So let's go ahead and just find your comfortable seat first of all.
Sit up tall and straight wherever you have ended up.
Close your eyes softly.
Let the eyelids just fall shut.
Notice your body for a moment.
Notice your seat,
Sort of grounded down into the chair.
Notice the spine lengthening upwards from your seat all the way up through the top back of the head.
Feel the chin gently tucking in just to lengthen the back of the neck even more.
And imagine your spine.
Imagine that entire,
You know,
That complete complex of bones and nerves and spinal cord rising up from your seat to the top of the head.
It doesn't actually go that far,
But we'll imagine it.
It's like a superhighway of energy and information.
So the more space you can breathe into that,
The more you can lift it gently up,
The more access you get to all of this energy,
The freer it can be.
So as you're here making these minor adjustments in the body,
Getting tall,
Softening any extra tension,
Imagine that spine and spinal cord rising gracefully up.
Every inhale,
More space between the bones of the spine.
And just for a moment,
Notice if there are any areas of your body where you feel extra tension or maybe it's discomfort or pain.
Maybe it's just a sensation of tightness or a feeling like you want to move.
Something uncomfortable,
Something irritating.
Is there anywhere in the body that feels like that?
Maybe there's not.
But just take notice.
Try not to explain it away.
Try not to feel any certain way about it.
Just notice it.
And if you've found an area like that or more than one area like that,
Go ahead and take a nice,
Full,
Deep breath right into that area.
Send it right into that body part.
Imagine it filling up,
Warming up,
Expanding that area.
And as you exhale,
Whatever tension is there releases a little bit,
A little bit more.
Take the next five or six breaths to peruse the body and just open up.
Create space with your breath.
Create softness.
Notice what it is you need.
Now start to move your attention upwards to your heart center,
Right in the center of the chest.
We know the actual physical heart lies just slightly to the left.
But we'll imagine right in the center of the chest there,
That point lifting up as you inhale.
There's a gentle lift like it's being pulled up by a string.
That Anahata Chakra,
Heart center.
It's green in color,
Represents compassion and love,
Including self-love.
Every inhale,
Feel that lifting just a tad more,
Creating space and softness and warmth around the heart now.
Notice if that feels relaxing to you.
Does it feel calm?
Does it feel another way?
Still just noticing without any judgment.
Now guide your attention to your breath,
The sensations of your breath moving in and out.
Starting at the nostrils,
You feel the air,
Cool air,
Touching the tip of the nostrils.
Going up and back and then down the throat where the air gets warmer.
Down into the lungs,
Expanding,
Ribcage,
Cage lifting.
And then follow that air back out.
Begin to count the breath,
So inhaling for six and exhaling for six.
And this is your own count,
So I'm not going to count it for you.
The next time you start to inhale,
Just begin to count to yourself.
It should be a slow,
Comfortable breath.
Six in,
Six out,
Evening out the in and exhales.
You might notice that slight pause at the top of the inhale.
And you can hang out there for a second with your attention before you exhale again for six.
You might notice that slight pause at the bottom of your exhale as well.
Where nothing is happening,
Just stillness.
You might feel into that with your attention for a moment as well.
So continuing like this,
Six in,
Six out,
And noticing those moments of pause.
While you continue to breathe like this,
You may feel your nervous system shifting into a more relaxed state.
And a similar thing happens when we consciously practice gratitude.
Finding things to be grateful for,
To be thankful for,
And reflecting on them,
Even if just for a moment.
Thinking about them,
Appreciating them,
Writing them down.
It switches the nervous system from the fight or flight into a rest and digest state.
Just like these calming breathings do.
It's an act of reducing stress.
Appreciation itself is a state of contentment.
You feel you can stop striving for more.
More doing,
More being,
More having.
And you can just appreciate the moment.
That's gratitude as well.
Appreciating an experience.
Appreciating what's been already taught to you and what's been shown to you.
Noticing things that you've gained,
Insights and tools that help you grow even more.
Practicing gratitude is considering for a moment the absolute magic that it takes for some of these things to even show up in your life at all.
And then reflecting on that,
Spending time with it.
Noticing how the body feels when you think about it.
So if you're still counting your six in and six out,
The next time you exhale you can just drop that counting away.
Let your breath settle into a nice,
Easy rhythm now.
And I want you to bring to mind,
This is not something that needs to be perfect.
So just bring to mind for the first exercise a few things that you're grateful for,
That you're thankful for.
And I like to start off with really simple things,
Maybe everyday things.
I'm grateful to get up and have a nice cup of coffee.
I'm grateful to have heat in my apartment.
I'm grateful to have a good circle of friends.
The sun is shining,
I'm grateful for that.
Those kind of things.
And you may feel one or two that stay in the forefront of your mind a little more,
Or there may be a whole collection of things circling around.
But just let them sort of dance and play there in your mind's eye.
Some easy things that you're grateful for.
You don't need to focus on the details of them.
Just letting them be there.
And notice how your body feels when you just allow them to rest in your mind.
You're focusing on things that we're grateful for and thankful for.
It's kind of like an internal thank you,
Like a mantra of thank you,
Without even saying it.
Thank you to your inner self,
To the creator of your experience,
To all that is.
It's a sort of recognition.
I'm paying attention to these things that I needed and wanted and they came to me.
And they're here for me.
If at any point you start to feel a little lightheaded or spacey,
You can drop your attention down into your heart center.
Either notice that beating of the heart or down into your seat and feel your seat grounded on your chair again.
But then we're still going to let these things that you appreciate,
Things that you're grateful for,
Just letting them kind of circle around like a merry-go-round of ideas.
If new ones pop in,
That's great too.
Just continuing to have a nice,
Calm,
Steady breath.
As I often say in these classes,
If it feels right,
Turn up the corners of your mouth just a tiny bit into a little smile.
Notice how that makes you feel different.
If you're enjoying what you're watching and imagining,
If you're enjoying the fact that you're so lucky to be able to feel gratitude and thanks,
Notice how this bubbles up in your being.
You're focusing on gratefulness and thankfulness.
It's a release of effort,
Really.
Effortless effort.
We're focusing lightly,
But we're releasing the wanting and the grasping and the desire for anything more.
We're saying,
I'm content.
This is enough.
For just a minute in my life,
Let me focus right here on what I do have right now.
Isn't it wonderful?
So many things seem to be created just for us.
Opportunities,
Relationships,
Passions,
Ideas.
When we find the feeling of gratitude,
The heart is engulfed with life,
With energy,
And with prana,
The life force.
Appreciation lifts and swells in our chest and creates a warm glow that sort of washes over the body and the mind.
Notice if you can feel that right now.
If you can't feel that for a moment,
Go a little bigger.
What I mean by that is focus on something you're grateful for that's even bigger than those everyday things.
What's the top one or two or three things in your life?
See if you can feel that your heart respond to those thoughts.
As you're practicing this light focus,
This light visualization and noticing your body's response,
Allow your breath to be free.
Sometimes you might feel like you need to take a deep breath in and then just let it go,
Almost like a sigh.
Allow that to happen if you need it.
Or the breath may seem very,
Very,
Very shallow.
Maybe very restful as if you were in a deep sleep,
And that's fine too.
In the moments that we can really focus on being grateful,
Our conditioned desires,
They just fall away.
We don't look constantly for another day.
We stand right in the middle of this moment,
Melting ourselves open with a smile.
Our receptors receive.
We allow ourselves to be pleased by what we see.
We position ourselves in the world to see more of what pleases us.
And this fuels us with an incredible resilience and strength.
For a moment,
Let's change directions a tiny bit.
Still breathing naturally,
Normally.
Bring to mind a person that you're very grateful for right now at this point in your life.
Just one.
There may be several,
But just pick one.
One person you're grateful to have in your life.
You're grateful for their help,
How they see you,
How they support you,
Whatever it is.
Try to see them in your mind's eyes if you're looking at a photograph of them,
Or if you were on a Zoom call with them and their face is right there in that square.
Maybe they're right in front of you,
Sitting with you,
Having a tea.
What feelings arise in your body when you imagine all the details of this person?
Three-dimensional details.
What are they wearing?
What expression is on their face?
What are you talking about?
Enjoy being there in a state of gratitude with this person for a moment.
And then if you would like to change to another person,
Go ahead and let that image dissolve and start creating a new image.
Or if you want to stay with the same person,
That's perfect too.
This could be someone really close to you,
Or it could be a near stranger that did something nice to you.
And now finally,
One person.
This could be the same person you're still on.
But the one person that you would say is the most influential,
The one that you're most grateful for right now at this point in your life.
I know that's hard to choose sometimes,
But just choose one person that you're the most grateful for.
And we're going to do a little practice of Metta,
Loving kindness.
So imagine them there in front of you.
See all the details of their face.
Take a couple of breaths now right into your heart center.
Feel the energy sort of swirling around your heart center.
And then just imagine,
Visualize that energy extending from your chest to this person.
You know,
Surrounding them,
Gently feeling them,
Charging them,
Lighting them up wherever they need it the most.
It's a very gentle,
Organic process.
I see them receiving it gracefully.
And you can even imagine mentally saying thank you,
That thank you going out with the energy.
Whenever this process feels complete to you,
You're just going to slowly retract your attention back into your mind's eye,
Resting it behind the forehead.
So let those images dissolve,
Bringing your focus solely back in to yourself and to that third eye center,
Center of your intuition and influence.
And notice what you see or feel there.
What's happening there right behind the forehead?
Is there movement or is there stillness?
Are there colors or is there just darkness?
Do you see any lights or shapes or images?
And can you still sense that feeling of grace and gratitude in the body?
For the last couple of minutes,
Just resting softly the attention there.
Body is breathing by itself,
Unconcerned,
In a mode of appreciation.
When we do come out of this meditation today,
I wonder if you'll sense that mode of appreciation,
That state of gratitude for the simple things that you may not notice.
Gratitude for daybreak,
Gratitude for the afternoon slump,
Gratitude for all the different sounds in the evening,
How the light moves on the wall,
Gratitude just for being alive and being able to perceive and have experience.
Take a slow,
Deep breath down into your belly,
Channeling it down into the base of the belly.
Fill up and exhale it all out.
And now allow your eyes to start to float open,
Coming back into the space.
