Welcome.
This meditation explores a moment in your past when it felt really good to be you.
So it's a space to awaken that moment,
To witness it afresh and to notice what character strengths were alive and vibrant in that moment.
Having a list of the 24 character strengths to hand might help you as well with this reflection.
So to begin we can take a moment to simply settle into our bodies in this most true and real moment of our life.
Drawing your awareness home to your physical presence with all of the care,
The curiosity,
All of the kindness that's possible.
And simply resting in your living presence for a moment.
We begin by thinking of a moment when it felt really good to be us.
So scanning for a moment in your life when it felt really good to be you.
It might be a recent moment or it could be a while back.
Scanning to sense a time when some of your very best qualities shone through.
And I'll suggest some possible moments.
It could be a time when you felt really engaged in something.
Maybe doing something very well or successfully.
A moment in your home or garden,
At work,
In a sport or other activity.
A moment in a relationship with a human or an animal.
It doesn't need to be a big dramatic moment.
It can be a perfectly small moment when it felt good to be your authentic self.
Maybe a moment of helping or generosity.
A moment of creativity or problem solving.
A moment of connection or celebration.
Maybe a moment where you simply felt really happy and knew that the way you lived your life has contributed,
Has led to this moment of happiness.
When you find a moment that resonates,
You can explore it in a little bit more detail.
So drawing the scene closer so that you can watch it in fine detail and really appreciate it.
This little vignette or story,
You can let yourself enjoy watching it unfold.
How it began,
Seeing yourself at the centre of the story.
You present and engaged and noticing your responses,
Your actions,
Seeing what happens next and witnessing your authenticity,
Your felt experience all the way through to the end of the scene.
Let yourself linger to savour this good moment when some of your brightest gifts shone through.
Beautiful.
And you can release that scene and what we'll do is we'll play it back again but this time our focus is on noticing the strengths that we see in us in that scene.
You might like to jot them down as you go.
Just noticing what strength you see and kind of the rationale for it.
We try not to second guess ourselves or be too humble.
It's a moment to really allow yourself to appreciate all of the strengths that were awake and alive in you in this moment.
So now you can settle in again and replay from the beginning of the story,
Moving through to the middle and the end and notice what strengths you see.
And then releasing the scene,
Coming back to your body this moment.
So you may have a list of five or fifteen or twenty-four strengths.
We'll take a moment to reflect on what we noticed.
Looking at this list,
Some of these strengths may really resonate with you as being at the core of who you are.
Some of them may feel very familiar,
Kind of like middle level strengths,
You know that they're in you.
And some might be strengths that are asleep most of the time.
You just summon them in a moment when you need them.
There might even be one or two strengths that feel quite distant to you.
And you can reflect on what are the ways we can use those strengths more in our life.
I'm taking in this whole list knowing that all of these strengths are really important.
Together they contributed,
They co-created that moment when it was really good to be you,
A moment where the best of you shone through.
And in these moments where we feel authentic,
We feel congruent and whole,
There are always lots of different strengths at play,
Kind of weaving together to make that moment possible.
May we enjoy spotting these energies in us and deliberately cultivating them so that they are more and more alive in us for each moment of our life.
Thank you so much for practicing together.
