Good morning.
Thank you for joining me to greet the day ahead with a sense of welcome and gratitude for the gifts yet to unfold.
Before we begin,
I'd like to provide a brief foundation for the practice of gratitude.
Personal gratitude has been shown to have a powerful effect on how our minds process our daily experiences in ways that increase joy and happiness in our life.
Our human minds have developed the ability over many centuries to detect potential threats in our environment and to warn us through focusing our attention on danger in order to protect us and keep us safe from harm.
We can be both grateful that our minds are able to do this for us,
While also recognizing that by focusing on threat and safety,
Our minds have not developed the same ability to focus our attention on experiences that bring joy,
Happiness,
Peace,
And connection.
Through intentional practice,
We can train our minds to be better able to notice moments of joy and meaning,
And in so doing,
We can increase our own well-being.
With this in mind,
Let's begin to greet today with gratitude.
Take a few rounds of deep inhaling to the count of four,
And exhaling to the count of four.
Notice the sound of your breath coming in and going out,
And let its rhythm soothe your senses,
Anchor you to this moment of peace before the day gets started.
You may like to place one hand on your heart center and one hand below your navel on your abdomen or above your navel on your solar plexus.
Let go of the counting of your breath,
And turn your attention to the rising and falling of your chest and stomach beneath the comforting touch of your hands.
Allow yourself to feel held by this touch,
Held by your breath,
Held by the gift of your own awareness.
Notice how it feels in your body to be held in your own gentle awareness in this way,
Nowhere to go in the moment,
Nowhere to be in the moment except right here,
Right now,
In your own presence.
Bring to mind one recent moment in which you felt joy,
Peace,
Love,
Connection,
Or some other positive emotion.
It could be something quite small,
Perhaps something that you might have forgotten even.
Once you have this moment in mind,
Allow yourself to bring it to life fully in your memory.
Recall as many of the senses that were involved,
The pleasant emotions that you felt.
Notice how it feels in your body to remember this experience.
Let that feeling expand as big as you can in this moment.
Allow the feeling of gratitude for the experience to be folded in.
And now return your attention to the feeling of your breath and of your hands on your torso.
Set an intention for gratitude as you go forward into your day.
May you be more aware of the littlest moments of joy,
And let them linger just a little bit longer in your awareness than you might ordinarily do.
Feel the impact they have on your emotions and their felt sense in your body before returning to the next task at hand.
The more aware we can be of the experiences we appreciate each day,
The more we look for these experiences,
And the more we allow our awareness to linger,
And the more resilient we become.
Now stretch your body,
Open your eyes if they were closed,
And enter your day with the echoes of gratitude.
Namaste.
