Welcome to Drift Off with Gratitude.
My name's Victoria and I'll be your guide tonight.
I invite you to begin by noticing where you are in your bed and seeing if you want to shift or move as you put your phone down and begin to settle in for the night.
Feeling adjusting,
Tucking in the blankets around you and getting really comfortable.
Drift off with gratitude by finding ease in the breath.
It's one thing we can always come back to and feel gratitude for because it never leaves.
But beginning to notice your breath in your body without trying to change it in any way.
Just allowing yourself to shift out of being a human doing into the present moment of your being here in this breath and this breath and this breath.
If it feels helpful to anchor your awareness on the breath,
You might try letting one hand come and rest softly on your belly.
And as you breathe in,
Notice the rise of your belly.
And as you breathe out,
Noticing the fall.
Breathing in,
Feeling the belly rise.
Breathing out,
Feeling the belly fall.
Rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
And as you feel the rise and the fall of your belly with the breath,
You can begin to cultivate a sense of gratitude,
Recognizing that the breath is just naturally breathing.
You don't have to do a thing.
Feeling grateful that you are being breathed in this moment.
In this moment.
In this moment.
Letting your body relax into this gratitude.
Honoring yourself wherever you're at.
Paying attention to your breath,
But not needing to force it,
To change it,
To make it be different.
You are a human being.
And in this moment,
You can choose to be grateful for all that is present in your lived experience.
Letting your awareness come out from the breath into the body.
Feeling the weight of your body in your bed.
Allowing yourself to feel heavy and weighted.
And feeling gratitude for gravity.
For letting you walk and rest so effortlessly on this planet.
Sensing gravity.
Sensing weight.
Sensing relaxation.
Cell by cell.
Inviting in ease.
As you invite in gratitude.
Feeling grateful that your body is a miracle.
That functions so effortlessly in every moment without a conscious thought.
Letting yourself take in the basic goodness of your body.
It loves you so much that in every second,
It does its absolute best to keep you safe.
To keep you alive.
To keep you healthy.
Appreciating your body.
Even appreciating the parts of your body that don't always work the way you'd like them to.
Knowing that they are doing the best they can in each moment.
And remembering the concept of impermanence.
That whatever is happening in your physical body will inevitably change.
And letting yourself feel gratitude for impermanence.
For the shifting,
Ever-changing nature of reality that gives so much beauty to life.
And extending your gratitude out from your physical body into the room around you.
Perhaps if you're sleeping with someone,
Letting your gratitude trickle out and envelop them.
Or if you're alone,
Letting your gratitude wash over your room.
Wash over your whole house.
Whatever that might look like for you.
And sitting in gratitude for what you have that keeps you safe.
That provides you with security.
The basic needs that are being met in every moment.
The blessings that life is giving you.
Feeling grateful for your bed,
For your pillows,
For your blankets.
Feeling grateful for the clothes you have to wear,
For your pajamas.
Extending your gratitude even to your phone for being able to listen to this meditation right now.
And beyond that,
Gratitude for your phone for all the ways it keeps you connected.
All the ways that it helps you navigate the world today.
And then bringing your gratitude inside your mind for all the ways in which your mind creates,
Imagines,
Explores,
Problem solves.
All of the ways in which your unique mind is a blessing to yourself and to this world.
Even feeling grateful for the parts of your mind that you sometimes judge or the parts of your mind that are judging.
The self-critical parts.
Each and every part of you serves a purpose.
And in this moment allowing yourself to honor your mind.
Honor all that you are.
The unique creation that has never been before and will never be again.
And feeling that gratitude for the unique beauty that you are.
And noticing the feeling of gratitude in your physical body.
Maybe there's a warmth and openness feeling whatever sensations are there and being grateful that you can feel gratitude in your body.
Being grateful for the ability to express all emotions.
Knowing that they are each a part of your humanity.
And they connect you into the wider web of humankind.
Letting yourself feel gratitude for feeling gratitude.
And then feeling gratitude for someone in your life.
It can be a person or it can be an animal.
If it's a person calling this person to mind and seeing them in front of you.
And honoring them for the beauty that they bring to the world.
For the ways in which they enrich your life.
For their smile and their laughter and their joy.
Letting your heart expand to feel more gratitude as you let it flow from your heart into theirs.
Feeling gratitude flowing through your body and then flowing out of your body and into your loved one.
And then seeing them in front of you and noticing that they fill up with gratitude as you honor them.
And they send it back to you.
They are a reflection of you.
Letting yourself give gratitude to this loved one and receive it back.
Noticing how that feels.
To let it flow with no beginning and no end.
And expanding your gratitude from that one person to your circle of friends and family and colleagues.
All of those whose lives you interact with.
All of those you touch with your being.
All of those who touch you with their unique being.
And sending your gratitude out to them and receiving gratitude back from them.
A never ending cycle of gratitude.
And expanding out even further and sending out your gratitude across our entire planet.
All of the life forms that are sustained and nourished on our precious planet.
Sending out gratitude for the balance that keeps everything working together in harmony.
Gratitude for our sun.
For lighting our days and giving us warmth.
For encouraging life to grow and flourish.
Gratitude for the moon.
For her effects on the tides,
On our bodies.
For lighting our way.
Gratitude for the stars.
For twinkling.
For giving us hope.
For reminding us that we are not alone.
And for reflecting back our true nature.
That we are light.
Letting your gratitude expand into the entire cosmos.
And drifting sweetly off to sleep with a heart filled with gratitude.
