This is one of my favourite meditation from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It is simple yet very beautiful and profound. There are 4 parts to this meditation, you can do them all as one practice, or just do a particular one whenever the need arises during your day.
Flower. Fresh.
Visualise yourself as a flower, a beautiful flower. Feel the freshness of this flower. Breathing this way, we refresh ourselves, our flower, so we can be pleasant to ourselves and to others. Take care of your flower.
Breathing in… I see myself as a flower.
Breathing out… I feel fresh.
Often we lose touch with our inner beauty, we see beauty in everyone else but ourselves. Humans are born flowers; we are all born with beauty, peace, joy and love within us. When we connect with this innate beauty and love that is our essence, we feel peaceful and we feel happy. Become a flower, feel its freshness, feel its beauty, feel its love.
Breathing in… I see myself as a flower.
Breathing out… I am beautiful/I feel loved.
Mountain. Solid.
Imagine yourself as a tall and majestic mountain. Mountains are solid and very grounded; they are stable and unmovable. Feel this solidness and stability of your mountain.
Breathe the solidness into your body, breathe the stability into your mind. When you are stable, nothing can shake you, no emotions or thoughts can knock you down. When you are solid, you feel strong and you grow certainty. I like to use this when I feel vulnerable, or when I need to overcome strong emotions.
Breathing in… I see myself as a mountain.
Breathing out… I feel solid.
Water. Reflect.
See yourself as a still lake, clear and serene. When the water is still, you can the reflection clearly, you can see things as it is. When there are ripples in the water, what is being reflected is distorted, it does not reflect the truth. With your breathing, calm the ripples of your mind, of your heart, so that you can see clearly what is going on with clarity and truth; so that you can see things as it is, not as it seems to be.
Breathing in… I see myself as still water.
Breathing out… I reflect things as they are.
Space. Free.
As you breathe, connect with the infinite cosmos, the endless universe. Feel the vastness of space and the sense of freedom it brings. Breathe this vastness into your heart, open up your heart with each breath. Let go of all the tension, all the clinging, all the worries and regrets. Feel yourself as space, as part of the grand cosmos. Allow everything you carry in your heart to dissolve and become small and mundane. When we give ourselves space, we also give those around us space. I like to use this when I feel overwhelmed and whenever I find myself being overwhelming.
Breathing in… I see myself as infinite space.
Breathing out… I feel free.
Hilsue Wong 