• Familiarize yourself with the meditation below so you understand the timing and will be ready to leave sufficient pauses for participants to fully experience meditation.
• Arrange to use a space that has a clean, preferably carpeted, floor where everyone can lie down without touching anyone else. A space where everyone can sit comfortably on a cushion or mat will also work.

This guided meditation follows a simple format which participants can recreate on their own to practice relaxation and seek inner peace.

Invite participants to get comfortable lying on the floor or sitting cross-legged on a cushion or mat. Tell them it is important that everyone keep an internal focus, and not interfere with the experience of those around them.

Ask participants to close their eyes, if they are comfortable doing so, and listen to a guided meditation. Read the meditation aloud, in a calm, clear voice. Pause after each sentence so participants can fully experience the meditation.

Imagine you are lying on the sand at the beach.

It is a warm day, and you are very relaxed.

Feel the sun's rays, which have been traveling through space to reach you, being absorbed into your skin.

You are getting warm, but also very relaxed.

As you get warmer, and more relaxed, you feel yourself start to melt into the earth.

Just let go. Imagine your fingers and toes warming and melting, melting into the earth.

Slowly, starting from the edges and moving in, like a popsicle left out in the sun, you are melting, turning into a puddle, and slowly being absorbed into the earth.

The process is very gentle, very relaxing, being welcomed in as a part of the earth that holds you.

You are no longer separate from the earth, but part of it, part of what nourishes the plants, part of the whole wide planet.

Enjoy the sensation of belonging to the earth, spreading out through roots and up through the veins of plants to take in the sun again.

Then, when you are ready, imagine you are collecting yourself up again.

Pull your melted, spread-out self back together, back to the surface where you are lying, back into your own familiar self, solid once again, yet relaxed and warm.

Now, come back to the group.

When everyone is re-gathered, invite participants to reflect on their experience with this meditation:

• Was it difficult to remain still?
• How did you feel during the meditation? Do you feel any different now than when we started?
• Might an imaginative meditation like this be helpful in finding inner peace during a difficult time?

Participants who have a very difficult time staying still may benefit from having a soft, quiet object, such as clay, to manipulate with their fingers during the mediation.