This is a meditation on gratitude.
Find yourself in a comfortable position.
You can sit or lie down.
If you're sitting,
Notice how you're holding your body.
Ideally,
Hold your shoulders approximately above your hips.
Pull your chin in a little bit.
Stretch your crown up.
Relax your muscles in your face.
Relax your eyes.
Allow them to sink into their eye sockets towards the back of the skull.
Relax your cheekbones.
Good job.
The back of your tongue.
Your throat.
Prepare to align your spine all the way from the top of your crown all the way down to the base of your pelvis.
Pull your ribs down towards your pelvis.
See if you can form a smile across your chest.
Lifting it without allowing your ribs to come out.
Pay attention to your breathing.
Don't feel the need to change it.
Don't feel the need to slow it down.
Just notice how you're breathing right now.
Notice any place where you have a tendency to allow that tension to slip back in.
The way your posture tends to fall back to your knees leaning forward,
Slouching.
Just allow your joints to rest by actually engaging the muscles that hold your body in a healthier position.
Let's take one deep breath together.
Hold your breath.
Relax your shoulders.
Breathe out.
Now I just have to think about some of the things that you're grateful for right in this moment.
Don't let it be something that you feel like you should be grateful for.
Allow it to be something,
Even something really small that may seem insignificant.
You want to practice holding gratitude without guilt.
You may be grateful for this moment,
A moment of silence,
A moment of getting in touch with yourself.
You may be grateful for something kind that somebody did to you recently.
It could be as simple as a smile.
Checking in to yourself.
Putting their hand on your shoulder.
Showing kindness in their eyes.
Allow yourself to feel the warmth of that gratitude in your heart.
Notice if any tension has creeped back in and allow yourself to relax.
Just feel that.
What does it feel like for you in your body when you're grateful?
It's bringing you love,
Joy,
Tingling.
Now notice if there's anything you want to forgive in this moment.
Perhaps somebody misunderstood your good intentions.
Perhaps you're upset with yourself that you allowed that to happen.
That you didn't,
That you misunderstood somebody else.
That you didn't have the awareness to understand what this person needed.
Grant yourself acceptance and allow yourself to release.
Release that moment and tell this person I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that I didn't understand what you needed.
I wasn't able to give you that in that moment.
I send you love.
I care about you and I care about me.
I'm sorry I don't always know what other people need to feel my caring.
Thank you.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to reflect and bring a bigger sense of understanding to what you may need to feel safe in a relationship with me.
And as you release this person and release this,
You bring in acceptance.
You bring in forgiveness.
You may start to feel gratitude also for this.
Gratitude for life.
That it continues to be an adventure of learning.
Gratitude to this practice that brings you acceptance for yourself and also other people.
Gratitude to the divine energy that nourishes you.
The support that is always available.
If you can allow yourself to release this and allow yourself to remove the obstacles,
The judgement that you have on yourself,
It prevents that love and nurturing to enter you,
To support you and just feel into that energetic source.
Feel where you can feel it in your body.
If you notice that you have a place in you that feels in need of support,
Just allow yourself to feel that divine energy filling that part of you.
Feel that tingling that may accompany it.
Now allow yourself to relax in any place that may have taken on tension again.
And any time that you feel this,
You may recall this support and this gratitude and this sense of yourself as a whole and complete being regardless of what happens.
Thank you.
I bow to the divine in you.
Namaste.
