Hello everyone,
And welcome to this guided meditation for gratitude.
Let's begin to drop into this practice,
Sitting or lying down by deepening the breath.
If you're sitting,
Ensure your spine is in one long line from the crown to the root,
Allowing the neck to be an extension of the spine and the heart to lift.
If you're lying down,
Tuck your chin to elongate the back of the neck.
In today's world,
Gratitude can be so hard to find.
With our ego's insatiable appetite and the consistent ability to see the highlight reel of one another's life,
It can be very difficult to feel grateful.
Now,
I want you to think of three things that you are grateful for.
Take a second and notice how you feel.
Do you feel an inner smile?
Maybe your heart expanding?
How about an inner warmth?
We're going to continue to breathe as we do a slow,
Gentle scan,
Noticing anything in our bodies without judgment.
We're going to start at our toes,
Noticing each toe one by one.
Through the soles of our feet,
Top of our feet,
Our heels,
The ankles,
Up the calves and shins,
The knees and the space behind the knees,
Our thighs and the top of our thighs,
Feeling our whole lower body sinking deeper and deeper into the earth,
Deeper and deeper,
Relaxing the pelvis and buttocks,
The lower back,
Mid-back and upper back.
Relax.
Moving down the arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Wrists,
The palms and back of the hand,
Through each knuckle of every finger.
Feel the pulsing in the hands as they fall deeper and deeper.
Back up the arms to the center of the upper back between the shoulder blades,
Moving the back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Crown of the head,
Relaxing the muscles of the forehead,
The muscles around the eyes,
Our cheeks and ears,
Allowing our jaws to release and hang,
Relaxing the tongue down in the mouth,
Moving down the throat,
Through the throat chakra to the chest.
Feel the chest expand,
Moving down to the stomach,
Allowing our breath to expand the stomach lovingly,
Releasing anything on the out-breath which we may be holding in our stomach.
The truth is we have so much to be grateful for.
Our family,
Friends,
Our sense of sight,
Smell,
Hearing and touch,
Our healthy digestive systems and immune systems,
The sun rising and setting every day,
The moon and stars lighting up the night sky,
Rain cleansing our earth,
All of the animals,
Mother nature,
Life,
Music,
The mountains stretching to the sky,
The ocean shimmering as far as the eye can see,
Books adding wisdom to our lives,
A large forest or an empty field of flowers,
But most importantly we have to be grateful for ourselves.
I'm going to leave you now for a brief moment.
If you find yourself slipping into the thoughts of the day today,
Refocus on the breath moving in and out lovingly and refocus on what you feel grateful for.
All right.
I'm going to begin to bring you back now.
Start by deepening the breath.
Begin to wiggle your fingers and toes.
Roll your ankles and flutter your eyes open.
Tap into an inner smile thinking about all we have to be grateful for as we go into the rest of our day or our night.
Allow yourself to come back to the room that you're in.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Namaste.
