Welcome to this guided meditation.
This guided meditation we will be trying to connect to a sense of gratitude.
Is a practice that is very beneficial if we can do it regularly,
Maybe even daily at the end of the day.
You can do it like this in the form of a guided meditation,
But you can also find a way,
Once you learn how to do it,
To do it in your own mind.
We can start by just taking a moment to check in with how the body and mind are doing at this time.
How does the body feel?
How does the mind feel?
We're going to use reflections to connect to a sense of gratitude,
But the practice ultimately is really about that sense of gratitude.
The contemplations,
The things we think about,
They play more of a supportive role.
And in the same way,
The ideas that I share,
The suggestions that you're listening to now,
In the same way,
They are suggestions.
What matters is that we can learn slowly,
Bit by bit,
To connect to that feeling of gratitude.
In this practice we're going to try a bit of an alternative method.
You can see if it resonates for you as well.
We can first take a moment to just contemplate on the good things that are there in our life today.
And realize that things surely do not have to be perfect at all for there to be gratitude potentially.
Having a sense that maybe our health is quite okay,
Not as bad as it sometimes might be.
You can even take a moment to reflect on the last time you were sick.
Or having a relatively serious or not so serious health trouble.
Some people have gone through real sickness,
Significant sickness,
But even just having gone through minor sickness that most of us go through from time to time.
Just take a moment to reflect back on that and connect to how do you feel right now.
Especially you want to pay attention to noticing when there is a sense of gratitude coming along.
And in the same way,
We can connect on our material circumstances.
Protection from the elements,
The house we live in,
The goods that we have in our house that give us a sense of comfort.
And again,
You can think back to a moment in your life where maybe it was not as it is now.
Even if there might have been moments where it was better.
And think back about moments where it was not as good as it is now.
Even just if there is a part of what you have now that is better than before.
Can think as well about the social connections in our life.
People we might see today or might have seen in the last week or few weeks.
Maybe even people that we don't know so well,
But we just say hi to them or we meet them just for a moment,
Maybe in public somewhere.
Just remembering maybe times where we had even less contact.
Maybe recollecting that for some people it is very common actually for many people they're facing loneliness and There can be a sense of gratitude for every contact that we might have.
Even if it is very small.
In the same way you can contemplate yourself,
Things that you might be grateful for.
And as you might have noticed in the way that I've guided it so far,
Is that it seems to help when we can collect times,
Recollect times,
Think back to them,
Where maybe we had less,
Where it was not so good.
Of the feeling that you have when you've been sick and then the very first day when you're healthy again.
You don't take that health for granted.
So at all costs we want to avoid that in trying to practice gratitude we feel maybe guilty.
That can happen.
I should be grateful,
More grateful for this or that.
Instead we try in a natural way to arouse gratitude by seeing,
Because it is really so,
That's why it works.
It is really so that.
.
.
Things we have.
So easily they could be taken away or so easily it could be different,
It could be more difficult.
Especially with health problems or sometimes problems in social relationships or in our material comfort.
But we've had times where all of a sudden it got quite bad,
Maybe an important relationship ended or shifted in a difficult way.
We had a big material loss.
You can take a moment to recollect further what are things that,
In this way,
You realize how glad we can be.
Again,
How easily it could be so much worse.
And for many people it is,
But it is not about other people either.
But if we can hold that reflection in a good way,
Without feeling guilty or bad.
.
.
But just connect to a natural sense of gratitude.
Natural sense of realizing how special it is.
And I recommend that you try to take this practice with you in your day.
Just bits and pieces,
Moments here and there,
Where you think back to or just be aware of how good certain things are.
It is really going counter against that experience of taking things for granted.
We take a moment to highlight and to remember like,
Wow,
It's actually not so given,
It's not such a given as we make it to be that we have this thing in our life or that.
Whatever way you find to connect to a sense of gratitude and then when you feel that feeling in your heart or in your body somewhere or maybe just in the mind,
Try to connect to that feeling and become aware of it and familiar with it.
And again,
I encourage you to take this practice with you in your day and know that you're always welcome to come back here.
And then together.
We finish hereby this guided practice.
All the best.
