Welcome to your meditation practice.
Find your seat with the eyes closed and remember your motivation.
Remember your motivation for cultivating mindfulness and allow the energy of that motivation to bring you back to this present moment.
Begin by assuming a posture of full attention without any tension,
Allowing the eyes to close,
Feeling your sit bones pressing down into the chair,
The ground,
Wherever you're seated.
With the eyes closed,
Gently shift the body weight from side to side gently so you can find the center of gravity,
That point of physical alignment that allows your head,
Neck,
And back to be balanced,
Comfortable,
Supportive of this reflection and of this practice.
Take a few full deep breaths and as you exhale,
Release tensions from the neck,
Shoulders,
Arms,
And down through the whole body.
And when you're ready,
Return to the natural breath.
Feel the rhythm of the natural breath.
And let's begin our gratitude practice with the natural breath.
Allow yourself to become aware of something that when you bring it to mind,
Just naturally brings forth the feeling of gratitude.
Something simple could be a smiling face of someone you cherish.
Could be a flower.
It could be anything at all that naturally,
As you bring it to mind,
Gives rise to a feeling of gratitude.
Gently hold that object of gratitude in your heart.
And as you breathe in and out,
Feel that gratitude.
Gently focus on the object of gratitude and breathe the feeling of gratitude in the heart of your being.
If thoughts arise,
If stories arise,
Let them go and simply rest your awareness on the object of gratitude and the feeling of gratitude itself.
With each breath,
Feel the quality of gratefulness,
Of gratitude deepening.
And aware of that object of gratitude held gently in the heart of your being,
In the very center of the heart of your being,
Breathing the feeling of gratitude.
Now allow that object,
Whatever you're aware of,
To become brighter as though illuminated from within,
To become brighter and brighter until the form of the object dissolves away and all that remains is that feeling of gratitude,
Like a radiance breathing in and out of the heart and beginning to expand and spread through your whole body.
In and out at the heart and beginning to expand and spread through your whole body the radiance of gratitude,
Infusing every cell of your body and beyond.
Rest in the radiance of that gratitude,
Open and rest in the rhythm of the breath and the expanding radiance of gratitude.
Allow the feeling of gratitude to breathe you in every cell of your body and in the heart of your being.
And when you're ready,
Gently open your eyes and carry the feeling of that gratitude in your heart and into your day.
