Help me visit nature in my mind

April 4, 2020 3:03 PM

I was watching a movie today with many scenes set in nature and noticed that if I concentrated on the scenes, I could feel as if I was in a forest or another natural settings. Are there any guided meditations available online that take you on a journey through nature, where you are focused on the sensory experience? Thinking of narratives/meditations where all of the senses are engaged (in your mind).
posted by rogerroger to Religion & Philosophy (4 answers total)

The Medditation Podcast. Their early eppisodes used background sounds of birds singing, wind in trees, water gurgling like in a creeek etc. almost exclusively. I found them to be very soothing and often used nature imagery in my mind when I followed them. I havent used any of their recent episodes so I can't speak to those. I used to use episodes 1-about 14.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 4:18 PM on April 4, 2020 [3 favorites]

Guiding your own meditation, but have you seen this post on the blue?
posted by bartleby at 11:24 PM on April 4, 2020

Some of the Meditation Vacation meditations have guided visualizations with specific settings. This is a nice one that involves a forest exploration and engages sight, touch, and smell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJERlxQiSds&t=1289s
posted by space snail at 6:44 AM on April 5, 2020

Not formal meditation, but Sound Escapes, previously mentioned on the blue, is a 7 episode podcast. The first is an intro. but the others are just the recorded sounds of a particular place. Info.: "Throughout this podcast, you’ll hear soundscapes that will immerse you in incredible places ... We start in a rainforest on the Big Island of Hawaii in episode two. Then we head to the grasslands of Saskatchewan to hear a prairie dawn chorus - complete with coyotes. In episode four, Gordon takes us to the Land Between the Lakes in Tennessee. Then we’re off to the banks of the Mississippi River in Arkansas to hear so many birds that Mark Twain called the experience “a jubilant riot of music.” Episode six takes us to a remote lake in Eastern Washington. And finally, we end in Ecuador, with some amazing sounds Gordon recorded along the Zabalo River." Full episode list.

If I listen with the lights off and headphones on, I really can feel like I am at that place hearing those sounds.
posted by gudrun at 7:45 AM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]