Gratitude Meditation

Breath into your gratitude; for this moment, for this life, for your body, for your loved ones and for your practice. Follow me for a short guided meditation to increase our awareness of gratitude. Gratitude is a life form that we can harness in our daily lives to bring us back into the present moment...join me.

Transcript

And if you're sitting on the floor,

You can make sure you have three points of contact with the ground.

See if you can have your knees below your hips.

You want a straight,

Strong back and a soft center.

And you can close your eyes as well.

So to begin the meditation,

I will invite the sound of the bell,

And it's a moment that you can come back to your breath,

Come back into your body,

Close your eyes,

And just be in the present moment.

Now,

Today we'll do a 15-minute meditation on gratitude.

And so I want you to feel what the first thing that came up for you was when I said the word gratitude.

Whether it's gratitude for your body,

Maybe gratitude for your environment,

Gratitude for yourself,

Gratitude for a person,

Gratitude for a thing,

Whatever it is,

And it can be more than one.

Feel what you feel grateful for right now.

And also just notice how that shows up in your body,

Maybe where you feel the gratitude,

The warmth in your heart,

Or maybe it brings a smile to your face.

Get curious about the sensation in your body when you feel gratitude for this thing or this person or this place.

And just become curious of how it moves through your body,

How it lives in your body.

And slowly increase your curiosity to how your breath is moving in your body.

You don't have to change anything yet.

Just notice the inhalations and the exhalations.

Maybe you feel a bit of cool air coming in through your nostrils and feeling it on your upper lip.

And exhaling,

You feel some warmer air flowing through your nostrils and also on your upper lip.

Maybe you feel your chest rising and falling,

Your belly expanding and contracting.

I say the word curious because I want to invite you to just really become aware of these things and not try and change them.

We start to slowly increase our awareness of the breath moving in and out of the body.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Breathing in,

I know that I am breathing in.

And breathing out,

I know that I am breathing out.

And on your next in-breath,

I invite you to feel your breath a bit deeper.

And on the next out-breath,

To feel your breath a bit longer.

Breathing in,

I feel my breath deepen.

And breathing out,

I feel my breath lengthen.

And at any point in this meditation,

There might be sensations,

Either physical or mental or emotional that come in.

They might distract you and take away your attention.

And then I would just invite you to come back to this feeling of gratitude.

And noticing how it shows up in your body and in your breath.

And recognizing that our breath is constant,

The way that it flows through our body is different and changes in moment to moment,

Day to day.

But you can direct your awareness to your breath.

So that will be your practice also during this meditation.

That when feelings or thoughts,

Maybe physical sensations come up,

Accept it and allow it without judgment and bring your awareness back to your breathing.

Breathing in,

I know that I am breathing in.

And breathing out,

I know that I am breathing out.

In-breath and out-breath.

Now I will invite you to see if you can start to follow the cycle of your breath.

From the full cycle of the inhale,

Maybe starting deep down in your belly,

Moving up through your chest and into your throat and out your nose.

And the full cycle of the exhale,

From your nose,

Down through your chest and down into your belly.

And as you continue to deepen and lengthen your breath,

See if you can just follow,

Maybe it helps to visualize it,

The full cycle of your breath.

And the connection also between the inhale and the exhale.

You feel your belly expand on the inhale as the breath moves up your body.

And you feel your belly pull back towards your spine on the exhale.

And as we slowly start to engage the diaphragmatic breathing that engages your parasympathetic system,

You feel on the inhale,

You allow your belly to release as the breath moves up your body.

And on the exhale,

Your belly pulls slightly in towards your spine as your breath moves back down the channel of your body.

Inhale,

Allow your belly to release.

And exhale,

Bring your belly back in towards your spine.

It might be helpful to place a hand on your belly so that you can feel the physical movement in your belly.

You can feel the breath flowing in and out.

And see here if you can be very conscious and very mindful of your breath.

Deep inhales and long exhales.

Breathing in,

Allow your belly to release.

Full breath.

And breathing out,

Bringing your belly back in towards your spine.

When we engage our parasympathetic nervous system,

You also naturally feel your mind start to calm and your body start to calm.

And we can bring that element of gratitude back in,

Being grateful that you can create that feeling all for yourself and your own body.

And being aware that at any moment throughout the day,

You can create that moment for yourself and create that feeling of calm in your body.

Simply by breathing and directing your awareness to your breath.

Breathing in,

Allowing your belly to release.

Long inhale.

And breathing out,

Bringing your belly back towards your spine.

Slow exhale.

Now you can remove your hand from your belly.

You can resume to more normal breathing.

Still remain the subtle awareness on your breath,

Flowing in and out through your body.

And now I invite you to bring back that feeling of gratitude.

Is it the same feeling?

How does it feel in your body now?

Maybe now you also feel grateful for something else.

Maybe you feel more grateful for your breath,

For this meditation,

For your body.

And now I invite you to slowly bring yourself back into your body.

Notice if there's any points of tension,

Maybe in your shoulders or your hips or your knees,

Behind your eyes or your jaw.

And on the next inhale,

Become aware of this tension.

And on the next exhale,

Deliberately release.

Bringing calm into your body.

You can imagine flowing your breath to that part of tension in your body.

Inhaling,

Becoming aware of tension in my body.

And exhale,

Flowing my breath to calm that part of my body.

And I'll invite you one more time to just become aware of your breath.

How it's flowing through your body.

How does it feel now?

Maybe you feel that you have more control or you can direct your awareness there.

Or maybe it feels deeper and slower.

Maybe you don't really notice your breath.

But whatever you feel,

Whatever you notice,

Accept it and know that it's okay.

And as I begin to close the meditation,

I will also invite three sounds of the bell.

And on the first sound,

You can become aware of yourself and gratitude towards yourself.

During the second bell,

You can bring gratitudes towards another.

And on the third bell,

Gratitude for the planet and for the world.

Now I invite you to uncross your legs,

Maybe massage your knees or your feet.

See if you can still keep your eyes closed.

And you can slowly bring your awareness back into your body,

Back into the space,

Into the room.

And as you open your eyes slowly,

Maybe you keep your gaze down at first.

And then bring yourself back into the room,

Back into the space.

And I want to say thank you for joining.

I'm grateful for you and for the meditation practice.

Enjoy your day.