Welcome to this meditation.
Our focus is on gratitude.
That feeling that all is right with the world and with ourselves.
And when we feel that way internally,
We share that outlook and that positivity with the rest of the world.
There are many reasons why we want to focus on gratitude.
Increased happiness,
Increased positivity,
More satisfaction with life,
Less likely to experience burnout,
Better physical health,
Better sleep,
Less fatigue,
Even lower levels of cellular inflammation.
We're going to do a number of things in our meditation today,
So it's important to settle in and be comfortable.
When we're uncomfortable,
We're distracted.
So take a few seconds now to find a seated position or lying flat,
Adjusting yourself so that you're ready for the meditation and to focus.
Let's begin.
We're going to start with a quote from American author Melody Beattie.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
Chaos to order,
Confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
A house into a home,
A stranger into a friend.
And we are gratefully going to start with some controlled breathing.
We're going to do this twice.
We're going to breathe in for a count of four,
Hold for a count of five and exhale for a count of six.
We're going to give that parasympathetic nervous system a little nudge,
That rest and relax system.
So let's begin breathing in for four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Hold it,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One and exhaling six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
And once more,
Breathing in for a count of four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Holding five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One and exhaling six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
And now we will return to our regular breath.
Whatever that may be,
Whatever feels right for us,
We're not trying to examine it,
Review it and we're certainly not trying to control or to change it.
Bringing the attention to the breath is one way to enhance our focus and to increase stillness.
Distractions are bound to occur.
That's what the mind does.
It thinks.
Thoughts intrude.
When that happens,
We simply come back to the breath.
Now that we're relaxed,
Breathing comfortably,
We're going to take a minute to notice any negativity in our body.
Are we worrying about anything?
Are we anxious?
Is there anything that's frustrating to us?
And what we're going to do is breathe into that emotion.
Just inhale deeply and then as we exhale,
We're going to release that tension,
That frustration,
That negativity out into the world.
Try that for five seconds.
Breathing in and breathing out.
This meditation is called grounded in gratitude.
And we're looking at rooting ourselves in that experience and that emotion of gratitude.
The root chakra is what roots us in place,
What grounds us firmly.
The muladhira.
And the sense organ that's connected to the root chakra is the sense of smell.
So take a few seconds now and just focus on the tip of your nose.
This will help align the root chakra and bring forth the qualities that you want to feel grounded and to stay grounded.
So just take a few seconds.
Feel that tip of the nose.
Get a sense of its position on your body in space.
And now,
Breathe in.
We're going to do a check in with our body just to relax us and to help us focus a little more deeply.
Let's start with our feet.
Move up to our legs.
Settle in at the hips and move up to the belly.
Now,
We'll go to our heart where gratitude resides.
From there,
Move up to the shoulders.
See if you can relax down and away from the ears.
Focus on your face.
Try to relax the jaw,
The cheeks,
The forehead.
Take a second to focus on the third body.
And finally,
We'll move to our crown and our crown chakra.
We are relaxed.
We are open to being grateful.
We'll do a small gratitude mantra.
It's very straightforward.
We're going to say ten times,
I am grateful for something.
And ideally,
For every time you say it,
You will be grateful for something different.
If you're having a problem coming up with items to be grateful for at this point in time,
Start with something around you.
Are you grateful to be warm?
Are you grateful to be comfortable?
Are you grateful for the sunshine coming in a window?
And then you can move from there.
We're going to take a few seconds to say to ourselves,
I am grateful for.
.
.
I'm going to do it ten times.
Let's start now.
Now,
We're going to delve a little deeper into gratitude.
You just finished looking around you and within you and you had ten gratitude statements.
Focus in on one of those.
It might be something about yourself.
It might be a person you're grateful for.
It might be an activity or an environment you're grateful for.
But what you want to do is you want to savour this moment.
You want to explore it.
What is it about this person,
This place,
This experience that makes you feel grateful?
And what is it you feel when you feel gratitude?
We're going to take 15,
20 seconds and we're going to just relax into gratitude and explore more deeply what for us constitutes gratitude.
Bring to mind one of your gratitude statements and delve more deeply.
We're coming to the end of our meditation.
What we'd like to do now is we would like to thank ourselves for having shown up today,
For having meditated today,
For having taken time to be grateful.
We're going to do two very simple things.
We're going to start by putting our hand over our heart.
And then we're going to say two simple statements.
For each of those statements,
It's really helpful if you add your name to the end of them.
The two statements are,
Thank you and I love you.
Take a second to do that now.
And as you do that,
I'll read a final quote.
This one from Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
But the parent of all others.
When you're ready,
Start to bring a little movement back to the body.
With your fingers and toes,
Perhaps a stretch and slowly open your eyes.
Thank you for meditating with me today.
I'm Donna Lee.
The light in me sees the light in you.
We are one.
