Calm Down, Chill Out, Come Sit By A Waterfall – A Guided Meditation

by Jean Brannon · Published March 30, 2020 · Updated January 4, 2021

Tags: YouTube Series

Walt Disney

Or, as Nike puts it, “Just Do It”.

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Chinese Proverb

Standing still for a moment, from a Chinese medicine perspective, can help us become more centered and grounded. Yet standing still for too long invites stagnation, stifling our ability to step forward at all. And so to encourage healthy movement toward goals and dreams, practice deep breathing, walking in nature, stretching, and repeating the affirmation, “I am learning, growing, and gaining momentum every day at a pace that’s perfect for me”.

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Theodore Roosevelt

Truly we can psych ourselves into – or out of – anything. From a Chinese medicine perspective, having a strong belief in oneself springs from getting consistent encouragement and approval in childhood. If we routinely hear “I’m so proud of you” or “good job” growing up, we tend to blossom into adults who feel secure enough within ourselves simply to look beyond any obstacles of the moment – and believe in a positive outcome. If you find your self-esteem needs a little shoring up, though, practice deep breathing and affirming “Things are always working out for me” to cultivate a can-do attitude

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Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

From a Chinese medicine perspective, the liver meridian fuels our imaginations and feeds ideas. But if liver energy isn’t well rooted, we can become wishful thinkers instead of action takers. Practice grounding daily through deep breathing, proper nourishment, and getting out into nature.

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Confucius

Dreams need to be big enough to scare us; they must spring from our deepest passions or else they won’t ever burn brightly enough to light us up totally. Yet it’s common to feel overwhelmed while staring at a far-off summit when we have no idea how we can even begin our ascent. From a Chinese medicine perspective, it’s the channels governing digestion that also allow us simply to focus on placing one foot in front of the other. By moving in such a slow and steady way, we learn to be present in the moment at hand as opposed to lamenting the prior pathway or worrying about step #2,164 that lies somewhere ahead. When we eat healthfully, exercise regularly, reduce stress consistently, and allow for progress step by gradual step, we cultivate the balance and patience needed to make even the most daunting dream doable.

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Anonymous

When we suffer loss or disappointment, it’s natural to grieve and reflect on what’s happened. That process is how we heal, and there’s not one way or formula or timeline that feels right for everyone. In Chinese medicine, the lung and large intestine meridians govern grief and letting go. And so breathing issues and digestive difficulties can arise when at some point we can’t seem to stop gazing in the rear view mirror once we again try to navigate this thing called life. Deep breathing and walks in nature can help us remember we must keep our eyes on the road ahead so we can not only start to move forward again – but also begin looking for new blessings coming our way.

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Anonymous

From a Chinese medicine perspective, holding on to what no longer serves is a factor in every imbalance, illness or disease.

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Eleanor Roosevelt

If a dream scares you to the point where you feel you can’t do it, be it, or have it, then energetically speaking that’s a sure sign you are face to face with what you’re destined to do, be, or have. In moments when “cannot” outweighs “can do” in your mind, it’s important to take a step back, take a deep breath, and then take a running leap toward some aspect of your goal. Whether that’s just five minutes of networking, visualizing, exercising, or meditating matters not; what’s important is taking a decisive and doable action that shows your inner Doubting Thomas truly how much you’ve got this!

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Eleanor Roosevelt

Did you ever angst over a pimple in high school? As teenagers, it’s all too easy to become consumed with worry over what others will think of these volcanoes we see erupting over our faces. Yet the truth is every teen is so anxious about his or her own face that nobody really notices anyone else’s acne! From a Chinese medicine perspective, many of us carry this self-consciousness into adulthood due to an imbalanced lung meridian. When it’s not well aspected, the lung’s natural role of boundary setter and minister of discernment can become harshly self-critical and overly concerned with others’ opinions. Developing deep breathing and self-care habits can bring harmony to the lung – and freedom from caring so much about what others think.

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Anonymous

Acceptance can bring a peaceful feeling. Yet from a Chinese medicine perspective, it can also foster complacency if the liver channel is stagnant. Signs that your liver energy may need to move include getting frustrated easily or having lots of unfinished projects or tension headaches. If you’re experiencing this “liver chi stagnation”, it can be helpful to get that energy moving by choosing one aspect of your life where you’d truly like to see a transformation. And then take one action every day that will keep making this change a reality. Before long, you’ll see how your pent-up anger has a welcome new outlet – one that can help you feel happier and healthier on a daily basis.

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“Paralysis by analysis” in Chinese medicine is often a spleen and liver disharmony rooted in poor digestion and stress. Simply eating better and walking for exercise can help you get motivated and moving.

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Jim Rohn

Achieving a goal can seem like pushing a boulder up a mountain. Or it can feel like cruising the Autobahn, with no traffic and no speed limit. Wouldn’t you rather sail along than struggle? From a Chinese medicine perspective, the sustained energy needed for smooth and steady progress toward your dreams is supplied by the same channels governing digestion. So cultivating healthy digestion through proper diet, thorough chewing, daily exercise, and stress management can help propel you forward with the momentum needed to realize your vision. And ultimately lead you to a life that lights you up instead of bogs you down.

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Dave Willis

Being overly critical, from a Chinese medicine perspective, is rooted in an out-of-balance lung meridian. Often born of unresolved grief or loss, judging others can make us habitually so nitpicky that people are more than likely walking on eggshells around us. And yet all folks who continually find fault with others are actually even more relentlessly harsh when it comes to themselves. When we are thus judging, we cannot at the same time be feeling love, and so constant criticism is an energy state that depletes and defeats any momentum we are gaining toward a calm, grounded, and balanced state within. By practicing deep breathing, feeling compassion, walking in nature, and affirming, “All is well and unfolding perfectly according to Divine timing”, we can help soften and shape our Inner Critic into a hopeful, helping hand.

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Henry Ford

What we believe to be true IS true for us. Chinese medicine teaches that daily cultivation is key to positive change. If your beliefs need a boost, then practice turning your awareness toward something that makes you smile every time a doubt arises. Even focusing on one thing that makes you feel grateful can create a can-do attitude!

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Alison Faulkner

We’ve all experienced that Monty Python “wafer thin mint” moment. The point in time when it finally sinks in that we’ve been way over our own internal line in the sand for way too long. Often that stark clarity comes when, metaphorically speaking, our backs are breaking from the burden of carrying around two 60-lb. suitcases. Why do we do that? From a Chinese medicine perspective, an imbalanced lung meridian can lead to low self esteem and poor boundary setting. Balancing the lung through deep belly breathing, hiking in nature, and affirming, “I easily release what needs to go and receive what needs to come” truly help one to choose when enough is indeed enough.

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Rob Siltanen

In Chinese medicine, the heart is like an emperor ruling over life’s experiences. If your heart loves your mission to make a difference, there’s truly no stopping you.

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Kahlil Gibran

Anxiety is rooted in childhood. From a Chinese medicine perspective, if an overly anxious parent is feeding a baby, then the little one comes to associate nourishment and receiving with fear. That child may then grow into a nervous adult, one who has trouble self-nurturing and who may choose a selfish or abusive partner that mirrors the “love equals fear” emotional programming within. Such fear-based ways of being lead us to try and control every aspect of life in order to foster a feeling of safety. Practicing deep breathing, eating in a relaxed manner, walking in nature, and affirming, “I am safe and all is well” can help curb fear and cultivate instead a calm centeredness.

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Anonymous

Getting a “no” in life can mean either “not now” or “not ever” – neither of which is a bad thing if you consider what’s going on energetically. When things don’t work out the way we’d hoped, often it’s because we’re impatient and expect results according to our demands and not Divine timing. Or perhaps what we are desiring ultimately wouldn’t serve our best, highest good – and so that door stays shut because it’s not our door. Whether a roadblock means a temporary detour or a “do not enter – EVER”, what’s required of us is to surrender to the knowing that the Universe is benevolent and always helping things to work out for our benefit – at the exact time that’s most beneficial.

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Dr. Henry Link

As an acupuncturist, I find that stagnant energy is behind every imbalance. And because digestion and worry/overthinking are governed by the same channels, one of the best ways to transform fear is through improving digestion. Proper nutrition, exercise, deep breathing, and laughter all move the fears that keep us stuck and allow us to move forward more freely.

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Anonymous

Whatever wrongs we see in this world cannot be made right through our righteous indignation. No matter how heartfelt or well-intentioned. Because from an energetic perspective, we cannot be in judgment and feel love at the same time. And so if we can accept that love heals all, we owe it to ourselves, our loved ones, our plant and animal friends, and Mother Earth to drop our judgments. Set down our weapons. And embrace everyone and everything we encounter on our daily walk through chaos as an individual spark of the Divine. Even the ones perpetuating the pain. Especially them! Because at one time, all abusers have been abused. And we cannot fix that – ever – with an eye-for-an-eye attitude. Only with love. And perhaps only when we can practice hugging all that is – atrocities and all – will we begin to embrace planetary healing at its full potential.

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Zen Proverb

Delays, detours, and “do not enter” signs that appear on our path are actually blessings and not the burdens they can at times feel like. Knowing what’s not meant to be is every bit as important as knowing what is. If a door doesn’t allow passage, it’s crucial to determine if it’s not our door – or simply not yet time for the door to open. Energetically speaking, only the gut knows the difference. And so it’s wise to navigate our way through life based on whether our gut instinct says something is an obstacle to go around – or an opportunity waiting to happen.

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George Eliot

Sometimes it’s all too easy to get caught up in feelings of regret when we look around and “what is” appears so very different from “what might have been”. The truth is we can choose again in every moment. If you feel stuck or sadly lacking in motivation, then from a Chinese medicine perspective, your liver meridian may need balancing. Practicing earthing with bare feet to the ground for at least 20 minutes every day will help you recharge your liver and reclaim a path forward filled with delight instead of despair.

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Anonymous

To be on the right track, we don’t need to have everything all figured out. In fact, we can miss magical opportunities for the Universe to work its mojo if we overthink, overplan, and overdo in an effort to overcontrol a particular outcome. From a Chinese medicine perspective, an imbalanced lung meridian can have us forcing our fate instead of holding a desire in mind and allowing it to flow naturally to us. By practicing deep belly breathing and affirming, “All is unfolding perfectly in Divine timing”, we teach ourselves to trust that all is right and well and good – all the time.

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The Dalai Lama

Why do some people relish risk – and others avoid it at all costs? From a Chinese medicine perspective, whether we perceive risk as thrilling or chilling to the core has a lot to do with how balanced our kidney energy is. When the kidney meridian is well aspected, we tend to feel secure at a deep level; from this vantage point, risk looks like a reward waiting to happen instead of imminent danger. By meditating, practicing yoga or Tai Chi, or soaking in Dead Sea salt-infused water, you can nurture your kidney energy and begin to see all the potential instead of the pain that risk can bring.

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Thomas Carlysle

So many times, we stop ourselves from taking action on our dreams because we don’t have everything figured out. We’ll get an inkling of how to begin working toward a goal, but because we can’t see how it all might come together, we abandon the idea – usually with a frustrated feeling of “what might have been…if only”. Chinese medicine teaches it’s the same channels governing digestion that also bless us with the patience and perseverance to pursue our path one step at a time. By nurturing our digestion with proper nutrition and learning to chew each mouthful thoroughly, we teach ourselves we can similarly “digest life” and move more easily toward our dreams – one mindful bite at a time.

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Anonymous

With anchoring roots and branches extending toward the sky, trees teach us much about the power of staying firmly grounded yet willing to dance with the Divine.

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Jean de La Fountaine

We can hem and haw, delay and detour when we dread taking the very path our hearts know we must travel. From a Chinese medicine perspective, such avoidance is often fear that arises from an imbalanced kidney meridian. Since the kidneys rule our deepest essence, fear can feel bottomless – and hopeless. Yet if we practice nurturing our kidney energy – through rest, proper nutrition, and reassuring words like “everything is always working out for me” – we will begin to feel calmer and more confident no matter how our fate unfolds.

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Michael Jordan

A goal is first a vision, a spark of imagination, a hint of what could be before it’s ever a manifested reality. From a Chinese medicine perspective, the liver meridian mediates our hopes and dreams. Known as “the free and easy wanderer”, the liver energy is that part of us that longs to live without agendas and schedules; these restraints of modern life squelch the liver’s ability to move us along our most rewarding life path. If you’re not expecting exciting things for yourself – or if you’ve lost hope of ever creating a life that lights you up – it’s likely your liver energy could use a boost. A daily walk in nature and at least 20 minutes of “do nothing but daydream” time can do wonders to free you to begin living a life you love.

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George Herbert

From a Chinese medicine perspective, we receive love from archetypal mother energy (as the one who nurtures from the breast) – and approval from archetypal dad. Approval is perhaps overlooked at times. Yet it’s one of the most profoundly important things a parent can give to a child, because it teaches that the child is accepted. And when a child grows up feeling “good enough”, he or she develops true self-esteem. These self-confident kids in turn go on to become the game-changers in life. Because if you believe you’re enough, then you experience a world without limitation or lack.

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Rabindranath Tagore

Many people who see me for acupuncture are at a crossroads in life. They have big dreams and bucket lists, but have often spent years planning, preparing – and procrastinating. From a Chinese medicine perspective, the channels governing digestion are often out of balance when we overthink, overworry, and overwhelm ourselves with the idea of doing something without actually taking action. By committing to proper nutrition and just five minutes of daily activity geared toward reaching your goals, you’ll see how something as simple as a phone call or a booked flight will have you sailing toward your dreams in no time.

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Najwa Zebian

Neck and shoulder tension/pain is the number one complaint that brings patients to me for acupuncture. Since Chinese medicine sees no separation between body and mind, we acupuncturists recognize neck and shoulder issues as pent-up frustration/anger/resentment from “shouldering” too many responsibilities and worries. I often explain to patients that it’s like they are carrying around two 60-lb. suitcases – a burden I help them learn they can set down. Deep belly breathing, stretching, massage, and yoga are all effective remedies for this “boulders on the shoulders” syndrome – which frees up energy for more positive, pleasurable pursuits.

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Demi Lovato

Grief, betrayal, and loss can all leave us feeling like there’s no hope, no point, and no use in going on. Energetically speaking, that rock-bottom, bottoming-out space ideally needs to be honored. Usually we need time to feel – and heal. And yet from a Chinese medicine perspective, if we linger too long in the shadows of our dark night of the soul, the energy in the lung meridian tends to stagnate – and then we feel stuck in sadness. By practicing deep breathing, walking out in nature, and affirming, “I am safe and supported by the Divine always”, a guiding light of good things to come will surely begin to shine.

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Morgan Harper Nichols

Your encouraging words may be the only light in someone’s dark night of the soul.

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Anonymous

Many times, people will come see me for acupuncture when they’re at a crossroad. When they look around at life and feel disappointed, disenchanted, and sometimes downright disgusted with what they see as lack of progress toward some unrealized potential. More often than not, they’ll say something like, “I’d change jobs or move or find a more supportive, loving partner. But I don’t really know what I want and this is kind of okay, even though I’m not really happy”. Yet the mindset of “kind of okay” and “not really happy” will keep you standing in the crossroad in confusion and chaos. Because you’re buying into the biggest lie that people tell themselves, and that’s “I don’t know”. The mind and the heart, from a Chinese medicine perspective, are both capable of misreading and misleading us. It’s only the gut that won’t lie. That knows with a resounding “yes” or “no” if we but ask its guidance. And so to cultivate clarity, begin making every decision based on what your gut tells you is true. This inner knowing will guide you unerringly past this place to which you’ve come and take you as far as you really wish to go.

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Michael John Bobak

As cellular biologist Bruce Lipton teaches, growth means being open to what is. And protection is shutting down in the face of a threat. Since an organism can’t be open and closed at the same time, we humans can’t grow when fear shuts us down. And so moving forward along our path usually involves taking a step that makes us feel exposed and even vulnerable. Until we can take a moment to see that, from our new vantage point, there really IS no threat lurking. Only then can we feel lit up by our progress!

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Japanese Proverb

This Japanese proverb reminds us that toddlers are great role models for how to be successful. Have you ever watched a 12-month old? They live for fun! They feel good about themselves. They are spontaneous and stay in the moment. And if they fall, not getting up again is never an option.

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Anonymous

Buoyantly bubbly in nature, hope is our inner cheerleader, rooting us on no matter what external circumstances are showing us the “score” is. From a Chinese medicine perspective, hope wells up from the kidneys’ deep essence and is carried along the upward and outward liver pathways. And so nourishing the kidney and liver channels through deep breathing, proper rest, good nutrition, daily stretching, and walking in nature will nurture your Pollyanna tendencies and cultivate a true “can-do” attitude.

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Mohammad Ali

Sometimes life can feel like pushing a boulder up a mountain. When we experience resistance and everything seems difficult, our energies tend to stagnate from a Chinese medicine perspective. The Taoist way toward allowing all things to be possible is to shift perspective and consciously become more like water. Flowing instead of forcing. Is an obstacle an insurmountable burden or an opportunity to choose an easier way? By practicing deep breathing and affirming “I sail easily through life”, the path moves freely forward instead of being fraught with hardships.

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Anonymous

Buoyantly bubbly in nature, hope is our inner cheerleader, rooting us on no matter what external circumstances are showing us the “score” is. From a Chinese medicine perspective, hope wells up from the kidney’s deep essence and is carried upward and outward along the liver’s pathway. And so nourishing the kidney and liver channels through deep breathing, proper rest, good nutrition, daily stretching, and walking in nature will nurture your Pollyanna tendencies and cultivate a true “can do” attitude.

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