Body Peace And Gratitude Meditation

A guided meditation to develop body peace and cultivate gratitude. Immerse yourself in easeful breathwork, calming your nervous system and guiding you to embrace a deeper, more loving connection for your wondrous body and whole self!

Ideally done in any comfortable seated position. Accessible to all!

Transcript

Hello,

Namaste,

Kia ora and welcome.

I'm Jen from New Zealand,

So bringing you this meditation actually live from Nepal.

So I'm travelling here and training,

Deepening my practice more of yoga and meditation.

So recording this here is inspired to pass on the magic of this place through the practice of yoga.

So this is a very simple,

Easeful practice where all you need to do is be seated and comfortable and upright.

You can be in a chair,

On a couch,

On the floor,

In a wheelchair,

Wherever you feel supported to be alert and upright.

So when you're ready,

Closing your eyes once you've found that position and taking some beautiful,

Big,

Relaxing,

Full,

Deep breaths.

Inhaling through the nostrils,

A long,

Slow breath out through the nostrils as well if possible.

Just a few more rounds of these fuller,

Deeper breaths.

And then settling into a natural breath,

Giving your breath full permission to flow freely.

And see if you can observe this flow,

Observe the depth of your breath,

The speed,

The placement.

Where can you feel your body breathing?

There is no right or wrong answer here.

It's all perfect,

You're alive,

You're breathing.

We're simply observing this miracle of breath.

And as we leave that for now,

We'll revisit that as a practice a little bit later.

But coming into feeling your physical body and how you've arrived here in the seated position.

Tune in with how your posture is feeling here,

Your sense of balance,

And if it's easeful to make an adjustment,

Go ahead and do that.

But if not,

That's fine,

Just observe and notice.

And then taking a few moments to soften and release downwards.

Just through the gentleness of your out-breath,

You can let go of a bit of tension from head to toes.

And tune into that connection going all the way down into the earth,

Grounding,

Surrendering,

And connecting in with the earth beneath you.

And then coming back up into the body as you lift up into some lightness.

Notice your spine as much as possible,

Create space between each vertebrae as you lift up tall out of the pelvis.

Just a slight expansion and lift through your chest as the shoulders stay relaxed.

A little tuck of your chin and towards your throat to lengthen through the neck.

And tune into that long spine,

The spacious chest,

And the energy lifting right up to the top of your head and beyond,

Connecting into the sky above.

Just riding up on your inhalations as you connect into this expansiveness and lightness.

And bringing your awareness back down to your physical body as you sense into your outside edges,

The sensation on your skin of the clothes,

Jewelry,

Watches,

Whatever else is connected to your skin,

The surface that you're on,

The back of the body.

And then fine-tuning that to the touch of air on your skin.

Notice all its qualities.

Is it moving or still?

Is it warm or cool?

Heavy or light?

And taking a few moments to notice where your body meets the air.

And then bringing your awareness up to your ears,

Left and right ear,

Where you process sound.

And then you're going to send that awareness out like a radar,

Picking up on all the sounds that you can hear.

Do your best not to judge or label or linger on any one sound.

Just moving around from sound to sound.

Starting to circle that awareness back in to land in your body.

And you may hear sounds coming from your body.

And then stay tuned in to the sound of my voice as I guide you through this practice.

As your awareness dissolves in,

Connecting back in with your breath,

The miracle that is your breath.

Just observing the flow in and out.

And when you're ready to slightly increase that flow in,

The inhalation,

Feeling into an expansion through your torso,

Starting at the belly,

Opening up through your ribs,

Rising right up into your chest.

And then a lengthen of your exhalation as the chest descends,

The ribs contract in,

There's a little squeeze through your belly.

Lengthening that breath out.

Nice and soft and smooth.

Get these full deep breaths going at your own pace.

Feeling into expanding,

Lifting and opening on the inhalation.

Softening,

Releasing and surrendering on the exhalation.

Three more full rounds of this deep,

Full,

Conscious breath in and out.

And then releasing that effort,

Letting go of any control with the breath.

Just observing where your breath's at now.

Noticing your natural flow.

And then bringing your awareness to your physical body and your mind's eye with your sensory awareness.

And finding something to be grateful for.

Some mobility,

Some strength or length and flexibility.

As you slowly work through your body and pick up on areas that you're grateful for.

It's functionality,

The hugs your arms can give you.

Just remembering that sort of thing as well.

And then even aesthetics on the outside if you want to bring to mind anything there.

And staying with the practice as you flow through your body in and out all around.

Finding all the parts that you're grateful for.

Just be very vigilant with the mind.

It may want to interrupt and start on a story of parts that aren't working so well.

Just notice if this happens and come back to finding the gratitude.

You can systematically go through your body from your head,

Neck,

Shoulders,

Arms and then down from the torso to the feet if this helps.

And then come back up again.

There's so much here.

Even if it's just the fact that you have two toes.

Or ten toes.

Or two big toes.

Or maybe you don't.

Or the fact that you have an elbow that bends and flexes like it should.

Just doing your best to find as much as you can.

Coming up with a long list.

Remembering the inside of the torso.

All of those vital organs.

So much going on there that we don't even think about.

Heart and lungs.

Stomach,

The digestion,

The liver,

The pancreas,

The kidneys,

Sex organs,

All the lower torso organs.

So much happening without us realizing.

And staying vigilant with this.

Especially if there's anything going on in this area with challenge.

Just doing your best to find the parts that are working that you're grateful for.

And then wandering your way back to your breath.

To the middle of the torso.

Tuning in with that rhythmic flow of your diaphragm.

Diaphragm moving down as you breathe in and expand.

Diaphragm moving up as you breathe out and soften.

Notice this rhythmic flow of your miraculous breath.

Finding the point where that breath starts and finishes.

And the spaces in between.

Staying with the rhythm of your breath as everything else drops away and you're simply noticing your inhalation and your exhalation.

And the little spaces in between.

Mentally repeating after me,

I honor my body and all its sacred stories.

I hold my body with pride and dignity.

A vessel for my soul,

My strength,

And courage,

And hard-won wisdom.

I greet my body with gentleness,

Care,

And love.

May I accept and may I accept and appreciate this body just as it is today as my truth.

Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.

Peace,

Peace,

Peace.

Just allowing those words to settle as you stay attuned to your rhythmic breath in and out.

And bringing in a mantra as you continue breathing.

On the inhale,

Peace is flowing in.

On the exhale,

Peace is flowing through the entire body.

Peace is flowing in.

Peace is flowing through my entire body.

And as you do this,

You're extending your breath out to activate your relaxation response.

Calming your nervous system.

So the exhalation is longer than the inhale.

Peace is flowing in on the inhale.

Peace is flowing through my entire body.

On your exhale,

Continue practicing this for a few more rounds.

And then letting that go.

Letting that practice go,

The mantra.

As you start to gently feel into your body,

Very slow,

Smooth movements.

As you gently start to awaken the physical body a little bit,

Keeping your eyes closed.

A little bit of a sway and a snake with your spine from side to side.

Raising the heels gently.

Slowly feeling into your whole body.

Rolling your shoulders.

Feeling the energy float all the way out the arms to the fingertips as you bring your arms a little wide.

And gently starting to bring chin down towards your chest.

Chinning into your neck.

Some really easeful,

Beautiful movements through your body.

Bringing your chin back up towards the ceiling.

Gently fluttering your eyes open,

Gathering your hands into your heart with the chin down.

Slowly opening and lifting and taking your arms wide with the chin up.

Two more of these.

Exhaling as you come in and down to your beautiful heart.

Feeling into your incredible body.

Inhaling up.

Exhaling in.

Pausing as you come in on the last one here.

Eyes closed again.

Feeling the breath beneath your hands and your forearms on your chest.

I honour my body and all its sacred stories.

Palms together.

Forehead to the fingertips.

Bringing to mind your thoughts of gratefulness.

Anything about yourself for today.

Body,

Mind,

Spirit,

Your life,

What you're going to go forward and do.

Anything little or big.

Hāre om tatat.

Gently lifting up and opening your eyes.

Thank you for joining me for this practice.

I really hoped you enjoyed it and got something out of it.

It's such a more joyous way to live when we are embodied and grateful for what we have,

What we are,

Where we're at,

Considering the beautiful lives that we've led.

And to take some moments to pause and really feel into that is,

Um,

Really important.

Really magical.

So good on you for,

For doing this.

Look forward to seeing you next time.