Finding Hope & Gratitude In Times Of Uncertainty

If you're currently experiencing a challenge or a time of uncertainty or difficulty in your life, this is a helpful mindful meditation practice to guide you towards finding your own inner peace, acceptance, hope and gratitude. The practice will encourage you to find elements of hope, brightness and light within whatever darkness may be troubling you.

Transcript

This is a mindful meditation practice for finding hope and gratitude in times of difficulty or uncertainty.

So let's begin by finding ourselves in a nice comfortable seated position,

Whatever feels right for you today.

Just allow yourself to settle in,

Letting go of anything that may have happened prior to arriving here at this moment,

Letting go of anything that may be troubling you or worrying you,

Letting go of anything that may be happening around you or anything that may be coming up in your future that you're aware of.

Just allow yourself to come into the present moment,

Letting go of all of those troublesome things that may be causing you undue stress or anxiety.

Just allow yourself to settle in to the space where we are here and now.

I'm just beginning to take some nice deep breaths in and out through the nose,

Breathing in deeply,

Breathing in mindfully,

Beginning to connect with our bodies and with our breath and just allowing our minds to settle,

Continuing to breathe in and out through the nose.

On your next breath in,

Let's take a nice deep inhale together,

So breathing in through the nose and then releasing it out through the mouth with a sigh.

Very nice.

Let's do another one just like that.

So in through the nose and then release it out through the mouth and we'll do another one in through the nose and this time we're really letting everything out.

Beautiful.

Now just allowing the breath to come back into a nice even rhythm,

Continuing to breathe in and out deeply through the nose,

Just beginning to settle in to the body,

Allowing yourself to relax,

Become a bit more calm,

A bit more easy with each and every breath and then perhaps taking a bit of a body scan.

So starting at the top of the crown of the head,

Just see if you can lift the crown of the head up towards the ceiling,

Allowing the spine and the back just to lengthen,

Breathing in and creating more space in between each and every vertebrae,

Continuing to breathe in and out mindfully and deeply and perhaps even rolling the shoulders back and down,

Just finding your own strength,

Your own alignment,

Allowing the head,

Neck and shoulders gently to rest over the hips,

Feeling that beautiful strength in spine,

Feeling that length,

Feeling the top of the crown of the head lifted up towards the ceiling and then noticing the beautiful groundedness beneath your sit bones,

Beginning to notice just the weight of the body and the support with the earth beneath you,

Just allowing yourself to settle in,

Noticing that feeling and continuing to breathe in and out through the nose mindfully and deeply.

Let's begin to bring an awareness to our breath,

So perhaps beginning to notice the sensations of what it feels like just to breathe in your own body at this moment.

So perhaps noticing the breath as it enters in through the nostrils,

Perhaps at the tip of the nose and then maybe beginning to notice the breath as it enters in through the nose and into the mouth,

Down through the throat,

Down and into the lungs and just noticing the expansion and contraction of the lungs,

Noticing the gentle rise and fall of the chest,

Perhaps noticing the sides of the body and the ribcage as the lungs gently expand and contract,

Almost like balloons filling with air,

Just allow yourself and your mind's eye to rest its attention and focus on that breath as you continue to breathe deeply in and out through the nose.

And as we begin to settle in our focus and attention on the breath,

I'd like to invite you at this time to place one hand over your heart and one hand over your belly,

Just checking in,

Noticing how you may be feeling at this moment.

If indeed you're experiencing something difficult in your life at this moment or you're feeling anxious or uncertain about the things that may be happening around you,

Just see if you can connect in,

Perhaps noticing the place within the body that those emotions,

Those feelings may be living at the moment and as you begin to notice those emotions and those feelings,

Wherever they are in your body,

Just see if you can allow the breath,

The air that you're breathing in,

To go to that specific place where you're feeling maybe an area of tension or tightening or gripping,

Whatever it might be,

Just see if you can allow the breath that enters into the body just to go to that specific place,

Whatever that most tight,

Most tense,

Most difficult area is within your body and just breathe into that space.

And as we continue to breathe in and out through the nose,

Bringing space and awareness to whatever it is that may be troubling you,

Just see if you can allow yourself at this moment perhaps to release any tension,

Any tightness,

Any gripping,

Perhaps once again doing a bit of a body scan so you're welcome to bring the hands back onto your lap or onto your knees or resting on your thighs,

Whatever feels most comfortable.

Starting at the crown of the head,

Just scanning down through the forehead,

Down through the ears and the facial muscles,

Just scanning down and noticing if there's any areas of tightness or gripping,

Just seeing if you can bring a little openness,

A little space into those areas,

Just choosing to let go,

To release,

Giving yourself permission at this time just to let go of whatever it is that may be troubling you and continuing to scan down through the chest and down through the arms,

Again going to those areas of tightness or tension and just bringing a sense of ease,

Of openness,

Bringing a sense of self compassion,

Maybe it's sympathy,

Maybe empathy or maybe it's just pure surrender.

Whenever it is that you may need at this moment,

Just allow yourself to tune in,

Listening to your own body,

To your own inner voice,

Just finding those areas of tightness and giving yourself permission just to let them go,

Just for this one moment,

Just for this present time,

Intentionally choosing just to let them go and continuing to breathe in and out through the nose,

Scanning down through the rest of the body,

Down through the belly,

Just releasing that and allowing everything just to be calm and easy,

Releasing any tension in the hips,

Down through the legs,

The knees,

The ankles and the feet,

As well as the fingers,

Just letting everything be really easy,

Really loose and continuing to breathe in and out mindfully and deeply and then beginning to turn inward as we begin to invite a little more silence,

A little more quiet into our practice.

I'd like to invite you just to check in with yourself once again,

Listening to your own body and your own voice.

What is it that you may need at this moment to help you in your journey to finding hope or gratitude?

What is it that you may need at this moment that will bring you peace?

Just allow yourself to listen to whatever it may be that you need at this moment and just see if you can let go a little bit more,

Letting go of any resistance,

Letting go of any negative thought patterns,

Any negative beliefs,

Whatever it is that may be blocking you from feeling and enjoying your own beauty,

Your own hope,

Your own gratitude for this beautiful life that you get to live,

For these amazing experiences no matter what it is,

No matter how painful,

No matter how hard the hurt,

Can you find space just to hold that?

Can you find space to allow yourself just to be in this moment and celebrate it for what it is?

Breathe in to whatever it is that you're hearing that you're feeling at this moment.

Maybe it's just honoring the fact that you have a body,

That you have a mind,

That you have breath and you get to breathe in and out in this very instance that alone is a gift in itself.

So for the next few moments just allow yourself to find whatever it is in your heart that brings you peace,

That brings you joy,

That brings you happiness,

Any little glimmer of light that brings you love,

Compassion,

Empathy,

Gratitude,

Self-care,

Whatever it is you need at this moment just allow yourself to breathe in that beautiful intention,

That beautiful love language to yourself.

You are worth receiving it.

You are worthy of receiving that love.

And breathe in that gift.

You would not be here sharing in this experience if you were not worthy of the love,

Of the joy,

Of the beauty,

Of everything that is available to us in this creation.

Breathe that in to those spaces that hurt.

Breathe that in to those places of tension and unease.

Choose to allow yourself to receive them.

I am worthy of receiving these gifts.

I am worthy of experiencing hope and beauty and joy.

I am worthy of feeling gratitude.

I am worthy of experiencing all that life and the gifts that are meant for me within this creation are for.

I choose to accept and receive all the hope,

The joy,

And the gratitude that is awaiting me.

I choose to see and to witness it and I choose to surrender and let go of all the things that are blocking me or hurting me or causing me pain unintentionally from my own doing.

I choose to let go to surrender and to see.

I am thankful and grateful for all that I am receiving.

I choose to carry this experience of openness,

Of self-compassion,

Of hope,

Of gratitude with me into my journey and my next steps.

I choose to remember the experience that I'm enjoying at this moment and in times of uncertainty and difficulty.

I choose to remember that I can always come back to this place of peace,

Of love,

Of compassion.

Each and every moment of each and every day I have the power to choose how I want to respond and react to what is happening around me.

I choose to see hope and gratitude,

Beauty and love.

Once again returning to our conscious mindful breath,

So beginning to breathe in a little bit more deeply in and out through the nose.

Once again returning into the body,

Into our awareness of where we are here and now,

Just in allowing ourselves to explore some gentle easy movements,

So perhaps wiggling the fingers or wiggling the toes and then ever so gently maybe increasing that movement,

So maybe rotating the wrists or rotating or flexing the ankles,

Perhaps stretching out the feet or the legs.

Whatever feels right for you at this moment,

Just allow yourself to be guided by your own body,

Whatever it may need,

So perhaps rolling the shoulders back and down,

Maybe doing a few half circles with the head,

So rotating the head over to one shoulder and then over to the other,

Just being very gentle,

Very easy with yourself,

Just doing some gentle mindful movements to reawaken the body as we come back into the room where we are here and now.

Continuing to breathe in mindfully and deeply and then on your next breath we'll close our practice the same way we began,

So let's take a nice deep inhale through the nose and then release it out through the mouth with a sigh.

Nice,

We'll do another one just like that,

So in through the nose and out through the mouth and last one,

So in through the nose and really let it all out.

Beautiful.

Finally,

To close our practice today I'd like to invite you once again to bring one hand over your heart,

One hand over the belly,

Just checking in,

Noticing how you may feel now at this moment compared to when we began our practice,

Just noticing if there may have been a bit of a shift,

Whatever it might be without any judgment,

Without any criticism,

Just allowing yourself to be wherever you are here and now,

Whatever that experience may be and then to close our practice together let's bring our hands to our heart center in prayer and ever so gently we'll bow our heads forward to our hearts in gratitude and appreciation for taking this time to take care of ourselves,

To nurture ourselves and to bring joy,

Hope,

Compassion,

Love and gratitude so that we may see through the clouds or fog of whatever it is that may be troubling us or whatever may be happening around us.

Each and every moment of each and every day we have the power to choose what we want to see and how we want to react to whatever it is that's happening.

So I hope that this may have helped you.

I hope that you can take any lessons learned,

Any experiences learned with you for the rest of your morning,

Afternoon or evening,

Wherever you happen to be at this place in time.

Thank you so much for joining me with love and light.

Namaste.

Reviews

Beautiful. A lovely reminder on how we can turn stress and worry into gratitude. Thank you 🙏

My country is in the midst of conflict right now and this helped me get settled. Thank you ❤️

I needed this skillful guidance towards peace and calm after yesterday's attack on the US Capitol.