Hey,
Thanks for coming.
Welcome.
Welcome to this garden meditation of gratitude.
It's such a beautiful day here today at the garden,
About 78 Fahrenheit or 25 Celsius.
We're in the city and we're going to take a walk inside this garden to give ourselves a break and to cultivate a feeling of gratitude along the way.
So I invite you now to close your eyes as we prepare to journey through the garden gate.
Make sure you're feeling comfortable seated on your cushion or laying down,
However you like to meditate.
And just follow my voice and put yourself into the scene that I described for you.
Before we go in,
Let's do a breathing exercise to get ourselves into the zone.
Let's do four square or box breathing.
We will fill our lungs for a count of four,
Hold for a count of four,
Then empty our lungs for a count of four.
At the bottom of our breath,
We hold for four.
All right.
Let's inhale two,
Three,
Four and hold two,
Three,
Four and release two,
Three,
Four.
Now hold there two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale hold release and hold.
Inhale hold and out and hold.
Last one in and hold and out and hold and we're done.
Okay.
Let your breathing now find a calm,
Relaxed cadence as we begin our journey.
All right.
So we are standing outside the garden gate.
It's a little bit noisy with the traffic out here,
But soon we'll be inside.
The garden itself is fenced off by a tall,
Well-trimmed cedar hedge.
There's a wrought iron gate in front of us and the cedars have grown in above it to create a beautiful archway.
Don't you love this old gate?
Looks like it's 150 years old.
Come on in.
You're going to love this.
Isn't this just beautiful?
The path is made of slate and it meanders through the lawns and beds of flowers throughout this entire garden.
The grass is thick and well manicured and such a rich green.
I almost want to take off my shoes and walk barefoot on it.
Look at all the flower beds.
The colors are absolutely amazing.
And what you can see right now is just a small part of this amazing garden.
Can you smell the fragrant air?
It is so beautiful.
I can't even tell that I'm in the city.
It feels like I'm in the English countryside at some estate.
Let's walk this way.
See the bridge over the creek?
It has an arbor over top of it with wonderful climbing roses covering it.
Wow.
I don't know about you,
But when I see beautiful sights like this,
I become very grateful.
I like to thank the creator,
God,
The universe,
Source,
Whatever you want to call it,
Whatever makes you feel comfortable.
I like to thank for allowing me to witness the beauty.
It is important to express gratitude.
Gratitude opens up our hearts.
Expressing gratitude regularly can shift your world from one of lack,
Sadness,
Problems,
To one of beauty,
Abundance,
Joy,
And happiness.
Remember the saying,
What you think about,
You bring about?
If you're thinking about gratitude and joy,
You bring more of it into your life.
If you think about all the problems you have,
Or that the world around you has,
Guess what?
You will see more of that.
Okay,
Let's walk onto the bridge.
Look,
We are in a tunnel of roses,
All of them a very bright pink and so full and round.
And the smell is like the most beautiful perfume,
Don't you think?
When I was growing up,
I never paid much attention to flowers,
Figured they were for girls.
Now I absolutely love them.
The colors and the fragrance of so many of them give me such joy.
Come,
Let's get one.
Gratitude,
I'm grateful for the blue sky above and the wisps of clouds going by.
I'm grateful for the garden and the opportunity to visit here.
I'm grateful for you joining me.
If we start to open our hearts and our eyes,
We can find many things to be grateful for.
Look over there on that bench,
A new mother holding her sleeping baby.
What a beautiful sight.
I'm grateful to see such a sweet innocent child having blissful sleep in this wonderful place.
Look over here at the beds of tulips.
There must be thousands of them,
Each bed a different color.
Yellow,
Bright red,
Purple,
Orange,
White,
Amazing.
So when you develop a practice of gratitude,
It starts to come more naturally in your day.
But it can also be easy to drop out of habit when life gets too busy.
That's why it is important to make it a regular practice.
Set aside some time in the morning and the evening to go over what you are grateful for in your life.
And when you become good at this,
The next step is to challenge yourself to find gratitude in the things that happen that are considered bad in your life.
But remember,
As Shakespeare once said,
Things are neither good nor bad until we think it's so.
With everything,
There is a lesson that we can be grateful for.
Some things obviously more challenging than others,
But there is always wisdom,
A lesson with every experience.
Let's say,
For example,
You ran out of gas on the way to work today.
You decided that it really sucked to be late for work.
You missed an important meeting,
Your boss was frowning.
Yeah,
The optics look bad that way.
But let's reframe it with gratitude.
I am grateful that I ran out of gas today because it teaches me to be more aware of the needs of others outside of myself that I rely upon.
In this case,
The other is your car.
The need that it had was fuel,
And you rely on your car to get you to where you need to be.
And clearly,
The lesson was important for you to learn because of how upset your boss was.
Okay,
Now that we are thankful for the lesson,
Let's take the practice a bit further.
Next time you go and sit in your car,
Try giving it gratitude,
Either silently or aloud.
Thank you,
My car,
For providing me with sheltered transportation when I needed.
And I appreciate that even when I am slow to maintain you,
You continue to bring me to where I need to be.
Thank you.
I am grateful.
And I will wash you this weekend.
Here is energy and gratitude,
And you will be surprised how things will change for you once you express it regularly.
Let's say you have an assistant at work that performs tasks for you day in,
Day out.
Each time they come by with a completed task,
You glance up for a moment,
And you politely say thanks,
And then you carry on.
Try this next time.
Thank you.
Hey,
I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you for doing this for me.
I mean,
I know that it's your job and it's what you get paid to do,
But I appreciate that you do it for me each and every day.
It makes my day go so much easier.
I'm grateful to you.
First thing you might notice is that their face will light up like the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza.
Next thing might be that every time they come in the door to deliver the task,
They have a smile on their face.
Maybe you notice that they are getting their work done faster for you.
You may even be surprised that they do extra for you.
Studies have shown that when people feel appreciated in their jobs,
They are more motivated to work harder and feel better about what they do.
Now,
These examples I have given you may not apply to you,
But with some thought,
I'm sure you can find a way to put what I've said into practice.
Look at that magnolia tree over there.
Massive.
Have you ever seen one so big and full bloom with huge white flowers?
Love it.
One thing that I am grateful for is you.
I'm grateful that you chose to listen to my meditation.
And I'm grateful for the people who choose to show their gratitude by leaving a comment for me after listening.
In turn,
I show gratitude for them sharing their feelings,
Whether they like the meditation or not.
Gratitude and kindness are infectious.
Dr.
David Hamilton in Dunblane,
Scotland,
Who studies kindness and has written several books on it,
Says that the statistics show that if you show someone some kindness,
They are highly likely to show several others some kindness.
It will grow exponentially.
You can change the world by choosing gratitude.
So now let's just continue walking around for a few minutes,
Enjoying the sights,
Sounds,
And smell of this majestic garden.
When you hear the gate open,
You will know that our time here is done.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
I appreciate you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
