How To Use Nature In Guided Imagery & Guided Meditation

We’re so inundated with overstimulating input from modern life that simply stopping for a while and experiencing what nature has to offer tends to invoke deep relaxation, and a healing response in the body. It’s as if part of us has been on hold, just waiting for the opportunity to open up and relax. Nature can be the doorway. The sights, sounds, and feelings of nature are a boon to guided meditation and guided imagery writing. The feeling of peace and tranquility we experience in natural settings can be readily duplicated in an inner journey, so listening to a meditation with a nature motif tends to be very satisfying. Ocean waves, a walk in the forest, lying in the grass -- beginning with such images make the listener feel very relaxed and open, so she can more easily receive whatever input is offered as the guided meditation script unfolds. Because the brain generally responds to an imagined experience the same way it does to an actual experience, offering the imagined experience of a peaceful setting by a brook make one feel just as relaxed as if he or she were actually there. Nature practically does all the work for us. When writing a guided imagery script, specific details go a long way toward helping the listener put themselves in a nature scene. For example, describing the way a seashell lies half submerged in the sand, or the sound of a sea gull as it passes overhead make everything seem more real. Add to that the smell of the salt air and the feel of an ocean breeze, and the listener becomes virtually transported to the seashore. When you’ve used a nature setting to help the listener feel enchanted, comfortable, and relaxed, they’re so much more likely to be open to suggestion than before they began the guided meditation. At that point, you can easily offer the kinds of positive statements that speak to the goal of the program. No matter whether you’re offering to help the listener let go of fear, or let go of extra pounds, it’s much easier to help them when they’re in a more receptive state of mind. The rhythms of nature, and the inevitable way nature unfolds, also tend to be representative of situations in our lives and the challenges we often face. Metaphors for concepts like letting go, patience, abundance, and change can be illustrated in nature and portrayed as eventually working out for good. For example, the metamorphosis of a caterpillar, or leaves changing only to be renewed in the spring are very relatable to human conditions and situations. So, nature provides us with the sense that no matter what we’re going through, all is in order, and all is well. These are the sorts of messages that can be readily conveyed through guided meditation and guided imagery, when nature is incorporated.