Find the Green Shoot: A Meditation for Quiet Renewal

0:03I'm Steven Webb and welcome to What Arises. This meditation is a companion to today's episode on

0:10stillness In the storms, where we talked about renewal, about the things that come back to us in life when

0:17we stop trying to force them.

0:20Today, we're going to just sit with that, gently, no effort required. You don't have to listen to the podcast

0:27to benefit from this meditation. So just find a comfortable place to sit, whether you're lying down or sitting.

0:35Whatever your body is asking for. And when you're ready, let your eyes close or just soften your gaze,

0:43letting them rest just a few feet in front of you. No focus. Just rest.

0:50And let's begin where we always start with the body.

0:56Feel the weight of yourself wherever you're resting the chair, the bed or the floor

1:04Feel the surface holding you. You

1:08don't have to adjust anything.

1:12You don't have to sit up straighter or relax all your shoulders. You don't have to do anything that you

1:19think meditation requires. Just

1:22feel yourself be held.

1:37And now gently just let the body begin to soften.

1:41Start with the face, the

1:44muscles around the eyes, your

1:48jaw. Notice if it's clenched at all. Just let it loosen

1:56down through the neck

1:58the shoulders let the shoulders drop

2:04They've been carrying things all week.

2:08They can put them down for a few minutes

2:14down through your chest, the belly, let your belly be soft. Let it rise and fall without you

2:21managing it

2:28down through your hips, your legs, and your feet.

2:31Just a gentle wave of permission moving through the whole body. You

2:39can hold it all again later. For now, just let it all go

3:01And now just notice your breathing. You

3:05don't need to change it. Your body already knows exactly how to breathe. It's

3:11been doing it beautifully without your help since the moment you arrived.

3:17Just notice the rhythm, the

3:21in the

3:23out,

3:26The tiny pause between them

3:31a little gap where nothing is happening at all.

3:43rest your attention wherever you feel the breath most clearly could

3:49be the nose, the chest, the belly, and

3:53just stay there with it,

3:56like sitting by river watching it flow

4:00You're not the river. You're

4:04not trying to change the river. You're just here watching

4:26Now I want you to try something gently. You don't have to work at this. Just let the question arrive

4:33and see what happens. Is

4:36there something in you that's been dormant,

4:40not something wrong, not a problem, just something that went quiet, something that used to be alive in

4:48you. Energy, curiosity, tenderness, joy, creativity, hope

4:55something that's just been sleeping for a while.

5:10You don't have to name it precisely, you don't have to understand it.

5:16Just notice there's a sense of something that's been resting underground, out of sight waiting.

5:24You

5:26don't have to go to the story with it. Just recognise what it is

5:42And whatever comes up, or if nothing comes up, that's fine too. Just be with it the way

5:50you'd be with a garden early spring, you

5:55wouldn't dig up the bulbs to check if they're growing. You'd just sit nearby and trust or something is happening

6:02underneath.

6:20Now I want you to imagine something very simply, very gently imagine a patch

6:28of dark Earth,

6:30winter Earth. It's been cold for a long time. The surface is bare. Nothing

6:38seems to be happening

6:44And then so slowly you almost missed it. A tiny green chute pushes through

6:53just the tip, barely visible, fragile but Unmistakably alive.

7:09It didn't need anyone's permission to appear, it didn't need to be perfect or fully formed. It

7:17just rose

7:31Now that that image settle in your chest In

7:36the heart space

7:44And consider the possibility that something like that is happening in you right now. Not

7:52dramatic, not loud just a quiet beginning that you might not have noticed just yet.

8:13You don't have to do anything with this. That's the key thing. You don't have to pull the shoot up

8:20faster.

8:21You don't have to understand where it's going or what it's doing.

8:28You just have to let it be there.

8:32The breath is still moving in and out.

8:37And with each breath, you can imagine warmth, reaching down into the soil,

8:43not forcing anything, just warmth, just light. Just the quiet conditions that allow things

8:51to grow in their own time.

9:15If thoughts come let them come. They're just weather passing through the shoot. Doesn't mind the weather.

9:23It grows anyway and

9:27so does whatever is waking up in you

9:56Spring is beginner's mind visible. Every blossom is seeing the world for the first time.

10:03Every new leaf is a first leaf. The season doesn't remember last year's spring. It

10:11just begins again, completely new, completely itself

10:27The freshness is being here. Right now with nothing to prove and nowhere to go.

10:49And now gently, I want you to widen your attention one more time

10:54beyond your body, beyond this room. Outside, wherever you can see it or not. Spring is happening.

11:02Light is lasting longer, the air is shifting. Things that have been dormant all winter are beginning to

11:10stir.

11:12Birds are returning, flowers are opening somewhere nearby a tree that looked dead three weeks

11:20ago is putting out its first tiny leaves. None

11:25of it is in a hurry. None

11:29of it is trying to arrive. It's just arriving quietly. Certainly in its own time,

11:45The daffodil is not trying to compete with another daffodil. It's just blooming anyway. It

11:54doesn't complain. It's beside the road. It blooms anyway, and

12:00you are part of that, not separate from it,

12:05not watching from the outside. You are part of it. Your body knows the same rooms

12:13as the trees and the birds

12:16your body knows the same rhythms as the trees and the birds

12:28And now generally let's begin to come back, let the images go, the shoot, the garden, the spring,

12:35let them dissolve like fresh air,

12:39come back to the body. Your body, the weight of it, the warmth of it,

12:45the simple quiet fact of being here and breathing alive.

12:53I'm going to count back from five down to one, and with each number, let yourself return a little more

13:00to the room, to the morning, to the day ahead, but carry something with you, a

13:08sense of something arising. Something, returning something you don't have to force. So

13:16five, just feeling the body again

13:19four notice the space around you. Three. Gently move your fingers and toes,

13:27bringing that little energy back into your hands and feet. Two, taking a slightly deeper breath.

13:34Feeling the subtle flurry onto the present moment. And one, when you're ready, just gently open your eyes and

13:42look at whatever is in front of you, something that you've never seen before, because it's always different every time

13:49you see it.

13:51Not in this light, not in this moment, not in this version of yourself. Everything always changes.

13:58So welcome back and Happy Spring. Thank you for being here. I'm Steven Webb and this

14:06meditation is a companion to today's Stillness in the Storms. Episode 162 what Arises You can find

14:14that wherever you listen to your podcast or at StevenWebb.uk these meditations exist because of kind people

14:22who support the work with a small donation Thank

14:26you genuinely to everyone who does that. And to all you listeners, please leave a review.

14:34Please have a peaceful day. Until next time. Stay open, let things grow, and be kind to yourself.

14:42Thank you for your support.