Hello everyone,
My name is Erica Gallia and I am back to share with you a little meditation on how to ground yourself in gratitude.
Gratitude is simply the energy of being deeply appreciative for all that you have.
And over the next few minutes together when we close our eyes and go within,
I invite you to be appreciative,
To be naturally grateful for you being here,
For being in your body,
For being able to breathe,
And for being able to listen to your heart.
So with that,
Get into a comfortable seated position,
Dropping your shoulders away from your ears,
Pressing your heart forward,
Swallow your saliva.
Begin to rub your hands together as we settle in the body,
Arrive in the body,
And using this motion as an opportunity for our mind to become aware of our body,
Releasing the outer world,
Exiting the outer world and connecting to ourselves,
Connecting to our breath,
Connecting to our essence.
And once we feel warm in our hands,
We're going to share that with ourselves by tracing our face and smoothing out our hairline,
Our temples,
And our jaw.
Keeping our eyes open or closed,
Whatever is most nourishing for you.
And then bringing our hands to our hearts,
Pressing down with pressure,
Closing our eyes if they aren't done so already as we set a collective intention.
May I allow myself to feel gratitude for being present,
For breathing,
And for being alive.
One inhale,
And one long exhale out of the mouth,
Dropping your hands until they're resting on your lap or beside you.
I invite you to become aware of your mindful breathing cycle,
So following the inhales,
Noticing where the breath goes,
And then following the breath out on the exhale,
Noticing and witnessing the space that our breath takes up.
How it takes up space when we let it go and how it takes up space in our body.
It takes up healing space,
Space that gives us life.
And can we be grateful for that?
Can we be grateful for the space that our breath takes up?
Slowly breathing in,
And slowly breathing out.
I invite you to close your lips and seal your lips,
And try to continue with inhales and exhales out of your nostrils.
As we synchronize our head and our heart with our breath,
We breathe in,
The belly rises,
The chest rises,
The heart rises,
And the breath ends at our mind,
At our headscape.
And as we release the breath out of the nostrils,
The breath falls from the head space down the throat,
Leaving the chest and the heart as well as the belly.
We're completely relaxed from head to toe.
And giving yourself an opportunity to notice any lingering tension or tightness in the body.
Using our sense of touch and holding these areas with our fingers and our hands that need some extra loving attention.
And can we be grateful for the discomfort,
For the uneasiness?
Because we know on the other side,
There is lightness,
There is peace and tranquility,
So expressing a natural gratitude for our discomfort in our body.
Send your breath into those parts of you,
And those components of the body.
While remaining curious now,
Are there any parts within you that do feel at ease?
Parts within you where you've been able to cultivate some peace and serenity?
Can you send your awareness and your attention to those areas?
Using your hands to hold the pieces within you,
Expressing natural gratitude for the stillness.
And we'll rub our hands together just as we started.
Bringing back this warm energy that we share with ourselves as we close our practice.
Place our hands back on the heart space,
Back on the chest.
Kindly repeating to ourselves,
Thank you for allowing me and giving me this warm energy to cultivate gratitude for my presence,
For my breath,
And for my wholeness.
Expanding your loving awareness,
Becoming completely connected to every component that makes up your humanness.
Feeling the weight of your bones,
The clothes on your skin.
Feeling the rhythm of your heart,
The flow of your breath.
We'll seal our practice with an inhale through both nostrils,
Sipping in a little bit more,
Allowing the breath to take up space in your body,
Breathing in this natural gratitude.
And as you open your eyes with the exhale,
We share that with the world.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for taking these few moments of your day to ground yourself in gratitude and to come back to the human basics of being grateful for our body,
Our breath,
And for our beating heart.
We will see you again soon.
Bye!
