In the mornings,
I do a gratitude practice before I get out of bed.
First thing that I do is check in with my body.
What's happening in my body right then?
When we check in with our body,
We have a lot of continuity and predictability,
And often things are a little bit different.
When you're checking in with your body right now,
What are you noticing?
We have the negativity bias,
Where we notice what's contracted or tight or painful.
That will attract our attention before we go into what feels wonderful,
What feels pretty positive right in the moment.
What are you enjoying about the experience of being in your body right now?
It's really interesting to see what our mind brings forward around that.
If you were to move a little bit,
Even stretch a bit,
Or take some deeper breaths,
As you breathe out,
Let your body release tension.
Notice if that changes anything.
We know that one of the effects of trauma and stress is that we disconnect from our body.
We're not really in our body as much as we might be.
To come back into our body and to notice,
Okay,
There are a couple things that are maybe a bit stiff or hurt.
But I could also notice my breath.
As we're breathing,
Unless we have some kind of constriction in our lungs,
Maybe you have a cold or you have asthma or something,
If you could take a deep breath in and a long out breath,
We could notice that the breath is such a blessing.
As you're noticing your physical body and your breath,
Notice what level of health that you have right now.
When it's early in the morning,
We might be tired.
We might wake refreshed.
We might have something that's going on that's worrying us.
If we have a health concern,
Then we're naturally going to not have such a free mind around that.
Sometimes we could really feel so much gratitude for having a body and a breath and some level of health in our system.
Other times we're more worried about something about our health.
That gratitude might not be something that's here at the moment,
And that's fine too.
We're just looking to see.
And if you were to look around the environment that you're in,
Notice what is here that you might feel grateful for as well.
I'm in a warm house,
Tuned into the support that nature gives us.
We have oxygen in the air.
And these things aren't perfect.
When we think about the oxygen that we're breathing in,
We might think about the trees,
We might think about climate change.
Feeling grateful doesn't mean everything has to be perfect.
And we can notice what our mind does with that.
And maybe right now you're with someone who you really care about,
A person,
An animal,
Or maybe you're on your own and you could bring that to mind.
Who do you feel grateful for?
In the past,
We have complicated relationships,
Just as we do in the present.
If you were to bring to mind somebody whose presence makes you feel warm and welcome,
Notice what comes up for you right in this moment.
And like everything,
It's complicated.
Sometimes we have a very easy relationship with someone.
More often,
There's ups and downs,
Or maybe they're not here anymore.
Focus for a moment on the gratitude.
What is it that you feel grateful for right now?
And what does that feel like in your body?
As we're working with mindfulness and awareness in our body,
We have all of these conditions like,
My body feels really wonderful right now,
Or I'm in pain,
Or I've got some health thing going on.
We also could bring our attention to either right now or memories of when our body has felt really wonderful.
And that might be active,
Remembering in your body,
Going for a walk on the beach or on a hike.
It might be something that was still,
Laying on a beach,
Sitting relaxed in nature or in your garden or something.
And we could also bring our attention into more complicated situations of,
I don't really feel grateful for this,
And I do appreciate that I'm able to have the experience of being in a body,
Being alive.
Being grateful doesn't necessarily mean we like everything about it.
What comes to mind when you say,
I appreciate,
And that could be a lot of different things.
It could be,
I appreciate my courage and persistence.
I appreciate that I'm always cultivating,
Keeping an open heart,
And that I'm really letting go of judging myself.
I'm grateful that I have the resources and the capacity to do that.
And let everything go for a moment.
Let your mind come into stillness.
Maintain a bit of awareness of your body,
Your breath,
Your thoughts,
And let yourself rest here for a moment.
You might notice your breathing,
Let your belly soften a little bit more.
You might scan your body and let your muscles release,
Soften through your forehead,
Eyebrows,
Hinges of your jaw,
Back of your neck,
Shoulders,
Upper back,
The chest and your stomach area,
Arms,
Legs.
Take a few deep in-breaths and long,
Slow exhales.
Let go of any residual tension.
I feel grateful to be alive.
I'm happy that I'm here in this day.
Continue to notice your whole experience,
Including any resistance that you might have to anything that you've been thinking about.
Well,
Yeah,
But I wish it was this instead,
Or I wish I didn't have this thing going on,
Or I wish I had more of that.
That's normal that we have those thoughts.
And let your mind clear again.
Take another couple of breaths.
Let yourself feel whatever gratitude is here.
Let yourself feel that in your heart.
