Why I'm starting with that is yes,
Part of it's gonna tie into this meditation of gratitude,
But also it goes along with what we were just talking about.
And I wanted to bring up an idea that is partly with happiness that I think is missed often,
And it's strengthening our resilience.
So there was a sense right now,
You might not realize it,
You don't need to realize it,
But by your ability to actually tap into this moment,
This thing that made you smile,
This thing that gave you a visceral body feeling,
You are actually also not only bringing more joy into the body,
But you're actually strengthening your resilience.
And that is an unseen thing.
People don't have to see it.
You might not see it,
But it's something that basically strengthens your ability to move through days and hardships and hard times because you're able to take in and breathe in those beautiful moments.
And we're gonna use that same type of feeling in this practice.
So when I started thinking about this meditation gratitude,
I've led a good amount of them before,
But I wanted to focus on the idea that gratitude's actually an act of self-love.
It's actually an act of healing.
So it can be an agent of self-healing and it can be an act of self-love.
The way that that works is not just like woo-woo science,
Like I'm not just making it up and saying it's gonna happen.
There's actually some really cool benefits and studies.
So I love that kind of stuff and I just want to be able to provide that,
That when we practice gratitude,
That sense of gratitude not only reduces anxiety and feelings of isolation,
Like we were just talking about,
Those feelings of being isolated,
Of alone,
Of not being able to connect,
But it also takes us out of this cocoon of self-absorption,
Which can also feel like you're just wrapped up in yourself.
Sometimes selfishness is so powerful that we don't see it because we don't even realize that we're everything that's being made about the self.
And when we do this practice of gratitude,
When we recognize it,
We're actually connecting to something larger than ourselves as individuals.
And that is the sense where self-healing comes into play and where the self-love comes into play.
It sounds kind of counter because I'm saying that it's letting go of the self and you're seeing this higher power as something maybe,
Whatever it be,
Spiritual,
Natural,
Or that might be that you're connecting a lot to larger,
But there's also the sense of in that moment of gratitude,
Recognizing that when you are grateful for something,
You're also staying at that moment that you are worthy of that thing.
There's a sense of abundance there.
So if I'm like,
You know,
In the moments where I see a beautiful sunrise and I'm just really grateful to have the sight,
To be there and to have the moment,
I can feel the cool air.
I can hear the birds.
I can see the colors.
There's a stillness.
And the whole scenario to me is this moment of deep thanks or gratitude.
Not only am I feeling this thing that's so much larger than me,
But I'm also then at the same time saying,
Wow,
And I'm also worthy of this gift,
This beauty,
This moment that I'm actually having.
And in that worthiness,
There is your agent of healing,
Of recognizing your value,
Your beauty.
Like Dawn said earlier,
I want you to know that you are loved.
You are loved.
You are worthy.
I want you here.
And in those moments,
When we are able to know this,
The gratitude,
It gives us direct feedback saying,
Oh,
I'm here.
Oh,
This is really nice.
Oh,
I feel this.
Oh,
I can breathe this in.
I can be with this.
And in that moment,
Being able to be grateful for it is saying,
And I'm worthy of this.
So the reason why we did the little smile thing is because I don't,
I used to,
And maybe you can relate.
I used to practice gratitude.
That's something where I'm like,
I have to write down a list.
And I'd write down a list in the morning.
I was like,
What I'm grateful for.
And it was nice.
I'd be like,
Okay,
I did my list.
And like a long time went by,
Maybe longer than what should have.
And it took me a while to know this,
But I wasn't embodying the gratitude.
So there were things I was happy about.
And there were things that I enjoyed.
I love the sound of birds.
And almost any day I hear birds,
I'm like,
There's a moment where I'm like,
Ah.
But when I wrote it down,
It felt like,
Oh,
I'm just writing this thing down.
Rather than being able to,
Whether it's in the moment,
Notice the sensation of how I love the sound of birds,
Or when I'm writing it down,
Remembering it.
Like,
Wow,
Yeah,
The little chirps.
And I love how they sing to each other,
And there's different sounds.
And it just cuts through the air.
And there's a way for me then to bring it into the body,
To embody it.
And when we embody the gratitude,
And we bring it into ourselves,
It really allows for a perspective shift,
Allows for the mind to open.
And it's changing yourself on a cellular level.
Yes,
In that moment,
It helps take us out of loops of anxiety,
Or worry,
Or fear,
Because we are breaking a cycle of thinking to something thinking more,
And I don't even wanna necessarily call it positive,
But joyous,
Joyful.
But we're also then bringing it into the body so we know that feeling.
And when we tell ourselves,
When the body,
And when we allow ourselves to recognize,
Like,
Oh,
This is the feeling of it,
Body remembers that.
When our body remembers those joyous things,
It's a lot easier to tap back into them.
It's a lot easier to bring that back into us.
So,
That's what I want to lead in with tonight as we practice a meditation on cultivating embodied gratitude.
For anybody that's never done the practice of gratitude,
I just wanna say before we get into the meditation portion of it,
The practice of gratitude can be done in one second,
Or,
You know,
Like a minute.
It can be done for over a long period of time,
Like we're gonna do with the meditation.
It doesn't really matter the size and scale of it.
Pretty much all things that you're grateful for can be seen kind of in a democratic way.
And what I mean by that is like,
A trip to Disneyland with children could be the same feeling as your first sip of tea.
They're very different in terms of size and scale,
But both can bring the same amount of gratitude.
So,
It really comes not necessarily into the size of it,
But just allowing yourself to drop into it.
So,
With that,
Let's go ahead and get started on the practice.
And if you wanna leave your cameras on,
You can.
If you wanna shut them off,
You can.
The most important thing here is just bringing yourself into a really comfortable posture,
One that allows you to settle.
If sitting works for you,
You can allow yourself to sit up straight with a tall spine.
Imagine your spine like a stack of coins stacking up on top of each other,
Your ears over your shoulders,
Your shoulders over your hips.
You can elongate the neck with a breath in,
Almost like a string is pulling you at the top of the crown.
And allow the chin to rest parallel with the surface beneath you.
And you can let your hands rest in any comfortable position.
That can be in your lap.
It can be on your thighs.
You can take a ham posture of meaning if there's a mudra that you take,
Or you can just let them lie open.
And just a reminder,
Sitting is not mandatory.
So,
If that doesn't feel good in your body,
If it feels like that's gonna cause any aches,
Feel free to take a relaxed posture,
Support your body,
Whether it be reclined or laying down.
And now that you're in your posture,
Let your body relax and soften.
So,
That can just be taking a moment to recognize that you have landed.
You have arrived.
You are here in this moment.
You can let go of everything that happened before this moment,
And anything on the to-do list after this moment.
You can bring awareness to the body by bringing your attention to your breath.
So,
Noticing the flow of your breath here,
And welcoming a deepening of breath.
So,
Breathing deeply into your belly.
Those inhales can be full through your nose,
And the exhales long out your mouth.
And as you breathe,
Notice as your body begins to settle.
If your eyes are still open,
You can gently close them.
If that doesn't feel comfortable,
You can just soften your gaze.
And taking a long,
Slow,
And deep inhale in,
Filling the body.
And opening the mouth and letting the breath fall out with any audible sounds that might fit right now.
And begin to direct your attention to the top of your head.
Just taking a brief scan through your body.
Being aware of any tension in the scalp.
And on your next inhalation,
Pause and allow the head,
The face,
The cheeks to soften.
And breathing in again.
And exhaling,
Letting all tension or hardness around the eyes,
The jaw,
The lips,
And the tongue to soften.
Letting this relaxation move down your throat to your neck and your shoulders.
Every inhale,
Filling the body with new oxygen.
And on the exhale,
Welcoming,
Relaxing through the body,
Through your arms,
Your fingers,
Your spine and chest.
Inhale,
Feeling the ribcage expand.
And exhale,
Feeling the belly soften and settle.
Breathing into a softening belly.
Breathing out of a softening belly.
Move your awareness down to your hips,
Softening through your pelvis,
Allowing the hips to open.
Softening down your legs and into your feet.
And if there's any areas of tension or tightness that are still noticeable,
Just allow yourself to notice that,
That they're here.
That's okay for them to be here.
There's nothing you have to do with them.
And taking a moment to gently notice any emotions that are present with you.
So just noticing emotions of joy or sadness or fatigue,
Maybe frustration from a long day or excitement for something coming.
And again,
There's nothing that you have to do with these.
You can allow the emotions to be there,
To see them,
And just to let them be.
We're not trying to rid them or get them away from us.
And the same with any thoughts.
So maybe your mind is busy right now.
Maybe there's judgments that are arising,
Thoughts that are arising.
Maybe your mind's quite quiet and calm,
And whatever it is,
Allowing it to be just as it is.
Allowing any thoughts to rise and to fall.
And just like your breath,
Inhale,
Belly rise.
Exhale,
Belly fall.
And then allowing your attention to come back down to your feet and to move up the body.
As this time,
As you move up the body,
You might pause and offer moments of gratitude to the parts of your body that offer you so much throughout your day.
Starting at your feet for holding you up,
To your legs are powerful and allow you the ability to walk and move through the day.
Moving up to the belly,
Recognizing the stomach and the internal organs that are so important on your ability to take in food,
Break down food,
To bring in the nutrients and excrete what your body does not need.
Up through the chest,
Filling your lungs and feeling your lungs as they fill.
Your hands,
Allowing you to touch and feel the world around you.
Your arms allow you to hold and hug those that you love.
Into your face,
The mouth that allows you to eat,
To speak,
The nose that allows you to smell and breathe.
Ears that allow you to hear,
Eyes that allow you to see.
And from this place of physical gratitude,
I'd like you to bring to mind one thing from your day,
One thing from today that brought you a feeling of gratitude.
So allowing this to arise as gently and lovingly easily as possible,
Not trying to hunt out a specific moment but seeing if it can arise naturally.
Maybe it was a conversation you had.
Maybe it was waking up from a wonderful night of rest,
Having your favorite coffee or tea or morning beverage.
Maybe it's right now.
And whatever it is,
I'd like you to bring it into your heart space.
And what I mean by that is imagine breathing in this sensation straight into your heart like a fresh breath of mountain air,
Taking an inhale and breathing it in and allowing the gratitude to fill your heart.
And maybe you feel a warmth.
It might be a warming sensation at the chest or even an expansion of the chest.
And just allowing yourself to feel what it feels like to breathe in this gratitude.
And as your heart begins to open with gratitude,
I want you to now bring to mind,
Maybe in your mind's eye,
Somebody who you feel a great amount of love for.
This could be somebody of your current life or from your past.
It can also be an animal.
It can be a important figure.
Whoever this person is,
Allow yourself to see them.
So visualize as if you were looking at them into their eyes,
Your face staring into their face and their face staring into yours.
Imagine that they are here with you and notice the sensations around your heart that might arise.
A warmth,
An openness,
A tenderness.
And you might also notice that just like you felt that gratitude earlier,
You wish the very same thing for them.
You wish for them to be able to breathe in their joy,
Their gratitude for it to fill their heart.
So if it's comfortable for you in your own time,
Let this individual know how grateful you are for them and what they mean to you.
This might be visualizing a physical act of a hug or a kiss to hold them.
There might be words that you wish to speak to them.
And if nothing comes up or you don't know where to start,
You can softly and silently say inside,
I am grateful for your presence in my life and this is why.
And allow whatever comes up to flow out.
Imagining that this person or animal is now embracing you.
Imagine that both your hearts are heart to heart and you feel the joy from your heart flowing into theirs as they accept your gratitude.
And sitting with this feeling,
Again looking into their eyes,
Looking into their face,
I want you to slowly allow the vision to change.
The vision to change.
Departing from them and allowing whomever you had seen to slowly transform into yourself.
Envision yourself standing in front of yourself,
Seeing yourself and acknowledging that just as you have breathed gratitude into your heart,
This is something that you wish for yourself as well.
And notice how you are worthy of this feeling.
That this recognition of gratitude is an act of self love.
And this recognition of abundance is proof that you are worthy and deserving.
And if it feels right,
You can silently say to yourself,
I offer my gratitude for the safety and wellbeing I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the blessings of this earth that I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the measure of health I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the family,
Friends,
And tribe I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for this life that I have been given.
I am grateful for who I am and I am worthy.
And I am worthy.
I am grateful for this life.
And I am worthy of what I am grateful for.
You might wanna place hands on the heart if that feels comfortable for you.
Silently wishing yourself safety,
Joy,
Peace,
And wellbeing.
Acknowledging that as you wish these for yourself and welcome them in,
You also allow others to wish and welcome the very same thing.
And reminding yourself that no matter what you have to face or who you have to face in this life,
You always have gratitude on your side and all that you are connected to through this gratitude.
And you can slowly start to bring awareness back into the body.
Noticing the space around you and the space that your body inhabits.
Bringing a conscious awareness back to your breath,
Allowing the breath to deepen and lengthen.
You might continue to guide conscious mindful breaths into your heart space if that still feels good.
You can slowly start to wiggle your toes and your fingers.
If your eyes are closed,
You can slowly open them,
Blinking your eyes open or widening your gaze.
And I welcome you to feel free to sit in the space for a while.
And free to just be and to be with whatever's here with you.
