Hello and welcome to this gratitude meditation.
Please sit in a comfortable cross legged position and close your eyes.
We'll now do a couple of slow breaths just to help bring us into the present moment.
So breathe in really slowly in through your nose and back out through the nose.
Breathe in again and out.
You can now begin to breathe naturally again and we'll start the meditation.
Gratitude is so important as it keeps us humble,
Joyful and helps positively rewire our brain.
A Harvard University study found that after 10 weeks those who wrote about gratitude every day were more optimistic and felt better about their lives.
Not only that,
They exercised more and had fewer visits to the doctor than those who focused on other sources of attention.
Gratitude helps us realise that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Sometimes our grass is forever luscious if we just shift our perception.
As Dr.
Ben Carson so wonderfully said,
Sometimes you are unsatisfied with your life while many people in this world are dreaming of living your life.
A child on a farm sees a plane overhead and dreams of flying.
But a pilot on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of returning home.
That's life.
Enjoy yours.
If wealth is the secret to happiness,
Then the rich should be dancing on the streets.
But only poor kids do that.
If power ensures security,
Then officials should walk unguarded.
But those who live simply,
Sleep soundly.
If beauty and fame bring ideal relationships,
The celebrities should have the best marriages.
Live simply,
Walk humbly and live genuinely.
And all good will come back to you.
With those powerful words fresh in our minds,
We can now focus on 11 things to be grateful for.
I will give you 11 topics.
You are free to choose individually for each topic what you are grateful for.
Sit with each thought and feel the gratitude throughout your whole life.
Sit with each thought and feel the gratitude throughout your whole body.
Number one.
Sit in gratitude with the first thing that pops into your head.
Literally the first thing that pops into your head.
Sit in gratitude with the thought.
How does this thought make you feel?
Number two.
Think of someone,
Either from the past or the present,
That you are grateful for.
This could be literally anyone.
When you have chosen the person,
Sit and think about why you are grateful for them.
Number three.
Think about a skill the universe has gifted you with.
Think about why you are grateful for that skill.
Are you a good cook?
Are you a good singer?
What skill in any skill the universe has gifted you with?
Number four.
Sit in gratitude for something material in which you possess.
It could be your clothes,
Your car,
Your house.
We feel it is our right to own a house,
Yet 1.
6 billion people on earth lack adequate housing.
Think about how lucky many of us are to have a roof over our head.
Number five.
Sit in gratitude for something you have eaten recently.
Sometimes we complain about our food,
Yet over 10% of the world population suffer in hunger.
It is to make us feel guilty,
But rather to increase our gratitude for the food that we eat.
Number six.
Sit in gratitude about a place that you have travelled to and the beautiful memory of it.
This could be anywhere,
Somewhere close to home or somewhere thousands of miles away.
How did travelling to that place make you feel?
Number seven.
A moment of pain that helped you grow and learn.
It might sound strange to sit in gratitude for this,
But I believe that it is the moments of difficulty that challenge us and help us to grow and learn much quicker than the good times.
Think about a key moment of pain that helped you grow and learn.
Number eight.
I'd like you to sit in gratitude about a part of nature.
This could be the sun,
The moon,
Trees,
Water.
Whenever first comes to mind,
Sit and be grateful for our mother earth.
Number nine.
Something small to help us appreciate the little things in life.
This could be the mug that we'll drink our tea out of this morning.
Anything that's really small that will help us cherish every small part of this life.
Number ten.
Let's sit in gratitude for taking this moment to sit and think about what we have to be grateful for.
Again,
Really try and feel this gratitude ripple throughout your entire body.
Last one now.
Sit and be grateful for this life.
The possibility of your life is around one in 400 trillion.
You're basically a walking,
Breathing miracle.
If that's not something to be grateful for,
I don't know what it is.
Sit and think about how lucky we are just to be alive,
Just to be experiencing this life.
At this point,
You might just want to smile,
Still have your eyes closed.
Just enjoy this moment of gratitude.
You can raise your hand to your heart and feel the gratitude there.
I encourage you to take this mentality into your day.
Notice the wonder all around you.
If your mind latches on to something negative or something lacking in your life,
Remind yourself just how lucky you are.
Have a lovely day and be grateful for all that it brings.
Love to everyone.
