Hi,
I'm Alex Dawson,
And this is Breath of Gratitude Meditation.
A famous Greek philosopher,
Plato,
Once said,
A grateful mind is a great mind that eventually attracts to itself great things.
So,
As we're going into this meditation today,
We can start seated.
This meditation could also be done at the end of the day.
You could be lying down.
It could be how you finish your day.
It can be done any time.
And we're going to connect it to our breath.
So,
As you sit or lie down,
Just notice your breath quality and try to visualize your own breath.
You might even start simply by seeing if you can feel your breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils.
And so we start to get a visual for our breath,
That it's coming into our body.
You might give it a color.
And as we move into consideration,
Mindful attention,
We shift to the things now that we feel like we can genuinely,
Sincerely be grateful for.
Some days this is really easy.
Some days maybe it's not.
You can always go to,
Like,
The essentials that we have.
Sunshine.
Thank you,
Sun,
For coming up today.
Hopefully water,
Right?
Clean water.
Food.
Good food.
All the things.
Pets.
People.
Family.
Start to allow your mind to bring in some of these things.
Our body.
Our health.
Your creativity.
Your heart.
Sit with this and imagine yourself filling the space you're sitting in with these things.
Like they're in the meditation with you.
You might need a bigger space.
So just imagine that's possible.
We're sitting in a vast space.
Could be on a beach or a mountain.
All these energy of people and things that we're grateful for.
Some people who may have passed.
And as you're sitting here,
Let the energy of it be carried in your breath.
So the breath gets just a little bit deeper for a moment.
And then we let it just rest into its comfortable rhythm.
And we sense all of these things we're grateful for.
And it is embodied in our breath now.
And now to go a little deeper with this.
Bring in why.
Why you're grateful.
I feel supported.
I feel loved by that person.
They make me laugh.
They see me.
I feel alive when this happens.
Feel why you're grateful.
And now taking some of these aspects of people and things you're grateful for,
Imagine for them that they're thriving and feeling supported as well.
Watch how the mind moves and maybe moves away from this.
And see if you can just gently nudge your capacity a little deeper to this enormous power that is gratitude.
And because we have so much,
When we really start to ground ourselves,
Think about one person you might say,
I'm not so grateful for them,
Whether you know them or not.
Not so grateful for that one.
I don't like that person.
I don't like how they behave.
Or a quality.
Maybe it's not a literal person,
But a thing,
A quality.
And see if you can have a meta,
Which is a mindful focus of loving kindness,
Even for that person,
That maybe there's something broken in them,
Hurting,
That we can even dig deeper and wish well for them.
So may all beings be happy and free,
Includes the people we have to drive next to,
So to speak.
If you had one word for your gratitude today,
Connect it inside of yourself.
Bring your palms to prayer,
Or just bring your palms together.
Return to that space where you brought in all the people and the abundance truly of our life and to our heart.
May there be peace within us.
May there be peace around us.
And may there be peace among us.
Namaste.
