So,
I have a fun exercise for us today,
It's called plan your pleasure.
Take a moment,
Get seated,
Sit up nice and tall and begin to breathe in and out that delicious air.
Just enjoying the inhale and enjoying that exhale.
Each breath an invitation to enjoy the present moment and the breath itself a pleasurable activity.
This thing that keeps you alive from moment to moment.
Each breath sustaining you and your entire body,
Mind and soul.
In many ways all you need is your breath.
So embrace it and enjoy it.
Of course you can enjoy it even more by paying attention to it.
Noticing the nuances in it,
Where you feel the breath,
How it enters your body,
How it exits your body,
How it changes the shape of your body,
How it moves your body.
Noticing how all these different mechanisms work in conjunction with your breath to keep you alive.
Now contemplate the day ahead of you,
The many moments of pleasure that await you.
Your morning coffee,
Your walk to the station,
Listening to your favourite podcast,
Seeing your fellow co-workers,
Maybe getting home for that beautiful meal that is planned.
Prime yourself to enjoy each of these things to the fullest with me now,
Simply by committing to bring all your awareness to each one of those pleasures,
To make a commitment to take time to enjoy them,
To engage with all five senses whenever you do these pleasurable activities.
Noticing how they smell,
How they taste,
How they feel,
How they sound and how they look.
Then remind yourself to employ that network effect by thinking about how these pleasures go beyond the immediate.
To do this you just remind yourself of all the things that make your pleasure possible.
The people,
The technology,
Nature,
Even your brain,
All these things conspiring together to create this beautiful moment of enjoyment just for you.
So as you go out today,
Take time to enjoy the pleasure that's ahead of you,
Take time to engage with that pleasure with all five senses and then remind yourself of the network of things that make this pleasure possible.
Every day is littered with joy,
So take a moment and remind yourself to give them your attention.
Remembering that attention is the fuel to our gratitude fire.
The more we give,
The brighter it burns.
Now we turn our attention to things that we are grateful for already.
The things we have,
The people in our lives,
Aspects of our health.
Choose one of each.
Now think of how you will exercise gratitude for each of them.
How will you make the most of that thing that you're grateful for?
How will you use it today?
How will you make the most of that relationship with that person you're grateful for?
What will you do with them?
And then how will you exercise that aspect of your health that you have today but will not always have?
The capacity to run,
To move,
To crawl,
To jump,
To swim,
Maybe it's simply to breathe.
For each thing,
Person and aspect of your health,
Think of a way that you will honor it by using it today.
Think of how you will take this thought of gratitude and turn it into an action of gratitude.
Saluting your sentiment with a meaningful manifestation.
Gilding your gratitude with glory.
Making your thanks known by using this thing.
By engaging with that relationship.
By utilizing your health.
These are all gifts.
So how will you honor that gift?
By leaving it unwrapped or by playing with it?
By enjoying it?
Lastly,
Think of anyone you could recruit to savor your gratitude with or exercise your gratitude with.
Is there someone you can bring on board?
Someone you can compound the effect of gratitude by sharing it with?
Alright,
Well done.
Now the most important part of this practice is not to leave it in the realms of thought,
Confined to your head.
Go out and take action.
Make the most of your pleasure.
Savor the pleasure ahead of you.
Exercise gratitude by doing something with your gifts.
And then recruit people,
Wherever you can,
To do both.
Namaste.
Now,
If you enjoyed that session,
You're going to love my course,
Your Brain on Gratitude.
It's got stuff just like this in there.
You'll learn how gratitude impacts the brain and how you can use that knowledge to improve your life,
Physically,
Psychologically and socially.
Looking forward to seeing you in there.
