This is the tree practice we visited exploring what else it can teach us. 

Start by adopting a steady posture with a sense of standing in a way that feels rooted, upright. And bring to mind a tree that you know, that's strong yet flexible, a tree that somehow gives you a sense of majesty, a sense of something larger and bigger than we are. And in the image, just have a sense of its rootedness, its uplift, its branches, its top, and also the landscape that it's part of. And once you have a real image of this tree, sense yourself becoming that tree.

Can help to scan through your body from your feet, the roots of the tree, up through the pelvis and the torso, the trunk of the tree. Fingers and your arms, the branches of the tree. And the crown of your head, the very tip of the tree. As you do this, just noticing any sensations that you pick up in the body and just lightly naming them just as part of the kind of landscape, if you like, of this moment. Feel your rootedness, strength, and flexibility.

Aware of your whole body rooted upright. Strong, flexible, like a tree. And from this place, just opening your awareness to whatever arises. Be that hearing, thoughts and images, Sensations in the body, whatever comes up in awareness just opening up to it. And consider how trees weather the different cycles of sun, shade, stillness, wind, cold, heat.

Just see with this open awareness that you have, if you can weather whatever comes up in the same way that a tree weathers different weather systems. As clouds move through, as the sun comes out, With your senses open to your experience exactly as it is, the changing weather systems of your body and mind And whatever is coming in at the senses, hearing, seeing, feeling, touching, tasting, but also the senses of balance And the senses of whether you're hungry or thirsty or anything else just really opening up to all of the senses. In the same way that the tree rooted steady upright is open to whatever comes through in terms of weather systems. And consider now how trees move seamlessly from day into night and into day again. And that we too move seamlessly from wakefulness to sleepiness to sleep to wakefulness and all the different states of energy and vitality and fatigue and restoration.

Just tuning in now again with that same tree like quality. Rootedness, uplift, openness, strength, flexibility. Consider now how trees move through seasons, from spring into summer, through to autumn and somehow naturally knowing in autumn when changes in the leaves and the bark transition into winter and that process of wintering when so much is going on just beneath the surface. And again, that idea that we too move through seasons when there's a sense of growth and a lot happening, sense of ease and contentment, but also periods where maybe we're wintering where there's a process of consolidation and rest and restoration ready for the next round of seasons. Scientists have learned that trees can communicate with one another through their root systems and foliage.

And different trees do this in different ways. Pine, orange, oak, coconut willow, chestnut. They all have different ways of communicating and we too part of wider families and friendship networks and communities. Having the sense of rootedness, uplift, strength and flexibility connected to other people, wider communities, and the wider natural world and wider planet that we're a part of. Trees are part of a wider landscape, a wider system of climate in the same way we are.

Having a sense of that in this moment, in this moment of this practice, being part of something larger, whatever that means for you. So in a spirit of openness and playfulness, using this tree practice to cultivate steadiness and flexibility, strength and the ability to adapt, change over seasons, your practice in your day and in your life. Bring to mind a tree that can help you develop these attitudes and insights.