Let's make ourselves comfortable.
Placing our body somewhere comfortable.
Placing our feet on the floor.
Noticing our body in our seat and taking a few deeper breaths.
As we inhale let's lengthen our spine a little bit.
We can allow a little more air into our lungs that way.
Everything flows a little bit more easily and when we're ready to exhale we can relax our shoulders,
Relax the muscles of our face,
Our jaw,
Relax our arms,
Place them somewhere comfortable.
See if we can have our spine upright and our head balanced on top of our spine so that we really need to use very little energy to be upright.
Everything falling into neutral.
Our legs comfortable.
Let's just be in our body for a moment noticing as best we can how it feels right now.
And if your mind wanders know that's fine,
That's what it does.
We just return over and over again without criticism as best we can.
How is my body feeling right now?
How am I feeling emotionally right now?
And how am I feeling mentally right now?
And we're not aiming to hold judgment over any of those things we are observing and if we happen to have judgments then we can observe those two.
Bring them in to our awareness.
Being with the breath for a few moments.
See if we can allow ourselves to settle a little further.
Relax a little more.
Knowing that we don't have to do anything right now.
For a few moments no demands upon us,
No tasks.
Just to be with ourselves.
A small gift for ourselves.
And you may notice your body gradually relaxing a little further.
As you settle a little more.
I'm going to invite you to bring to mind a person for whom you feel gratitude.
So this may be someone you know well or someone you've never met but someone who's influence in your life you easily feel gratitude.
Just thinking about them making you smile.
We're going to spend a moment thinking about how this person has helped us,
Served us,
Supported us,
Enriched our lives.
And then see if we can just be with the gratitude.
How it feels in our body.
Before we move on we can offer our thanks to this person.
Take a deep breath and we're going to invite you to bring to mind a non-human person.
Maybe an animal or a plant,
Your pet,
The birds in your garden,
Beautiful flowers in the park,
Something that makes you feel good.
A living being that enhances your daily life.
We can take a moment to in our minds eye be with this non-human being and our gratitude.
Feeling how the gratitude feels for us.
Are we able to use a word or two to describe how it feels?
And taking a deeper breath and longer exhalation and we'll release that image and we'll bring to mind a place.
A place for which we feel gratitude.
It might be a real place that you go to every day or it might be a place in your mind's eye but you are happy to be there and grateful you can visit.
Place yourself there now.
Enjoy it.
Breathe it in.
In as much detail as you can.
And feeling how we feel when we visit,
Even in our imagination.
Taking a long smooth breath in and out.
And bringing to mind something about ourselves for which we are grateful.
Anything.
We might be good at French,
We might have nice hair.
Something for which we are grateful that we have or are.
Appreciate it.
Be with it.
And feel how it feels to appreciate this part of you.
And then for the last few moments we'll rest in this field of gratitude,
In this energy of appreciation that we have created.
Rest in it and absorb it.
Breathe it into your body and imagining it,
Reaching every cell of your body.
Becoming part of the fabric of yourself,
Your body,
Your energy.
And when we're ready we can notice our body once more.
Before we leave we'll have a quick check in again physically,
Mentally,
Emotionally,
Spiritually.
And has this practice of generating gratitude,
Cultivating gratitude,
Has it changed how I feel?
So in our own time we can slowly start to reanimate our body.
Moving our fingers and toes,
Moving our wrists,
Our ankles,
Our arms and legs.
And having a stretch if that's for us.
And in our own time returning to our regular waking state.
We can keep a little bit of it in our centre,
A little spark of gratitude to take with us into our day.
Thank you for practicing with me.
