Hello and welcome to this guided meditation for gratitude.
To begin,
Find either a seat or a position lying down where you can have a nice tall long spine.
As you find your shape,
Begin to close your eyes and we'll take a deep inhale in,
And a soft slow exhale through your mouth.
As you arrive here in your shape,
Begin to notice what the surface beneath you feels like,
Allowing yourself to anchor in fully to the space that you have landed in.
Bringing a softness to your brow,
Allowing the muscles of your eyes to settle into stillness,
Allowing your jaw to be open and relaxed,
Letting your tongue settle in your mouth.
Begin to soften and open the space between your ears as you begin to become aware of any sounds that are surrounding you,
Creating some allowance for everything that is present and perhaps offering some gratitude for your ability to hear,
Your ability to take in all that surrounds you.
Allow this awareness to soften the muscles of your neck as well,
Letting your shoulders be relaxed,
Arms are heavy,
Hands and fingers are open and soft.
Noticing the way that your belly is moved by your breathing,
A gentle rise with each inhale and a gentle contraction with each exhale.
Just allow your belly to be moved here,
Let it be soft and relaxed.
Muscles of the legs are heavy,
Feet are also soft and open.
Begin to notice your breathing.
Perhaps that is in the rise and fall of the belly or the chest,
Or maybe you become aware of the coolness of your inhales inside of your nose and the warmth of your exhales on the top of your lip,
Observing the depth and the pace of your breath and deciding if there is any shift that you would like to create in your breath,
Perhaps deepening or lengthening or even finding an ujjayi breath and allowing it to guide you in an audible way,
Anchoring into the unique flow and presence of your breath and perhaps offering some gratitude to your breath,
Remembering that the flow of your breathing is a safe space for you to return to if at any point the mind takes you out of this practice.
Begin to bring your awareness to the space of your heart in the center of your chest,
Perhaps feeling your heartbeat,
Noticing the way that your breath fills your lungs and expands your ribcage and observing any other energetic or physical sensations that may be present for you here in the center of your heart,
The center of your chest.
You may feel some tension,
Some tingling,
Some buzzing or a sense of spaciousness and relaxation.
Your only job here is to feel and to observe.
As you continue to anchor into the sensation of your heart space,
Begin to visualize someone or something that you feel immense gratitude for,
Allowing this person,
Place or thing to come to life in the visual space of your mind and as you do this you might notice that there are sensations ignited within your heart space or other parts of your body,
Observing the sensation of gratitude that you feel for this person,
This place or thing.
Notice how deep the sensation goes,
Its texture,
How far it expands in the body or perhaps even beyond your physical body,
Simply observing the sensation of gratitude as you continue to visualize in your mind,
You might notice a change in temperature in the body,
A change to your energy,
Allowing the sensation of gratitude to fill you up,
To warm your soul,
To expand your heart space.
Continue to anchor into this sensation of gratitude and begin to allow your visualization to dissolve until all you have is the sensation itself,
This expansion of the heart.
Don't decide where it ends,
Allow it to continue expanding and again your only job here is to feel and to observe,
If at any point your mind begins to wander,
Simply re-relax into the sensations of your body,
The sensation of gratitude,
Perhaps anchoring back into the flow of your breath,
You may discover or implement mantras of gratitude,
I am grateful for blank,
Gratitude feels like blank,
Allow the intuition of your body,
Of your heart to bring about any mantras that feel serving and if none arise,
Just continue to feel.
You are welcome to stay in this meditative state for as long as you would like if you would like to pause the audio and remain,
Otherwise you can begin to deepen your breath,
Find some small movements in your fingers and toes,
Gently waking up the body and returning to the space you are in,
Perhaps bringing your hands to rest together at your heart center and close with some gratitude for this practice,
Some gratitude for your decision to show up and gratitude for anything else that arised for you in this meditation,
Thank you so much for joining me today,
Have a wonderful rest of your day.
