Welcome,
Dear friends.
This is Allie.
And today we will be meditating on one of my most favorite topics,
Gratitude.
So let's get started and turn our attention gradually inwards and meditate.
Gently close your eyes,
Get comfortable.
Every one of us who's a graduate of the David G Academy uses his phrase,
Comfort is queen or king,
If you prefer.
Take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in and just observe.
Just observe as your breath comes in through your nostrils,
It's on the cool side,
Goes down through your throat,
Your lungs and into your belly and just keep witnessing.
Sing now,
Hold and feel the space.
Feel the space that opens up between.
And now exhale and observe.
Experience as you exhale,
The breath comes up through your belly,
Through your lungs,
Through your throat and out your mouth and just go,
Ah.
And your body has warmed your breath.
So again,
Let's just continue to relax.
I'm breathing in,
Feeling the space and release.
I'm breathing out.
Good.
Let's just make sure our body is feeling this relaxation.
A great way to do that is to raise your shoulders to your ears all the way up and now just release and pull your shoulders back.
Move your jaw around and release.
We hold a lot of stress in our jaws.
Smile as you relax.
Okay,
Wiggle your body,
Wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes,
Whatever just helps you settle in just a little bit more to get deeply comfortable.
So now let us experience the deep,
Deep grace of this meditation on gratitude.
The benefits of gratitude meditation and journaling are scientifically proven,
Including reduced stress,
Better sleep,
Increased empathy,
More self-compassion and generally an improvement in mental health and well-being.
When we start a daily gratitude practice,
And I started mine probably over 15 years ago,
And we stay with it and we do it consistently every day,
Imagine doing just five minutes on gratitude every day for 66 days.
You will build a new habit.
You will build an attitude of gratitude.
You will embody gratitude and you will see a very loving world because now you're looking out at the world through the eyes of gratitude.
And a wonderful phrase that a scientist developed back in,
Oh,
I think about 1950,
Neurons that fire together,
Wire together.
And as we meditate every day on gratitude,
We are changing a single lane highway into a super lane highway.
We can and do change our brains.
So just start wherever or whatever feels right with three gratitudes when you awake.
Just take five minutes,
Maybe that expands over time.
And as you find that your mind may wander,
I use this as an opportunity to lovingly forgive myself.
Not easy to practice self-forgiveness,
But as I meditate and a thought comes in about,
Oh,
Dinner and shopping and what haven't I done and all that kind of stuff,
It happens to absolutely everybody.
Just say,
Ah,
All right,
Allie.
All right,
It's okay.
Just let it go and move on.
And in the forgiveness,
You begin again.
So stay with my voice for a minute and focus your awareness on your breath.
And let's go deeper even still and explore the feeling of giving and receiving gratitude.
So often when we think about gratitude,
We think about giving thanks.
And at the same time,
Receiving thanks,
Receiving gratitude is equally important.
It's a two-way energy exchange to be truly powerful.
So I invite you to bring your awareness to your third eye as we keep our two eyes closed.
And I'd like you to imagine,
Imagine a gauge going from left to right.
Let's say it goes from zero to 100%.
And sit for a moment and reflect on how much you believe you have been giving to people,
To your projects,
To your mission.
How is your energy of giving and your ability to give on a scale of zero to 100 this past week or as we have entered the new year of 2025?
So here's this gauge in front of you.
What has been your energy to give?
Gratitude.
Give it a number.
Is it,
I don't know,
50%,
80%,
20%?
It's your number,
No judgment.
And this is one of the great,
Great practices of meditation is being nonjudgmental of yourself and also being compassionate with yourself.
It's just your number.
Nobody else needs to know.
Sit on that number for a minute.
Accept wherever you are right now.
If we do this again tomorrow,
It'll probably be different.
But for right now,
Just sit and accept.
It's all good.
Now,
Deeper still.
Focus on what if you wanted to raise your energy and ability to give gratitude from wherever you are today to something a little higher tomorrow,
A little higher the day after,
To even,
Oh my gosh,
100%.
What are the limiting factors?
Where is your resistance?
What is holding you back from giving 100%?
Maybe it's fear.
Maybe it's just exhaustion,
Too many commitments.
There are so many things that could be limiting beliefs in giving gratitude,
And giving gratitude cheerfully and unconditionally.
Just focus on those limiting beliefs and limiting energies that hold you back.
Ah,
It's all good.
Just soak it in.
Because now I want us to take a look at how open are we to receiving gratitude?
How are we able to open ourselves when somebody says thank you,
When somebody offers us assistance and some help?
How open are you on this scale of zero to 100 to receive gratitude?
What's your number for this week or this year?
Again,
Be honest,
Radically honest.
It's just your number.
And accept it.
It's what is,
And it's okay.
Because whatever that number is,
It's where you are.
And again,
We go deeper and ask ourselves the question,
What is stopping us from being able to receive thanks?
At 100%,
What's the energy maybe that's holding you back?
Ah,
So important to be kind to yourself.
Is it a sense that maybe you're not worthy enough or good enough?
Is it pride that's a form of resistance?
Or are you thinking,
Ah,
I can't possibly give back enough to return this gift of gratitude?
So it could be expectations,
Could be any number of things.
What comes to your mind?
And sit with that,
Sit with that for just a minute.
Accept simply and non-judgmentally.
Witness and accept what are the limiting energies and beliefs.
Great,
Great work.
So now let's take another deep breath in and even more deeply relax.
And let's introduce a simple,
Plain English mantra of thank you.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
As the great German mystic said many,
Many centuries ago,
Meister Eckhart,
If the only prayer you say in your entire life is thank you,
It will be enough.
If the only prayer you say in your entire life is thank you,
It will be enough.
So I invite you to say it out loud.
I'll say it out loud and say thank you.
And I will repeat it.
And in the privacy of wherever you are,
Say it out loud with me.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
And I will whisper thank you.
It's a whisper to the divine.
And as I whisper,
Thank you,
Please whisper with me,
Thank you.
And now let's silently repeat.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
And send the energy of gratitude flowing through our body,
Through every limb in our body,
To every organ in our body,
To every cell.
And we have over 30 trillion cells.
We will say again and again,
Thank you.
Thank you,
Thank you.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
For all the gifts I give,
And thank you for all the gifts I receive.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
Beautiful work.
Breathing in,
I receive gratitude,
Fully and unconditionally.
And breathing out,
I give gratitude,
Fully and unconditionally.
And now,
As we come back to this present precious moment,
Just take your time,
Be gentle with yourself.
Maybe shrug your shoulders,
Stretch your arms,
Wiggle your fingers and toes.
Take another deep breath in and let it go.
And now,
I invite you to raise your hands to the sky and send gratitude to all of our loved ones and to the world and say,
Embracing the great poetry of Hafiz,
May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the universe.
Hands in the air,
Palms open,
Out to the world,
May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the universe.
Now,
Gently lower your arms and bring your palms together.
Rub your hands together.
Feel the warmth,
Generate the heat.
And bring your hands over your eyes,
Gently cup and feel the warmth and receive the gratitude of the universe.
So how do you feel?
Do you feel a little lighter?
Do you feel a renewed sense of energy?
Are you smiling?
Notice what you notice,
Great work,
Great work.
Thank you for being here with me to feel and bask in the essence of gratitude.
Thank you for taking this time for yourself.
I am honoring you and thank you for being with me.
For connecting with this community of curious and loving souls.
I wanna thank my meditation teachers and thank you for joining me today.
From the bottom of my heart,
Thank you.
Have a splendiferous day and welcome to my world till we meet again.
This is Allie.
