Gratitude Breathing For Calm And Connection

In this session we practice 'gratitude breathing'. You start with a slow, deep, sighing breath. Relax the muscles in the body (unclench jaw, drop shoulders, release the belly). Picture a person, pet, or plant and foster the feelings of gratitude and love. You then repeat this process until you are feeling calm. The Gratitude Breath Practice is great for when you feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or otherwise unsettled.

Transcript

I invite you to take a seat or lie down, You can get yourself comfortable and close down the eyes if you wish and just begin taking some slow deep breaths in through the nose. Just take a moment to scan the body, Scan the mind to see if there is anything that you're holding onto that you can let go of, Any surface level tensions that you can release. We're going to begin with a couple of slow deep sighing breaths, So breathing deeply in through the nose and then sighing as you release and another one. Continue with those slow deep sighing breaths but on the next one actively release some of the tension in your body, Dropping the jaw, Releasing the shoulders, Letting go of any tensions in the belly or the legs or anywhere else you're holding on to tension, So we're doing a physiological sigh and actively releasing any tension in the body. I'm going to add to this one more practice, Just a little bit of gratitude, So maintaining the slow deep sighing breath, Maintaining the noticing of the body and the relaxation, Just begin to foster a feeling of gratitude, Picturing in your mind's eye a person, A pet or a plant that you feel grateful for, For being in your life. Now on your next slow deep sighing breath, Releasing the tension in the body, Just offer that part, That person, That plant, That pet, Gratitude, Love, So we call that practice a gratitude breath practice. You do a slow deep sighing breaths, Actively relaxing the muscles in your body and fostering a feeling of gratitude for a person, Pet or plant in your life, Now we're going to sit in silence for 10 minutes, You're welcome to continue that gratitude breath practice or practice anything that you would like, Perhaps some mindfulness, Some introspection or any of the other practices you're working on, Let's begin, If you'd like to maintain the meditation you're more than welcome to do so, Perhaps mute or pause the audio, Return back when you're ready, I'd just like to say thank you for joining me in this session and to remind you that the practice we began with, The gratitude breath practice is one you can take anywhere, Rather than doing a slow deep audible sighing breath, You can also do it like an internal sighing breath, Be quieter if you're out in public, It's not appropriate to be super audible with it, You just do an internal sighing breath, You release the body and you foster gratitude for a person, Pet or plant and you can repeat that process until you're calm, Until the challenging thoughts have gone or for a set duration or time, Either way I want to thank you for joining in with me in this session and we'll see you next time.