Good evening everybody. It's Megan here from the webinar vet. So it would just be myself this evening guiding you through to meditations as Mike is unable to attend this month.

So he's actually, he's away and I've actually, I'm actually sat in Spain at the moment very lucky, so I made a spontaneous trip. It was very last minute to join my mother out here and spend some time with her and today's meditation is actually . Due to the spontaneity and related to summer, so it's going to be a summer meditation about embracing the summer, and which is, as I say, I was inspired by this trip and then following that we are going to do a lovely progressive relaxation, also known as a body scan as well.

So just getting yourself comfortable, you might want to sit up for the first meditation and then lie down for the second one. So as always, just making sure that you're nice and comfortable. You've got any cushions that you need to just make yourself that little bit of extra comfort.

So the first meditation, as I say, it is related to summer. So we're in the height of the summer now. I'm not too sure what the weather's like at home.

I know it's quite rainy when I left. But we have been very lucky up to now with the weather, which has been really nice. So I think the first time in a long time we've really felt the summer, because the weather does make a big difference.

I'm very lucky, as I say, I'm here in Spain in the middle of nature. It's absolutely beautiful. I can hear the birds outside.

I can see the trees outside the window, and I'm really surrounded by by beauty and obviously the sun as well, so it really helps to just find that peace and relaxation. And it comes a lot easier and you do find it comes a lot easier when you take yourself to nature. So what we'll be doing in our meditation is taking ourselves to nature.

So although you may not be Looking out the window into nature, you may be in the city, wherever you may be, just knowing that you can take yourself off to somewhere beautiful in nature through our meditation. So that's what we'll, I'll be guiding you through and also leading you to To discover what lights you up, what creates that excitement and enthusiasm for yourself personally. So, coming from, again, I always try to bring in the seasons, that's through my seasonal yoga training.

Each season is linked to to organs, so the summer is actually about the heart. And this morning in testing but focusing on the heart. It's about that fire energy, that love, and you know, socialising, spending time outdoors, and with the lighter nights, we often tend to go to bed later and wake up a bit longer so we have longer days, and it is that high energy of the high energy of the summer and spending time with loved ones and spending time what we love as well.

So that's just the, what's inspired me for this evening's meditation. The first one, so say just come into a nice comfortable seat, cross legs, or if you're sat on a chair, whichever is comfortable for you. And as always, wherever that position is just making sure that you're nice and relaxed, but you're upright, so.

To find that nice upright position, trying to stack the shoulders above the hips, which may mean that you're tilting the torso a little bit further back than you normally would. If you're sat in a chair routing the feet to the ground. If your crossed legs just begin to relax the legs.

And then close the eyes softly if that feels comfortable, otherwise just lowering the gaze, but for this meditation, it will help to close the eyes, it'll help you to. Create that imagination a little bit better with the eyes closed. You're slightly rolling the shoulders down the back, lengthening all the way through to the top of the head.

And then when you're ready, just beginning to breathe in and out. So connect into the breath and focusing on the breath. Just noticing as you breathe in and out how the body begins to relax.

So just the minds. We're so busy and we're rushing around, we forget to focus on the breath and when we just sit and stillness or stop just for a moment and just breathe and just notice. So quickly that the body and the mind just begin to relax that little bit more.

And then just noticing any sounds. Surrounding you, maybe in the room, maybe outside, be on the building just observing any sounds that you can hear. The sound of my voice, perhaps the beds in the background.

Coming upstairs and just noticing. And then bring the attention inwards. Listen to any sounds in the body, the sound of the breath.

Just internalising that awareness. I just invite you to Picture a place or favourite place in nature. First thing that comes to mind, your favourite place could be next to a river in the forest.

On the beach. Somewhere in nature. Somewhere that has happy memories, you feel comfortable.

It may be close to you or it may be far away. It could be anywhere in the world. Did you take yourself to that favourite place in nature?

Just begin to observe your surroundings. You observe and we're in the summer, so wherever that place that you've picked the sun is shining, you can feel the sun on your face. It could be a light breeze.

Blowing on your blowing air on the body and the hair. Just upset in the surroundings. Are you walking?

Are you sitting? Are you sat beneath the shade to protect yourself from the sun, or perhaps? So it's beating down.

Could be standing barefoot, feeling the grass underneath the feet. Perhaps you can hear the trickling water or the birds chirping in the trees in the distance. May even smell the scent of the flowers.

Just breathing in some air. And settling more deeply into your relaxed negative state. Did you picture yourself in this beautiful place in nature in the summer, just begin to.

Connect to the heart and the mind. What this summer can bring. And just begin to ask yourself a few questions.

What lights you up or makes you come alive? What is it that you do that really lights you up for? Makes you feel alive.

What ignites your creativity. Ask yourself what environment do you thrive in most? What do you love doing?

What would you like to create or transform this summer? So we ask ourselves those questions, just begin to wonder. You're a bit more spontaneous, what would you do?

And perhaps it means breaking away from your current routine. To try something new, exciting. If you could create anything in your life, what would it be?

And then again, you can begin to explore. It could be to travel someplace new, take a weekend trip away. Take up a new hobby.

Painting, gardening. Or it could be to make new connections through social groups, activities. Becoming a bit more social.

Perhaps that means saying yes. Some things that normally you would say you're too busy for. Just taking a moment to explore.

There's questions. Still keeping in mind what it is that lights you up and. Ignites that in a creative creativity that we all do have.

As you begin to explore the answers, just invite you to create an image removing. A clip from watch yourself as an observer. Embracing some of these new activities.

During the season of summer. Observe as you watch yourself perhaps interacting with others, taking new adventures. Turing to that.

Childlike nature. If you sit back and observe and Begin to ask What it is that you could do to make it a reality? What action could you take?

It's different from how you are living now. Just to Exploring those questions for me. Just begin to explore any emotions that come up as you.

Begin to ask yourself what is that, what steps you could take. And how you would feel taking these steps, just begin to explore and notice what emotions come up. Both taking the steps, those changes in all.

The life you're living now, but also in the outcome. So how does it feel? Any emotions, any feelings and sensations that come up?

Taking that step to create a change and then also. Exploring What sensations arise once you've taken that step and you're beginning to enjoy. What it is that lights you up, that creates that inner creativity.

Then I'll just invite you to Begin to make a commitment to So at least one of these things could be. New thing every day, which is a big commitment, perhaps a week. Just even one thing this summer.

One spontaneous thing that Brings you happiness, excitement that's Stepping out of that routine that we. Create for ourselves. I'll leave the meditation there.

You're ready, just begin to take a few slower, deeper breaths. Saving that rise and fall of the tummy and chest. When you're ready, you can begin to open your eyes.

Well done. That was our summer meditation. So it's a little bit different to, to take it in the way, bit different to that mindfulness, mindfulness meditations that we normally do is a little bit different.

But I just, it's an invitation as well and perhaps anything that came up during that, meditation you might want to write down so you can reflect on it later after this evening's meditation. Because something may come up that's. That you that came to your mind for igniting that passion, that fuel for creativity that you wouldn't normally think would.

So if there was anything you, you might want to write it down and come back to it later. If there's anything that you'd like to share, feel free to put any questions out or just even share what it is that you got from your meditation. It's always nice to to hear any new thoughts or any questions.

And One thing I did want to say that those when we begin to explore and look at. What it is that something spontaneous that creates that excitement creates ignites that in the light in us. Just making sure that it's things that fulfil us.

Because I often. During the summer we do have a, we often have more energy, so it might be maybe someone who is spontaneous who during the summer does socialise a lot more and do a lot more do a lot of new activities and that's fantastic but also. Making sure that we don't burn out as well, so having that time to relax and making sure that we We do have some downtime, which is what leads me to the next meditation, which is the body scan, which is something nice to do.

At the end of the day we, we had a long day waking up early, going to bed later, and the body scan is just, it brings us down and that high energy of the summer also brings that energy down and obviously. A lot of people do suffer with sleeping during the summer because of the heat and also because of the light. So a body scan is a really lovely one just to do before you go to sleep.

So I thought that would be nice to finish off after the high energy of the summer and exploring what, what makes us feel creative, and that would be the next one. And obviously With that meditation. As a vet, you have very fulfilling roles already and you're very passionate about that as well.

So with that intention of the summer meditation, it was just exploring and seeing if there's something else as well. So being bringing out the creativity side, which could be, an activity, a sport, painting, so that was just to explore something else as well alongside what you already do. OK.

So fantastic, thank you. And the next one to say we'll come to our nice relaxing ones, so I would recommend if you can, it's a bit difficult when you've got your headphones on, you can come into a line position. As I say, cause this is a nice one to do before you, before you go back.

So just lying down and recommend that you have the feet path. And I'm sorry, let me just get back onto this. There we go.

You have the feet apart, so the feet generally wider than knees that just helps to open up the hips a little bit more relaxed and you might even want to pop some pillows underneath the knees, which is always nice, and also underneath the arms as well and underneath the head. So doing any adjustments that you need and you, it's also good to have the palms facing up, just helps to open up the shoulders a little bit more. When you're doing the body scan, it's a lot easier to do than if you're on your side.

If you are, if you decide to do this before. You go to sleep then I do recommend that this is the position that you lie in. It may feel a bit odd at first, but it definitely helps.

And whenever I do this, I always fall asleep. So, finding your comfortable position, hopefully you've managed to do that already. And then again you can begin to close the eyes, that just helps to bring the focus internalising it.

And then again, bringing the attention to the breath, so. If you can prolong the inhale and exhale, so. This deep will always encourage a deep lung inhale and deep lung exhale.

The reason being it reduces the amount of air flow into the body. And that is what stimulates the para parasympathetic mode, which is that rests, that digest. So we're slowly allowing the the air to enter into the body and then slowly releasing it.

Don't worry too much, so don't worry about attaching to this type of breathing, but if it comes natural to you, then just begin to extend and deepen that inhale and exhale. We're lying down, it's quite nice you can Often feel the in breath and out breath a little bit easier than when you're sitting up so you can feel that rise of the tummy and chest as you're breathing. And fall as you breathe out, chest and the tummy softenly fall.

So again, just connect into that breath. And we're gonna start this body scan at the top of the head, so the very, very top of the head. So just bringing the focus and the awareness to the top of the head, to the top of the scalp.

Whole of the scalp, the whole flesh on the head, the back of the head, the backs of the ears coming all the way up the back of the head to the forehead, down the forehead, across the eyebrows, the eyes, all the little muscles around the eyes, down the nose, the cheekbones, the upper lip, the bottom lip, and the jaw. Allowing all of this all of things to release, relax. All those tiny muscles just to relax.

Little by little. Sometimes it helps to bring the tongue to the roof of the mouth to release and relax any tension in the jaw. Slightly part in the lips.

It's soft And the nose and the ears begin to relax. Bringing the awareness down. Beneath the chin, down the neck.

Travelling across the shoulders, hold a lot of tension here in the shoulders, so just beginning to explore, noticing any tension that you may still be holding in the shoulders. You might want to do any slight adjustments in the shoulders, maybe pulling the scapers apart and then releasing them back down. Just to release any tension that we may be holding here.

And that can travel into the neck and into the head, so it's always good to really focus on. This area. So travelling from the shoulders underneath into the armpits down the inside of the arms.

All the way down to the wrist, the palm of the hands, and then travelling the awareness over the thumbs, forefinger, middle finger. Ringing thing and the little thinger travelling the awareness of the backs, the hands all the way to the back of the hands to the back of the shoulder blades. We're just encouraging both the right and the left arm just to feel heavy and relaxed.

Again, if you need to make any adjustments, the hand, squeeze them together and then open them all out. Just to encourage that relaxation, feel free to do this. Bringing the awareness to the centre of the chest.

Relaxing across the chest again, you can hold a lot of tension here as well. Just exploring, observing. And scanning all the way down from the chest, down the whole of the torso torso.

Besides, the torso again. We're not doing much lateral movement, we can hold a lot of tightness in the side of the body press the lap. Just observing the rib cage, allowing its soft and full.

The backs, the ribs, all the way down the back spine. Releasing and relaxing each vertebrae, the muscles in between each vertebrae. Sinking deeper.

To the ground, just releasing and relaxing. Travelling all the way down to the back, the lower back. Again spending a little bit of time here exploring.

Of the area of the body that can often be tight. Especially with sat for periods of time. Travelling awareness from the back all the way around the hips to the front of the hips to the pelvis.

Allowing this whole area to release and relax. And scanning the awareness. Down the fronts of the legs, across the thighs, the knees, the shins.

Cross the tops, the feet, and every toe. Big toe, second toe, 3rd toe. 4th and 5th.

Each individual time. Soles of the feet, the heels. The calves, the backs of the knees, backs of the thighs and the glutes.

Again, just encouraging both legs to release. And relax. Just feel heavy on the ground.

And then just taking the awareness of the body as a whole from the very top of the scalp all the way down to the soles of the feet, just observing the whole of the body. Just allowing the ground to hold up the body. And the whole body to just completely relax.

Well done, that was your body scan. So when you're ready, just beginning to deepen the breath again, taking longer deeper inhales into the body. In that rib cage expands and lift as you inhale and soften fall as you exhale.

And then slowly you might want to bring the movement into the fingers, into the toes, gentle subtle movements cause this take you into a deep relaxation. Then when you're ready, taking bigger movements, maybe moving bigger movements with the wrists, with the ankles, bring the knees together, you don't get tangled in the headphone wires. And then often it's quite nice to come onto the side of the body here, so just taking the time to go back to the heart to the right side, resting on the right side of the body.

Or feel free to just stay exactly where you are. And then eventually you can come to a seated position again or just say. Lying there and maybe you can have a little snooze.

So fantastic. Well done. That was the body scan, as I say, just a nice one to come so we did a bit for energising, working with the fire energy without spontaneity and just discovering the summer season, then also having that time to relax, which is so important so that we don't burn out during summer.

So I hope you enjoyed this evening's two meditations, and if anyone has any questions, always feel free, you know, to pop those in and also after the sessions because often it is when we begin to reflect, perhaps we start to write in the journal that we do have questions that come about so you know you can always email in if you do have any of those. But we're coming to the end and that is, yeah, that's our meditation session finished. So thank you so much and I hope you have a beautiful rest of your Sunday and a wonderful week ahead and hopefully you'll get some time to spend outside in nature, but if not, you can always come to your meditation and take yourself there.

So thank you very much and I'll see you on next month's August meditation session. Thank you very much. Good evening.