And we will take a moment to arrive into our practice.
So if you need to do a bit of a stretch,
A wiggle,
A dance,
Roll your shoulders,
Please take a moment or two to do that.
Using comfort,
Ease into our being.
So wherever you're choosing to practice today,
I invite you to feel the different parts of the body that are touching the floor.
Feel the different parts of the body that are touching your chair,
Floor,
Sofa,
Whatever you might be sitting on or lying down on.
Feel your shoulders drop away from the ears.
Feel your jaw soften.
Choosing to relax your gaze or close your eyes.
Letting the forehead soften.
As you inhale,
Feel length through your spine sitting up nice and tall.
And as you exhale,
Feel a sense of release.
Maybe dropping any expectations,
Dropping the weight of any plans or to-do lists,
Dropping the analysis of the past or worrying of the future and inviting ourselves to arrive.
Arrive into the present moment.
And as you arrive,
Letting yourself be here fully.
There's nowhere else you need to be,
Nothing else you need to do.
If it resonates,
You might invite your breath to deepen and lengthen.
Breathe in deeply.
Feel yourself expand.
Breathe out slowly,
Feeling yourself contract,
Honoring this flow of your breath,
Both expansion and contraction.
Taking a moment now to reflect on what does gratitude mean to you?
There's no right or wrong answer.
All of our definitions will be unique.
And if I were to ask you to point to where you feel gratitude in your body,
Where would you point?
Just taking a mental note of where that lives in your body in this moment.
Now take a moment to make a list in your mind's eye of all the things you're grateful for today,
Right now.
Realizing what intuitively comes up.
It can be small things,
Big things,
Medium things.
Could include joys,
Things that make you feel comfortable.
Could include challenges,
Things that make you feel uncomfortable.
And now,
As you just gently reflect on this list,
Let's come up intuitively for you today.
I'll invite you to pick one thing from this list.
One thing that's really kind of drawing to you or that's resonating with you or you feel lots of gratitude for.
And as we focus on this thing,
Person,
Experience that you feel gratitude for,
I invite you to check in with that area where gratitude lives in the body.
Is it still the same?
Has gratitude shifted to somewhere else?
Taking deep breaths in,
Slow breaths out,
Still feeling soft and relaxed through the muscles in the face,
Through the body.
I invite you to imagine this gratitude that lives inside of you as an energy,
Something to be felt,
Embraced and embodied.
Maybe this energy has a color,
If you see that today.
Maybe there's a shape,
Maybe it shines,
Maybe it doesn't.
If you had to get creative of what your energy of gratitude in your body looks like,
Can you see it?
Now using our breath as you breathe in,
Draw energy,
Draw your breath into that space.
Breathe in,
Hold your breath into that energy center of gratitude.
Then as you breathe out,
Imagine your breath,
Imagine that energy of gratitude spread through the body.
Breathing in,
Draw in your breath,
Hold it into your space of gratitude.
Then breathe out energy,
Gratitude spreads.
You might see this as color spreading through your body,
You might see this as light spreading through your body,
Whatever resonates.
Continuing with using your breath to draw in and add to your energy and out to feel sensation,
Feel gratitude spread.
I'll leave you in silence for a minute or so to enjoy this practice on your own.
Now letting go of the breathing exercise,
Let go of any control of the breath.
Tune into the physical sensations of your body with gratitude bursting from where it lived today into the rest of your body.
Notice how you feel.
If you can name the sensations in your body.
In our day-to-day lives,
If we were to operate from this gratitude state of being,
This feeling in our body,
This energy that we've cultivated,
How would this support us?
Would it change our thoughts about ourselves,
About others?
Would it transform how we speak to ourselves and others?
Would it support our actions?
When we operate from this embodiment of gratitude,
We operate from abundance instead of lack or fear or worry.
Taking a deep breath in and slow breath out.
Taking some time to return to your space,
Feeling yourself seated or lying down.
Opening your eyes when you feel ready,
No rush.
Take a stretch if that feels good.
