A Breath Of Gratitude

Sometimes it's difficult to find something to be grateful for. When times seem hopeless, we can turn to the breath, which gives without expectation. This meditation allows us to drink in the breath with gratitude for its life-giving properties. Once we cultivate gratitude for the breath, we exhale this giving spirit to others.

Much gratitude to you for listening.

Music: "New Mindfulness" by Chris Collins at Indie Music Box
Cover photo by Debby Hudson from Unsplash

Transcript

In the midst of our day,

It's sometimes difficult to find gratitude because we fall into those patterns and we don't take enough time to stop and recognize the things that we might have taken for granted.

And one of the things that we can easily be grateful for is something that we do each moment and that's breathing.

Sometimes in the midst of chaos,

You spend a moment and recognize where your breath is.

You might find it is very shallow,

But your breath is there to keep you alive and it does it does its business without really any permission from you.

And even if you feel very,

Very heavy,

You can take a few moments and have some gratitude for the breath and let the breath be the gratitude for others.

So if you're not already sitting down,

Lying down on the bed or something comfortable,

Take a moment for and recognize where your breath is right now.

Does it feel pressure in your sternum,

Mid chest,

Or does it sink down deep into your lungs and fill your belly?

See if you can for this next breath,

See if you can allow the breath to draw in deep so that the diaphragm presses the organs of the abdomen out and then the exhale sends the diaphragm in the air back out through your nose or through your mouth.

See if you can deepen the breath,

Subtle aim of deepening the inhale deep into the belly and exhaling the lightness.

Exhaling deep and exhaling soft.

So your inhales then become an expression of gratitude for life giving air.

Any exhale is giving the life back to others.

Exhaling gratitude for the breath and then exhaling giving back.

Exhaling receiving and exhale giving.

So you can practice breaths of gratitude at any moment of the day.

Inhaling gratitude for the life giving breath and exhaling giving back to others.

Your breath is always there.

Reviews

Wonderfully presented. Thank you.

Starting my day with gratitude. Thank you!

Nice music, good pace, calm voice for a gratitude practice using only the breath.