Welcome to this daily gratitude practice that will help you identify three things you are grateful for today.
Try this practice every day for seven or 21 days and experience the compound effect of gratitude as it filters into all aspects of your life.
So before you close down your eyes,
Can you cast your eye around the space you're in and identify some elements that afford you a feeling of safety.
The door,
The roof over your head,
A window.
Taking a deep breath into this physical experience of safety.
The possibility that right here,
Right now,
You're okay,
You're free from harm.
Allowing this to soften your nervous system and invite a gentle sense of gratitude to wash over you.
And now scanning your eye around your room and noticing elements of your environment that allow you to feel emotionally safe and at ease.
Aspects of your room that help you to feel like you belong.
Perhaps there's pictures in frames,
Books,
A rug or your bed.
And again,
Enjoying a few deep grateful breaths into this emotional aspect of safety and belonging.
It feels good to shift gears,
To take a moment to remind ourselves that our homes don't need to be perfect in order to offer us the gift of belonging.
And from this place,
Closing down your eyes and allowing your awareness to land on your breath.
And just noticing if with each full cycle of breath,
You can continue to deepen this experience of safety,
Belonging and presence.
Here in this moment,
There's nothing to do,
No one to be.
You are safe to be just as you are.
And from this place,
I ask you,
What is one thing you're grateful for today?
No right or wrong,
Allowing whatever emerges to be just right.
Seeing,
Sensing or feeling this thing you are grateful for.
And now as you inhale,
Imagine that you are inviting this thing into your body through your breath.
And as you exhale,
Imagining this aspect of your life you're grateful for,
Moving down your body and exiting via the soles of your feet into the earth below.
Breathing in gratitude,
Breathing out down your body and into the earth.
When we identify things we're grateful for,
And then intentionally breathe them in,
We are moving gratitude from an intellectual exercise into an embodied experience.
In so doing,
Rewiring our brains and sending this experience of gratitude deep into our nervous system.
Let's try it again here in this moment,
Calling one thing you are grateful for to mind.
On the tide of your in-breath,
Breathing this aspect of your life into your chest.
And on the exhale,
Imagining it traveling down your body into the earth below.
Noticing any sensation building within your body,
Any nervous system response to this embodied experience of gratitude.
Perhaps a sense of relaxation,
Peace,
Ease,
Tingling or vitality.
And one final time,
Here in this moment,
What is one thing you are grateful for.
In your own way,
Breathing this into your chest.
And on the exhale,
Imagining it traveling down your body into the earth below.
Resting here in this grounded and embodied experience of gratitude.
Opening your eyes,
Awareness returning to the space you are in.
Well done.
You just strengthened your neural pathways for gratitude and also gave your nervous system a felt experience of thankfulness.
May this create a positive ripple in your day.
