Mindful Wellbeing Week 5: Visiting Gratitude

This practice guides you to visit a pleasant moment and explore it with your senses. It helps you to fully experience gratitude by allowing you to observe the big and little things you may not have noticed at first. You leave with letting this appreciation imprint in your heart.

Transcript

To begin just inviting a little bit more stillness into your body and appreciating yourself for however your body is showing up in this moment.

And appreciating yourself for the quality of your mind in this moment,

Whether it's active or it's relaxed.

And also appreciating how open or closed your heart might feel in this moment.

We're going to explore leaning into and expanding this feeling of gratitude.

What we'll do is call to mind a moment or an experience or an event or a time that was pleasant.

Whatever comes into your mind first,

Just stay with that.

Something pleasant.

And we'll see if we can explore this moment as if we are in it once again.

So visiting this pleasant moment,

What does it feel like?

What do you notice?

With your senses,

What can you see and hear,

Taste and touch?

And then using your mind's eye,

Is there something in this moment that you can look at even closer?

Something that maybe you didn't notice?

Whether it's the way someone is talking to you or the particular color of sky.

See if you can expand your observation of something pleasant,

Something you can appreciate even more.

What are the big things that you're appreciative of?

Is it the connection with a person?

Is it the felt sense that they might be giving you?

Or the feeling of things that are important to you,

Feeling safe,

Finding beauty.

And in this moment that we're looking at,

What are some small things that you can appreciate?

It's just the warmth of a mug,

Of a hot beverage,

Or the feeling of sun on your skin.

And letting this beautiful,

Pleasant,

Appreciative experience live inside of you.

Tuck it away into your heart,

Your heart space.

Let it nestle in there to be pulled out and revisited at any time.

Let this one experience and expanding into it imprint on your heart.

Let it remind you that you can go back to any time that maybe you didn't experience fully.

And you can revisit it and luxuriate in it and bask in appreciation.