Guided meditation Austria

Guided meditation Austria:
Introduction

This Austrian guided meditation is a beautiful guided meditation which starts with some gentle breathing exercises and then takes you on a wonderful adventure starting in an Austrian village square and then gradually climbing a glorious Alpine mountain with wonderful scenery and beauty on the way up.  Enjoy and share my great love of this beautiful country and who knows may be you will want to visit soon?

In addition, to being one of the finest countries in the world for ski-ing, it is a true walker's paradise.  The footpaths are clearly marked and every hill, dale and mountain are riddled with footpaths.  The Austrians love walking and you will often see them powering up the mountains.  What a wonderful way to get fit. I am always amazed when you see elderly Austrians with their Alpine sticks smiling as they tackle some very challenging climbs.  No wonder they look healthy and live to a ripe old age.  Austria is a true jewel in the crown of Europe and very unspoilt.   More information on the country can be found here

Guided meditation Austria:
The Video

Guided meditation Austria:
The Music

The music for this video was specially composed by Dominic Beeton.  Similar music to this can be found on the meditation music page of this site.

Guided meditation Austria:
The Script

The full script of the video is set out below. Please feel free to use this script for your own group guided meditations or just follow the script as you watch the video.

Austrian Guided Meditation

First make sure you are sitting comfortably on a meditation cushion or a straight back chair not leaning against the back.  Sit very straight backed with shoulders down and with any tension in your body tensed and released.  We are going to begin by taking deep slow breaths into our lungs breathing from our diaphragms and slowly filling our lungs with clean fresh air. Inhale slowly and then when you can inhale no more without forcing it too much just hold for a few seconds and feel the space that this inhabits.  Now slowly ever so slowly let the breath escape from your mouth and gradually empty your lungs and then when all the air has been exhaled again just pause and feel that space which exists between breaths.  Once again breathe in and slowly fill your lungs feeling the air causing your stomach to rise and as you reach the point where no more air can be inhaled pause and feel that space in between breaths, free of thought, free of mind and then slowly let the air escape.  Do this 3 or 4 more times very slowly always pausing between inhaling and exhaling until you feel calm peaceful and restful.  

Now we are going to imagine we are in the heart of a small Austrian village in the Alps.  We are standing in the cobbled village square with the church overlooking us.  We are surrounded by mountains all around us.  The day is bright and warm and the sky is blue with a few wispy white clouds on the mountain tops.  We walk away from the cobbled square and head to the meadows which sit at the foot of the mountains.  We have a pair of walking boots on and a light rucksack with plenty of water supplies in it.  The day is warm and full of promise. We have a sense of expectancy as we begin our ascent of the great towering mountain.  It is early morning and we take a deep breath and feel the sharpness of the Alpine air as it enters our lungs.  This air is really clean. It makes us appreciate how polluted the normal City air is that we inhale.  It feels sharp and pure as we inhale the air.  Gorgeous pure Alpine air.  We look up at the lush green meadows ahead of us with cows quietly chewing the grass and clanking their cow bells in warm sunshine.   You look back at the Austrian houses with their massive wooden framed roofs and the balconies cascading brilliantly coloured alpine flowers from their flower baskets.  The wood of the houses is dark and heavy and the walls stuccoed with white plaster.  As you walk up through a simple footpath through the meadow, the incline steepens sharply and the going becomes harder.  Your heartbeat begins to quicken as you climb steadily up the meadow.  We hear the village church bells calling the faithful to prayer.  The line of fir trees looms ahead.  Still we can hear the clanking of the cow bells all around us.  We look back at the village and the typical Alpine houses as they recede in the distance.  We come to the edge of the meadow and approach a gate which we open and walk through.  We see the little red and white stripes painted on a nearby tree indicating the beginning of a footpath and we begin the steady climb through the woodland path.  

The footpath begins to zig zag up the hill with quite sharp inclines but regular placed benches for people to regain their breath.  The little red and white stripes are marked regularly on the trees along the path.  The path comes to the edge of the forest and opens out to the bright sunshine as the path zig zags up the ever steepening hill.  We look down to the village we have left behind which looks like a model village now.  The church bells start tolling calling the faithful to prayer.  The bells echo around the valley.  We find a bench and just sit in the warm sunshine listening to the church bells and looking at the picturesque village below us.  We look behind us at the mountain ahead of us and see that we have some more forest to walk through before we hit the top of the current hill.  We take a sip of water from our water bottle and inhale deep lungfuls of that intoxicating Alpine air.  We are refreshed and begin our climb and as we are exposed in the sunlight quickly work up a sweat as we climb the steeply banking path.  We head into to the next forest and instantly we feel the cool of the shade and smell the heady aroma of trees, plants and vegetation.  The path is lined with moss and ferns and small rivulets of water cross the path traversing their way to the bottom of the hill.  

We continue to zig zag through the shady forest and we begin to hear the distant sound of water.  As we approach we see a stream ahead of us on the right flowing down the steep hill passing through a drain under the path.  The water is crisp pure and icy cold as we scoop a handful of water and put it to our lips.  Pure alpine water straight from source.  Unadulterated and life-giving.  We continue our climb and see that the end of this particular forest is ahead as the path levels out before beginning its ascent up to the summit.   It is a relief to be on level ground after having climbed steadily for an hour and a half in the bright sunlight.  The path is surrounded by green meadows again and we emerge above the pine forest before entering the next pine forest.   The path widens here and is more like a gravel road. The road climbs steeply and we have sheer pine forest on our right hand side soaring up the mountain and on the left we have a ravine with a fast-flowing stream at the bottom which has been channelled through weirs to regulate the flow of the water and with large rusty iron girders aligned in a cage-like structure to prevent the debris and timber from blocking the flow of the water.  The drop on the left hand side increases and the noise of the stream at the bottom of the ravine recedes in the distance as we continue our climb up the winding gravel road which has now become just smooth mud.   The road doubles back on itself and we slowly climb the road is it twists and winds its way up the mountain.  We see a sign to a hutte (Austrian/German refreshment hut) and estimate that this is about another 1 hour’s walk away following this road which obviously services the hutte.  We continue our climb watching the stream gushing down the mountain ravine on the left.  A stream opens up on the right hand side and feeds into the stream in the ravine and we see that someone has channelled this powerful stream through a little wooden water mill which no doubt turns a small turbine engine creating electricity for a nearby mountain dwelling. 

 The road twists and snakes through the heavily wooded pine forest climbing all the time.  The path is deserted and we are enjoying the solitude and quiet.  We stop at a bench and again look down the valley.  The village is out of sight now but the mountains are opening up all around us.  Some of them are topped with white snow. The sky is a brilliant blue and the sun is rising to its peak as the warmth of the sun really causes us to perspire.  Our heartbeat is at a constantly raised pace as we continue to climb and the summit of the mountain we are intending to climb appears in view for the first time. We can see an iron cross at the summit which is a good point to fix and aim for. 

 The road continues winding until we turn a corner of the valley and there emerges a large hutte with its enormous dark stained roof and roof timbers with the ubiquitous alpine flowers spilling from every inch of the balconies.  We are the only guest and we find a table and sit down and wait for the waitress to come out and take our order.  We order a large foaming pint of chilled Austrian Stiegl Beer and a coffee with cream and some home made plum tart with whipped cream. The beer tastes delicious and the coffee and tart is just out of this world.  We settle up and continue on our way to the summit. 

 Before long the pine forest and the wide mountain road give way to a narrow path which picks its way through boulders.  The walk has become a bit of a scramble now and we are having to find footholds and hand holds to pull ourselves up the rocks.  We look back and are amazed at the sheer height of the land we have covered.   The walk winds itself through these massive boulders and we can see that we are now only a short steep scramble away from the summit.  We continue our climb and the going is really slow and hard as the sun continues to beat down on us and we continue our slow climb.   Our progress slows to a snails pace as we continue looking for handholds and footholds and climb up the last couple of hundred of feet to the final summit.  The rusting iron cross is much more prominent now as we fix the summit firmly in our sights.  Still we climb and still we scramble up the winding path to the very last bit of screed and rock surrounding the summit.  The end is near and we are building to the climax.  We finally come to the last few steps and before we know it, we have arrived right at the top of the mountain and the view is utterly spectacular as we survey a full 360 degrees all around.  We are standing in the thick of a vast mountain range with mountains of all heights around us.  Some snow capped others stark and bare.  We take a deep draught from our drink bottle as we savour the stillness and beautify of this glorious location.  We feel totally humbled and insignificant against these ancient giants which have stood for millions of years.  Great valleys sculpted by glaciers.  The sun is blazing and we are not hot despite our altitude.  

 We now begin the much more rapid descent down the same paths that brought us to the top and we are amazed at how quickly we re-tread the steps that were so hard fought and earned.   We keep descending and before we know it we are back in the pine forest past the flowing stream and descending the steep path down the hill to the lush meadows with the clanking of the cowbells.  We hear again the church bell ringing again this time to celebrate a wedding in the village.  Before we know it we have descended the entire mountain and we look back at the enormity of our feat.  What a sense of achievement. What a deep rich experience which we will take with us to the grave.  A walk amongst walks.  A truly inspiring walk which has made us appreciate the beauty of the Alps.   Glorious.  

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