Good morning.
And welcome.
Thank you.
And thank you for spending and trusting.
We wish you a morning.
The practice today is.
.
.
About gratitude.
And it's about gratitude when you don't really feel grateful.
The tide.
Work is hard.
You're not getting along with your spouse,
Your partner.
That's what I hope this practice will bring.
Let's slow down.
Take a deep breath in.
And hold it at the top.
And exhale.
And let's begin.
You don't have to feel grateful right now.
And I want to say that again,
Because most gratitude practices often won't say it to you.
You do not have to feel.
Grateful.
Full stop.
At least not yet.
At least not on demand,
At least not when you're being told to.
And what I'm going to ask you to do instead is something much more.
Simpler.
I want to ask you to look.
Just look.
At what is actually here in you,
With you.
Let's drop into the practice.
Find the comfortable position.
And allow your eyes to close gently.
Or if you choose,
You can simply soften your gaze downward.
Take a slow breath in through your nose.
And out through your mouth.
Again in.
.
.
Now.
Without trying to feel anything in particular.
Just notice your body.
Notice that you are breathing.
And that you're breathing without effort,
Without thought.
All night your body has been doing this.
Holding you.
Keeping you here,
Keeping you alive,
Without asking,
Without needing anything from you.
That in itself is something.
That is actually Now just simply notice the temperature of the air around you.
Notice the surface beneath you,
Whatever it is.
Be the state I cheer.
Cushion,
The floor,
Your bed.
Notice whatever it is that is holding you up right now.
You are being held now.
In this moment.
Something is holding you.
I bring to mind a person.
Just one.
One person that if they disappeared from your life today,
You would deeply feel their absence.
Just feel what that feels like.
You don't have to name nor label this as gratitude.
Just feel the weight.
Of the presence of that person.
Your connection to them.
Their connection.
You the fact that They're simply there.
To the gratitude,
Not the performed kind.
But the real kind,
The kind that lives.
In the body.
The kind that lives in the body before the mind has a chance to complicate it,
Craft it.
And let's take another deep breath in now.
And gently to yourself.
I want you to answer this question.
What is one small thing?
That is working in your life right now.
Not a big thing.
Not a thing you believe you should be grateful for.
Some may even describe it as trivial small.
But I just call it quiet.
It's that one thing that just.
.
.
Whatever it is,
Allow yourself to connect to it.
Feel.
For this brief moment,
Connect to that feeling.
Really name,
Really identify what it is that is working.
And lean into how you feel.
And this is what gratitude actually is.
Gratitude is not a performance.
Gratitude is not a list.
Gratitude is not a feeling.
That we force.
Gratitude is the quiet recognition.
Of what is already.
So let's take one final breath in.
And as you breathe out,
Give yourself permission to carry.
Just a little of that recognition into the day ahead.
Gratitude is not a destination.
Gratitude is a direction.
And with that,
Let's take one final deep breath in and we'll hold it at the top.
And when we exhale,
Open your eyes.
Good morning.
