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I'm Steven Webb and welcome to What Arises. This meditation is a companion to today's episode on
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stillness In the storms, where we talked about renewal, about the things that come back to us in life when
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we stop trying to force them.
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Today, we're going to just sit with that, gently, no effort required. You don't have to listen to the podcast
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to benefit from this meditation. So just find a comfortable place to sit, whether you're lying down or sitting.
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Whatever your body is asking for. And when you're ready, let your eyes close or just soften your gaze,
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letting them rest just a few feet in front of you. No focus. Just rest.
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And let's begin where we always start with the body.
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Feel the weight of yourself wherever you're resting the chair, the bed or the floor
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Feel the surface holding you. You
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don't have to adjust anything.
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You don't have to sit up straighter or relax all your shoulders. You don't have to do anything that you
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think meditation requires. Just
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feel yourself be held.
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And now gently just let the body begin to soften.
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Start with the face, the
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muscles around the eyes, your
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jaw. Notice if it's clenched at all. Just let it loosen
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down through the neck
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the shoulders let the shoulders drop
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They've been carrying things all week.
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They can put them down for a few minutes
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down through your chest, the belly, let your belly be soft. Let it rise and fall without you
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managing it
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down through your hips, your legs, and your feet.
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Just a gentle wave of permission moving through the whole body. You
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can hold it all again later. For now, just let it all go
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And now just notice your breathing. You
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don't need to change it. Your body already knows exactly how to breathe. It's
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been doing it beautifully without your help since the moment you arrived.
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Just notice the rhythm, the
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in the
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out,
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The tiny pause between them
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a little gap where nothing is happening at all.
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rest your attention wherever you feel the breath most clearly could
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be the nose, the chest, the belly, and
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just stay there with it,
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like sitting by river watching it flow
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You're not the river. You're
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not trying to change the river. You're just here watching
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Now I want you to try something gently. You don't have to work at this. Just let the question arrive
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and see what happens. Is
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there something in you that's been dormant,
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not something wrong, not a problem, just something that went quiet, something that used to be alive in
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you. Energy, curiosity, tenderness, joy, creativity, hope
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something that's just been sleeping for a while.
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You don't have to name it precisely, you don't have to understand it.
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Just notice there's a sense of something that's been resting underground, out of sight waiting.
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You
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don't have to go to the story with it. Just recognise what it is
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And whatever comes up, or if nothing comes up, that's fine too. Just be with it the way
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you'd be with a garden early spring, you
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wouldn't dig up the bulbs to check if they're growing. You'd just sit nearby and trust or something is happening
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underneath.
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Now I want you to imagine something very simply, very gently imagine a patch
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of dark Earth,
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winter Earth. It's been cold for a long time. The surface is bare. Nothing
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seems to be happening
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And then so slowly you almost missed it. A tiny green chute pushes through
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just the tip, barely visible, fragile but Unmistakably alive.
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It didn't need anyone's permission to appear, it didn't need to be perfect or fully formed. It
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just rose
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Now that that image settle in your chest In
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the heart space
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And consider the possibility that something like that is happening in you right now. Not
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dramatic, not loud just a quiet beginning that you might not have noticed just yet.
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You don't have to do anything with this. That's the key thing. You don't have to pull the shoot up
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faster.
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You don't have to understand where it's going or what it's doing.
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You just have to let it be there.
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The breath is still moving in and out.
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And with each breath, you can imagine warmth, reaching down into the soil,
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not forcing anything, just warmth, just light. Just the quiet conditions that allow things
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to grow in their own time.
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If thoughts come let them come. They're just weather passing through the shoot. Doesn't mind the weather.
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It grows anyway and
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so does whatever is waking up in you
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Spring is beginner's mind visible. Every blossom is seeing the world for the first time.
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Every new leaf is a first leaf. The season doesn't remember last year's spring. It
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just begins again, completely new, completely itself
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The freshness is being here. Right now with nothing to prove and nowhere to go.
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And now gently, I want you to widen your attention one more time
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beyond your body, beyond this room. Outside, wherever you can see it or not. Spring is happening.
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Light is lasting longer, the air is shifting. Things that have been dormant all winter are beginning to
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stir.
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Birds are returning, flowers are opening somewhere nearby a tree that looked dead three weeks
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ago is putting out its first tiny leaves. None
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of it is in a hurry. None
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of it is trying to arrive. It's just arriving quietly. Certainly in its own time,
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The daffodil is not trying to compete with another daffodil. It's just blooming anyway. It
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doesn't complain. It's beside the road. It blooms anyway, and
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you are part of that, not separate from it,
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not watching from the outside. You are part of it. Your body knows the same rooms
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as the trees and the birds
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your body knows the same rhythms as the trees and the birds
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And now generally let's begin to come back, let the images go, the shoot, the garden, the spring,
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let them dissolve like fresh air,
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come back to the body. Your body, the weight of it, the warmth of it,
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the simple quiet fact of being here and breathing alive.
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I'm going to count back from five down to one, and with each number, let yourself return a little more
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to the room, to the morning, to the day ahead, but carry something with you, a
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sense of something arising. Something, returning something you don't have to force. So
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five, just feeling the body again
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four notice the space around you. Three. Gently move your fingers and toes,
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bringing that little energy back into your hands and feet. Two, taking a slightly deeper breath.
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Feeling the subtle flurry onto the present moment. And one, when you're ready, just gently open your eyes and
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look at whatever is in front of you, something that you've never seen before, because it's always different every time
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you see it.
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Not in this light, not in this moment, not in this version of yourself. Everything always changes.
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So welcome back and Happy Spring. Thank you for being here. I'm Steven Webb and this
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meditation is a companion to today's Stillness in the Storms. Episode 162 what Arises You can find
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that wherever you listen to your podcast or at StevenWebb.uk these meditations exist because of kind people
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who support the work with a small donation Thank
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you genuinely to everyone who does that. And to all you listeners, please leave a review.
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Please have a peaceful day. Until next time. Stay open, let things grow, and be kind to yourself.
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Thank you for your support.
