Today's meditation is all about connecting to an element of nature.
So take this time and find yourself in a comfortable seat.
Carving out some space in your house,
In your backyard,
In your room.
And allowing that space to be without distractions or interruptions for the next 10 minutes or so.
GONG Closing the eyes and allowing the gaze to soften behind the sockets of the eyes.
Keeping the teeth parted but allowing the lips to gently close.
Noticing if there's any tension in the body that you can at this time soften as well.
And then bringing into your mind one element of nature that you feel especially connected to at this point in time.
And so for example it can be a bubbling brook,
A stream running down a mountain side.
It can be the way that an eagle flaps its wings and soars in the sky.
It can be a single fern or a single flower.
Or it can be a tall and resilient tree.
Whatever element of nature you have chosen,
Allowing that element to be in your mind as clear as it can be.
If you've chosen a tree imagining the way that the bark runs all the way from the forest floor to the edge of the sky.
If it's an animal imagining the way their eyes might look.
If it's a single plant like a fern or a flower imagining their color,
Their brightness,
Their beauty.
Imagining your element of nature so clearly as if it were right there in front of you in this very room.
And then imagining that you're making some kind of physical contact with it.
As you do,
Imagining what the texture would feel like.
Imagining what that interaction would look like.
What sounds you might hear.
What details up close you might notice that you wouldn't otherwise have noticed.
And then while in this interaction,
Imagine that pouring from your body and from the center of your chest is this degree,
This feeling of gratitude for this one single element of nature.
Because while this is the element of nature that you've chosen today,
In reality,
All of our elements are connected.
They all stem from the same life force.
They're all natural elements of our beautiful world.
And sinking as much gratitude into your element as you can.
As if you were saying,
I appreciate you so much.
And this is why.
And then just as quickly as you've crafted your image,
Slowly letting the image go.
Bringing the awareness back into your body.
And back to the center of the chest where you just felt that gratitude emanating from.
Now we're going to send gratitude into our very sacred space.
There are so many things that we can be grateful for,
Like our quiet and safe bedrooms and houses.
And for the loved ones that we share it with.
For the fact that we can put food on the table and that food can nourish and give us energy.
You can be grateful for the walking trails.
And for the trees outside the window.
And for the sun that continues to shine.
And you think of three things that you could be grateful for right now.
And as you think of your three things to be grateful for.
See if you can feel the feelings of gratitude just like you gave to your element of nature.
Pouring out of your chest,
Out of your heart.
Being grateful,
Feeling grateful and allowing that gratefulness to emanate from your body.
Today I am grateful for.
Today I am grateful for.
Today I am grateful for.
And slowly connecting back into the breath.
Letting the breath deepen.
Letting the breath deepen so much that you can hear the breath in and you can hear the breath out.
The breath out.
And studies have proven that starting the day with gratitude allows us to cast a different lens upon our world.
It allows us to see things to be more grateful for.
And in turn allows us to look at things with more optimism than before we were grateful.
And bringing the hands to heart center.
To feel grateful is to be grateful.
And to be grateful is to appreciate all of the beauty in our world.
Even through tough times and challenges.
There is still so much beauty to be seen.
Namaste.
