This is an anti-gratitude practice.
This is a meditation for those of you who don't like,
Don't enjoy gratitude practices.
Or those of you who are tired or don't feel like doing a gratitude practice.
But still want to touch in to gratitude,
Maybe through the back door or in a more indirect way.
The anti-gratitude practice is one full of freedom,
Allowance,
And non-judgment.
For your feeling of,
I don't want to be grateful,
I don't feel grateful for anything right now.
And it's a place to let that unfold.
And I'll be guiding you through this process of allowing it to show you itself.
To communicate whatever it wants to say to you.
And maybe at the end if you feel like it,
We can touch into gratitude and see if it feels a little different or if it's easier.
To begin,
Start to invite more slower,
Deeper belly breaths into your body.
Noticing if it's harder to breathe through certain areas in your body and places of ease where that breath is flowing freely.
And you don't have to force or push a deeper or smoother breath.
It'll happen quite naturally actually as we continue to nurture this breath.
Slowly bring your hands to a part of the body that feels natural.
And just rest in that connection.
Perhaps feeling the temperature of your body,
The pressure of the contact,
And establishing a foundation in the physical.
In the breath,
In the body,
Before we proceed to work with things that hang out less in the physical realm.
When you're ready,
Begin to gently introduce or invite in this feeling,
A general sentiment of not being grateful.
Allowing whatever form,
Whatever story comes with this feeling to come into your awareness.
And everything is welcome here.
The story attached to that feeling,
Whatever happened before you sat down here and you thought to yourself,
I don't want,
I don't feel like being grateful right now.
Whatever happened,
Welcome that here.
Any previous experiences with gratitude practices that you just didn't vibe with,
You can bring that in here too.
Really anything that's connected to your unique experience of not really getting or really enjoying gratitude practice.
And as that feeling,
That story takes form,
Notice how you react to it.
How does it make you feel?
What thoughts,
What inner dialogue starts playing?
Allow any and all to come up without resisting,
Without turning away as best as you can.
Allow all of that sticky,
Difficult,
Annoying stuff come up.
And as it starts to get more uncomfortable,
You can resource yourself back into the body,
Back into the physical breath,
Back into the contact of your hands on your body.
Seeing if it feels good to sigh or to move or to shake.
Anything that welcomes more spaciousness so that you may hold,
You may witness in a grounded way,
These difficult emotions and thoughts that might be coming up right now.
What annoys you about gratitude or gratitude practices?
What do you dislike about the whole thing?
Welcome it all.
Because when life is difficult,
Sometimes gratitude practices are not what we need.
Sometimes we need to get angry.
We need to get upset.
We need to allow whatever annoying,
Upsetting,
Bad thing that happened,
Process and move through us.
And in moving through us,
That is the only way where we can touch into gratitude from a relaxed and sincere place.
In allowing your difficult situation to come up and for you to really see it and really be with it,
You're welcoming and opening up a line of communication.
What does this situation,
What do these feelings have to share with you?
What do they want to tell you?
And in turn,
What would you like to share with the situation?
And now returning back into our breath,
Back into our physical body,
Letting those feelings,
That situation retreat for now.
Letting whatever just happened integrate.
Enjoy this sense of freedom,
Expansiveness,
Clarity,
Flow that you've just cultivated and allowing that which is unsavory in life to move through you.
And maybe now you might feel a little more easier and you actually might want to do it.
Gratitude.
So in whatever way feels natural,
Invite some gratitude into your being,
Knowing that there's really no right or wrong way to do gratitude.
And when you're ready,
I welcome you to open your eyes,
Return to your space and enjoy the rest of your day.
