Hi there and welcome to Freedom Sound.
Today we'll be doing a meditation on gratitude.
Standing your comfortable seat,
Making sure that your shoulders are relaxed down the spine,
That the neck is long and relaxed,
That the eyes are closed and that the muscles on the face are soft.
Take a moment to just really allow your weight to sink down into your sit bones.
Feel that connection with the ground and know that you are supported.
Allow the body to relax and then gently begin to bring your awareness to your breath.
Just noticing the soft inhale and gentle exhale in and out of the nose.
No need to change the rhythm of the breath,
No need to analyze it,
Just observe.
Beginning the rise and fall of the chest with the breath and perhaps using the breath to welcome yourself to your practice today.
Maybe as you inhale you want to imagine breathing in positivity,
Joy and peace.
And as you exhale imagining that you're breathing out anything heavy,
Anything that no longer serves you.
Cleansing the body with new energy,
With every new breath.
And as we breathe let's take some time to connect to the present moment.
Begin to notice the sounds around you without trying to identify the source.
Bring your awareness to the sense of touch,
Perhaps feeling the air and its temperature gently resting on your skin.
Noticing the peace that comes with just being in the right here and right now.
And beginning to cultivate gratitude for being present in this moment.
As we start to link our awareness to the ethos of gratitude,
Perhaps bringing to mind five things that you are grateful for in this moment.
Big or small is of no consequence.
These things may be unique to you and your like circumstance.
Maybe it's the general things that we all have that we tend to take for granted.
Gratitude for having a healthy able body.
Gratitude for the ability to breathe freely without constraint.
And gratitude for the ability to have time to sit and connect within.
Just allowing the mind to run through all of the things that you have in your life that you can be grateful for.
And once your mind starts to list them,
Taking the awareness to the heart space and seeing if you can feel where that feeling of gratitude comes from.
Maybe it's a warm sensation in the center of your chest.
A tingling or just a warm haze that you can't quite describe.
Implying where this feeling seems to begin in your body.
And then as we breathe,
Visualizing this feeling expanding from this place of origin.
Maybe the gratitude starts as a small glowing light in the center of the chest.
And with each inhale,
If you're blowing up a balloon,
The light expands across the chest,
Down the torso,
With every breath growing until it begins to fill up your entire body.
Notice how this feels to be full of positive energy,
Of gratitude and appreciation.
And just take a few moments to rest in the feeling of enjoying how blessed and fortunate you are for the things that you are grateful for.
Moving on to this piece of gratitude in the entire body for just a moment longer.
And then gently keeping the eyes closed,
Let's bring our hands together in prayer at the chest.
Feel your hands coming into contact,
Touching one another.
And then slowly start to rub your hands together,
Starting to create a little bit of warmth in the hands and the fingers,
Starting to bring our awareness back into the physical body.
And once you've created a little bit of warmth,
Gently resting both hands over your chest,
Over your heart.
Imagine the energy that you've created,
That gratitude just being solidified in your heart space.
Moving on to this feeling for the rest of our practice and the rest of your day.
Bringing the hands together once again,
Rubbing them together,
Generating some warmth.
And this time bringing the hands to rest over the closed eyes.
Feel the temperature of the hands on the face.
Slowly begin to flat the eyes open as if seeing for the first time.
And then take your time to widen the space between the fingers,
Allowing the light in as we express gratitude for the incredible ability to see the world around us.
Eventually releasing your hands down towards your knees.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
It has been an absolute pleasure to guide you through your practice.
I wish you a wonderful,
Great day ahead.
Namaste.
