Playing with Dolphins

 Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths. Place your hands over your heart and take a moment to see if you can feel the steady rhythm of your heartbeat. While you breathe slowly in and out, you may feel your lungs move in synchronistic response to the contractions of your heart. With your feet placed firmly on the ground and your hands placed over your sternum, chant the mantra Ohm three times.

Imagine you are standing beside the ocean on white sand so soft, it might as well be the dry dust that lay thick upon a beaten path. The arcing blue waves are crashing upon the shore with the same steady rhythm of your heart and the rippling water that stretches endlessly towards the horizon appears to be full of twinkling stars due to the sun’s rays. You approach the ocean and when your feet sink into the wet sand, you flex your toes to savor the sensation. Bubbles continually surface everytime a wave recedes, making it seem as though there must be critters beneath the sand. As you walk along the shore, you spot colorful seashells and the footprints of seagulls. A particularly impressive wave tumbles on to the shore splashing your feet and ankles. The water is just the right temperature; cool enough to be refreshing, but not so cold as to be jarring. You decide to wade into the water a bit farther so that it hovers right around your knees. As you look out upon the ocean, you notice dolphins playing in the waves. They are jumping joyfully and with ease through the air. The sight stirs within you feelings of bliss and perhaps even of celebration. After bearing witness to their play for a few moments, you close your eyes and you try to picture what they must be seeing while they are swimming swiftly to the surface, when they break free of the pull of the waves and then soar through the air before re-entering the blue water. Are they blinded by innumerable bubbles in the first moments after nose-diving into the salty sea-water? Do they see a fractal patterning of sunlight upon the sand below them? Perhaps they are following another darting dolphin with bubbles trailing its tail as it swims effortlessly under the waves. You imagine another leap over the water as a dolphin, and the exhilarating experience leaves you briefly breathless as you come back into your being standing knee deep in the ocean. Blue water stretching endlessly before you and white sand stretching endlessly to your right and to your left, you turn and walk back to the dry sand, listening to the waves, and feeling for your heart beat. When you are ready, follow your heartbeat back to the present, back to your bedroom or living room. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Feel the chair or bed you are on and the ground beneath your feet.