Deep Listening

Pauline Oliveros

Breathing Water

Inhale through the nose to the count of 6.
Hold for the count of 4.
Exhale through the mouth to the count of 8.

With every breath, visualise the water vapour coming into your body, regulating your oxygen stream and then breathing the vapour out again.

Use your breath to slow the mind to the speed of the water travelling through your watery body. Stay here for a while and slowly open up the mind to be able to listen to all bodies of water through your own watery body.

Hearing Water

Go stand/sit/kneel down close to the river. Start to listen to the soundscape surrounding you.

Now slowly zoom in on the sound of the water. The way the water crashes against rocks, the way the water softly touches plants, the way the water moves the sand. Listen attentively to each single sound, each single note the water produces and slowly zoom out again to be able to hear the whole symphony of watery sounds.

Touching Water

Lay your hands on the watery surface of the river. As your watery body touches this body of water, imagine the journey of the water flowing through.

Imagine the mountaintops that held the water during its condensation, the rocks that were shaped by the mountain stream, the life-giving ability of these bodies of water.

But also imagine the pain when medicinal waste is dumped into the river, when having to carry 191 million plastic particles towards the sea, when having to deal with oil leaking into the river because landlords do not care to fix the leakage.

Feel this source of life through your body. Feel this grief through your body. Feel this watery body in all its complexity through your own body of water.