and the farthest away from us. We are now a long way from home, we can’t even see our planet from here. How does it feel to notice that our home planet looks so small from here that we can not even see it? Everything we know, everyone that means something to us, all the animals that we know are there, in that pale blue dot that from here, we can’t even see.

As we visit Neptune so far away from home, we realize we are not citizens of just one nation, but we are humans, citizens of that pale blue dot traveling through unknown space. We are Earthlings, one humanity, different, varied, filled with many values, goodness, kindness, curiosity, ingenuity and perseverance, and so very rich because of it.

As you feel your wholeness, breathe in feeling more expanded than before, and as you exhale, release all the boundaries of the mind…

We have explored our Solar System, and now it is time to go back to our home… we take a last deep breath from here, we are present in this place in the universe, we observe how we feel from here… with our next exhalation we start to come back to Earth.

As we get closer we pass by Neptune, and get to Saturn, from here we can see a very small blue dot, that is home, our planet is there, my country is there, my house is there, my family is there. We take a moment to appreciate all that we have on Earth. What we have and are is bound to the one planet Earth…

We are still moving through space, we are still passing by Jupiter and its moons, by the asteroid belt, and by Mars. We can see Earth better now, we breathe deeply as we get closer and closer each time.

We know of Venus and Mercury, they lie beyond the Earth closer to the Sun. We will not pass by them now… We are coming Home to Earth…

We can now see the water and the land, we breath in with a little joy in the heart, and we get closer. We see that some land is dry, and some is green, there are forests and deserts and oceans. We breathe… there are cities, animals are flying and walking and swimming. There is water, There are thousands of different, beautiful flowers and plants, there is one Life in so many forms! A life that we want to respect and protect. A life that we love. A life that we are a part of!

We take a deep breath as we move closer to our house. We notice we are not wearing a space suit anymore. We reach the place we were when we left. We continue breathing and notice how we feel now that we are Home…

Our Mindful Meditation through Space has now ended.

Feel again the ground under you, supporting you dearly… bringing your awareness back to your physical body, begin to stretch gently… your hands and feet… Take a moment to just sit and observe how you are feeling… what has shifted or changed within you?

And slowly begin to open your eyes.

Namaste.