Thank you for choosing to practice gratitude today.
Get yourself in a comfortable position,
Either sitting upright,
Cross-legged on the floor,
Perhaps with a cushion under your hips,
Or seated in a chair with your feet flat on the ground so you can feel nice and grounded.
Let your spine rise up tall.
Let your face soften,
Your jaw relax,
And the tops of your shoulders relax.
Let your elbows be heavy.
Bring your awareness to all the parts of your body that are in contact with the ground or your chair,
And imagine that your breath is entering from the earth up into your body.
So it enters the lower parts of your body first and rises up.
And as you exhale,
Releasing anything you don't need,
Releasing your breath back down into the earth,
Starting with gratitude for how supported we are by the earth beneath us and by our breath,
Which flows every moment of our lives,
Whether we're thinking about it or not.
So bring that beautiful,
Conscious energy of gratitude and relax into the flow.
I'm going to ring the bell now.
Just listen until you can't hear it anymore.
Bring one hand up to heart center,
Place your palm flat against your chest,
And feel for the movement of your breath at your heart.
Maybe you can notice your heartbeat.
Center your awareness on the space,
The center of your body at heart center,
Breathing here.
So you might notice the movement of your breath in the back or in the sides and in the front where your hand is.
Shifting and settling your awareness of the space brings energy and awareness and also sets up what is called heart congruence.
So greater connection between the neural information around your heart and the neural activity in your head.
And the heart sends information to the head.
So our hearts are really here to lead the way.
This is where our feelings of love,
Gratitude,
And compassion are felt.
When we have a stronger connection,
We take the time like you've chosen to today to cultivate that connection and to cultivate these wonderful feelings,
And they influence how we think and feel.
So imagine that there's a light at the very center of your heart,
And every breath you take in,
That light gets a little brighter,
Like it's blooming,
Bringing in that good energy.
And every breath out,
Imagine it's a breath of thankfulness,
A breath of gratitude,
Expanding that light outward.
To breathe in,
It gets brighter and wider and fills the space on the inside of your body.
Exhale,
Imagine that light crossing the boundaries of your physical body and expanding outwards as our energy of our heart actually does.
With your awareness settled here,
This idea of bringing in and expanding out,
Start to bring up memories that made you feel really grateful or brought up feelings of compassion and love and connection.
Feelings in your life you're really grateful for.
Call up the feelings and remember how your body felt and to really bring those chemicals in to circulate through your body in this moment.
It's like time traveling.
You can go backwards in time in a memory,
But create the feeling in this moment,
Breathe into it,
And then expand it outwards.
So give me moments of kindness where you felt connected to all things and at peace.
It can also be simple everyday rituals that bring you joy.
Maybe the steam rising from a cup of tea,
Watching the light hit it,
A beautiful sunset,
A perfect day on the beach,
Maybe the first flowers of spring.
Breathe it in and expand it outwards.
You can think about the people you're grateful for or the pets.
Breathe in the feeling of love.
Breathe out,
Expanding that energy,
Knowing that that energy can reach them wherever they are.
Change your heart energy to touch and reach out to all the people you love and care for.
Visualize every cell in your body alive and alight with this energy of gratitude.
Bring a little smile to your face,
Like the smile is rising right out of your heart.
Bring your other hand down to your lower abdomen to receive your breath nice and low in the body.
Feel that your whole body is truly breathing in this light,
These positive chemicals and these positive emotions circulating,
Nourishing.
Gratitude truly is the field where happiness flowers and taking the time to contemplate,
To cultivate is creating this nice fertile field so that as the simple,
Beautiful moments of life arise,
That we have the presence of mind and the presence of heart to notice them,
Fully appreciate them and fully be present.
Bring your lower hand up to seal in the hand that's over your heart,
Bringing all your awareness back to heart center.
Feel that expansion and contraction of breath at your heart and then bow your head towards your hands,
Towards your heart and the head brain bows to the heart brain.
May it lead your way today.
I'm going to ring the bell to close our practice and imagine that the waves of that sound is carrying the energy of your heart ever outward,
Ever outward,
Ultimately influencing the entire world.
I wish you a beautiful day.
