Compose two meditation scrips for each age group and submit. Not sure where to start? Look for inspiration all around you. We will work on these exercises together in sangha lab.

Here are some examples of meditation scripts that are appropriate for adults. Create a meditation script for each age group. Consider reading from a book or describing a piece of art.

Meditation Scripts by Yvonne

Morning Outside Meditation

Gaze into the back of your eyelids and scan your body for any areas of tension you may feel. Soften and relax these areas, relax your face, and begin to take slow deep breaths. Inhale in the promise of the new day you have been gifted, and exhale the worries of yesterday. Allow the breaths to cleanse your energy and soul. Feel the sun warming your skin and listen to the sounds of the earth awakening. Remember that you are one with the universe and with every living thing around you. Every day is another chance to start fresh and live in harmony with all that surrounds you.

Strength Meditation

Strength isn’t always physical. It isn’t the amount you can lift, or the muscles on your body. Strength is also the ability to overcome emotional pain to find your smile. Think of something that has troubled you today. Something that may be heavy on your mind. Create an image that resembles this trouble and visualize it as you gaze into the back of your eyes. Slowly start to see the image fade away with every breath that you take until it has completely disappeared. Inhale love for yourself, exhale any pain or distress. Once you see the image has disappeared, give yourself a hug, and allow yourself to smile for having the strength today to let go.

Comfort

Imagine you are submerged in a body of warm water, your entire body rests comfortably in the water up to your neck. Feel the water hug and hold every inch of your body and allow yourself to become weightless. All yourself to be the water. Water is full of energy. It is sensual, it is soft, yet it can also be powerful and strong. As you become one with the water around you, imagine the water’s energy taking away all that no longer serves you. Allow the water to sweep away the troubles in your mind and replace them with new stronger positive energy. Feel the exchange of these thoughts and feel how you become lighter and lighter in the water when you let go of the negativity weighing you down.

Loving Meditation

Begin in a comfortable position. Relax your body, soften any areas of tension, and take a few deep breaths. Inhale and exhale at your own pace.

Bring to mind a person you love. Think of their face as they smile. What do you feel as this person smiles? Place your hand over your heart and think to yourself “I send you happiness, I send you love.”

Now bring to mind a person you know, but not very well. Again, bring an image of them smiling. Feel their happiness. Repeat to yourself “I send you happiness, I send you love.”

Bring to mind someone you find difficult. Someone who drains your energy. Now, bring to mind an image of this person smiling and laughing. Acknowledge your feelings, and wave them goodbye. Think to yourself, “I send you happiness, I send you love.”

Now, turn your attention to yourself. Imagine yourself smiling, and think of someone or something that makes you smile. Acknowledge how it feels to smile. Now say to yourself, “I will allow myself to be happy, I will allow myself to be loved. “

The sense of love and happiness begins with you. Love yourself just as much as you love the first person that came to mind, and wish everyone else in the world the same love.

Release

Start by taking a full breath. Bring awareness to your breathing and your body. Soften your muscles, relax your body, and allow your breath to ease any areas of tension you may be feeling. Each time you inhale feel your body relax more deeply.

Release any thoughts of activities or errands you may have to do today. Release any worries or planning you have woken up with. Right now, there is nothing to do, no problems to solve. Right now you just have to breathe and relax.

If your mind wanders off, notice where it wanders. Acknowledge it, then bring your attention back to the breath and to a sense of relaxation. Relax more and more deeply, until you become still.

Awareness and Release

Settle into a comfortable position. Bring awareness to your breath and awareness to your body. Focus on your breath, and begin to take slow deep breaths at your own pace. Feel the nourishment of the breath. All yourself to become calm and your mind to relax.

Become aware of something you need right now. Do you need strength, do you need calm, do you need love? Whatever it is you feel you need today. As you inhale, bring in whatever it is you need, and on your exhale just relax. Inhale love, exhale, and relax. Inhale strength, exhale, and relax.

Now bring to mind someone who is struggling. When you exhale offer the person the same thing you are breathing. Whether it be strength, love, or peace. “Breathing in for me, out for you.”

Oneness

Sit comfortably. Close your eyes and be still. Focus on your breath. Slow your breathing, and feel each breath as your chest rises and falls. Sit tall and imagine roots coming from your bottom and growing into the ground beneath you. Inhale in and exhale---ommmm. Repeat. Om is the universe. Om is around you and inside of you.

As you grow your roots into the earth below you, focus on the space between your eyebrows. Clear your mind as you focus on your third eye, ajna. Do you see any color? Allow any images to come. Acknowledge the image and the way it makes you feel, and then wave it goodbye. On your inhale refocus on your third eye and see what the universe is trying to show you.

Return to the breath when you are ready and close your third eye. Exhale the images away. On your last exhale say Om, again to remind yourself that the universe is in you. You have all the answers you seek.

Body Scan

Make yourself comfortable, whether seated or lying. Begin by taking a few deep breaths and allowing your body to relax. Become aware of the sensations in your body. Where it is warm, where it feels cold, or where you may feel tension. Now, notice the state of your mind. Do you feel calm, do you feel anxious? Are you feeling joyful?

Bring attention to your feet. Consider how they have allowed you to relate to the world and how they are close to the earth. Send them some gratitude.

Move your attention throughout your body: up your legs, hips, belly, back, shoulders, arms, hands, neck, face, and head. As you travel up your body, recognize each part of you for the work it has done to bring you to this point in your life. Send some gratitude to the physical body for allowing your spiritual body to grow beyond its physical limitations.

Presence

Sit in a comfortable position and allow awareness to fill your body. Let your mind become relaxed and clear. Slow your breath and inhale and exhale at your own pace. Release any concerns about the future or the past, and give yourself permission to be here. Rest in the stillness of the present moment.

Become aware of the sensations throughout your body as you breathe. Now bring awareness to the abdomen. Breathing in, notice how the belly naturally rises. And notice how it naturally falls as you breathe out.

When your mind wanders, simply return your attention to your breath. Allow each breath to be a meditation in itself. Awaken with each inhalation, and release what no longer serves you on your exhale.

Allow yourself to be your breath, be still, and be mindful of this moment. Be still…

Healing

Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Scan your body for any areas of tension you may be holding. Allow the area to soften and relax.

Scan your feelings. Is there any part of you that is asking for healing attention right now? A feeling of being stuck, an internal conflict, or something that is causing you to worry. Breathe in, and be willing to experience that part of yourself. Breathe out, and allow the feeling to float in the middle of a space of kindness. Consider the universal physical and emotional difficulties of life. Inhale the longing to remove universal suffering, and exhale warmth and healing to all.

Now rest in the loving awareness that is innate in you.

Overcoming Difficulty

Lay in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Relax on the floor, softening any areas of tension in your body. Breathe softly and deeply at your own pace. Allow yourself to melt into the floor and into the space around you.

Briefly bring to the center any worries or difficult situations you may have recently encountered. Allow yourself to feel the emotions caused by these thoughts and situations, and acknowledge the difficult feelings that may arise. Now, place both hands over your heart. Understand that you are not alone when you feel this way, and you are never alone in your suffering. Send yourself compassion and love, and ask the universe for healing energy and kindness. Turn onto yourself and lay in a fetal position. Remember that being a healer or helper sometimes requires that you heal and help yourself. Do not get so distracted by helping others that you forget to have compassion for yourself. Hug yourself, and remember that healing starts with you.

Letting Go

Find a comfortable position, whether sitting or lying down, and gently close your eyes. Relax your eyelids and your face, drop your tongue away from the roof of your mouth, and begin to breathe. Release tension from your shoulders and drop them away from your ears, Place your palms down on your knees or ground. Scan your body for any other areas of tension you feel. With every inhale image the breath eases areas of tension and is carried away with every exhale. Slowly deepen every inhale and feel your chest rise and your ribs expand from the breath, and with every exhale feel them release and return closer to your heart. Deep inhale in... Slowly exhale out.

Picture yourself sitting deep in the middle of a beautiful forest. The trees are tall and full of lush green leaves and circle all around you and as far as you can see. The ground is covered with old leaves and pieces of broken branches and bark shed from the trees year after year. Directly beneath you sits a patch of soft green moss. Ground your sits bone onto this patch of moss and imagine roots coming from beneath you and becoming one with the forest. With every breath, the roots grow longer and deeper until they join the roots of the surrounding trees in a beautiful web of life.

Gaze into the back of your eyelids, what is it that you see? Do you see the tree with all its branches full of leaves standing proudly in all its glory? Look at the sun beaming through the branches and feel the warm rays of sunshine as they hit your face. Now, look closer at this tree. Do you see the broken branch hanging down from one side? You were looking so hard at the tree’s beauty, that you didn’t notice this little branch hanging there, did you? As you stare at this tree, listen for the wind gently blowing through the leaves. Every time the wind blows, the branch breaks just a little bit more. The tree is trying to hold on to the branch with little threads, and the wind is trying to remind the tree that it no longer needs.

Now, imagine that branch being something in your life that makes you feel broken or is weighing you down. Imagine that every time the wind blows, it is trying to take away this broken piece of you with it. But you are just being like this big beautiful tree, and still trying to hold on. Whatever it is that is weighing you down may feel large and bothersome to you, but in reality, it is like a small little branch hanging there ready to fall. I want you to imagine that on your next deep inhale, when you exhale, your breath is strong like the wind and will blow that broken branch off the tree and carry it away deep into the forest. Ready… EXHALE LIKE YOU ARE BLOWING THE BRANCH AWAY and blow until your lungs are empty…..Now, Say to yourself, “Goodbye branch, I will no longer let you weigh me down. “ Repeat this mantra with every breath until you feel it is truly gone.

When you are ready, bring your hands to the heart center, feel your breath and your beating heart with your hands, wiggle your fingers and toes, and awaken your body. Take one last deep breath and repeat one last time…” Goodbye branch, I am ready to grow” open your eyes as you walk out of the forest leaving the branch behind. 

TIP: Visit an art gallery for a field trip to get inspiration for meditation scripts.