This is a guided meditation for embodying gratitude.
As always,
I'd like to invite you to welcome in a soothing,
Havening touch,
Gently rubbing your palms against one another as though you're washing your hands in your warm water,
Placing your hands across your chest,
Fingertips on your shoulders,
And moving them down your arms to your elbows in a loving,
Moving hug,
Or gently tracing across your brow with your fingertips or around your cheekbones.
This will deepen the experience and create an experience of open expansiveness as you embody the experience of gratitude.
Let's start with a gentle,
Steadying breath in,
Tuning inwards to your breath and the effects you notice as you breathe in and out.
If you'd like to close your eyes for this meditation,
Invite them to gently drift close or find a gentle gaze someplace in the room,
Or of course you can haven along with me at your own pace.
Continue your gentle,
Easy breath and invite your mind to explore your personal experience of gratitude.
What does it feel like when somebody expresses appreciation,
Thankfulness,
Or gratitude to you?
A loving thank you,
A job well done.
What happens in your mind and your body when you receive that message and bear witness to those experiences?
What is it like when you express gratitude to another?
To share with them how much you appreciate and are grateful for their presence.
What happens in your mind and your body when you receive or express gratitude?
Invite your mind to lovingly and gently explore what this feels like.
What do you notice?
You might even find a couple moments in the past days,
Weeks,
Or months when you experienced gratitude.
What happened inside?
Did you relax or light up or both?
Noticing what these experiences feel like in your mind and your body,
Invite yourself to get into a deeper relationship with them.
Is there a color or a movement?
Do your muscles or your movements shift and change?
Even your face,
Does it relax or even tease at a smile?
I'd like to invite you now to deepen your breath and imagine as though you're breathing in gratitude.
I invite you to breathe in to your own pace,
With each breath inviting your breath to become a little bit deeper and your exhale a little fuller.
As you welcome in your unique experience of gratitude,
This beautifully energetic and colored self in the unique loving way that it shows up in your mind and body.
Breathing in gratitude and releasing with a gentle breath and breathing it in again,
Inviting it to expand and again,
Gently releasing your breath and as you're filling up your mind,
Your body,
Your system with this energy of loving gratitude,
Notice as it flows within you and as you continue your gentle breath,
Notice now that you can invite your exhale to be an outpouring of gratitude to the world around you.
Start to flow and embrace all the experiences and the people,
All the living things in your world that you're grateful for.
Breathing in gratitude and breathing out gratitude.
Breathing in gratitude and breathing out gratitude to your own gentle cadence,
Inviting it to become deeper,
More fully connected within and around you.
And now as you continue that grateful breath,
Let's notice those quiet pauses at the top of each inhale and at the bottom of each exhale.
Breathing in gratitude and pausing with quiet and breathing out gratitude and pause,
Noticing the quiet stillness in those pauses and even being grateful for those.
As we bring this loving exercise to a close,
I invite you to notice three things that you're particularly grateful for in this moment.
And of course,
One could simply be gratitude for yourself for taking this time to give yourself so much love and care.
And as you find those experiences,
Quietly say,
I am grateful for,
I am grateful for,
And I am grateful for.
This is such a powerful healing gift to give yourself.
It truly does shift the way our mind and our body perceive and interact with the world around us.
And know that you can return to your unique experience of gratitude at any time to continue to build your loving,
Beautiful,
And amazing brain.
