Giving Thanks - The Art Of Gratitude

All right,

Let's do this.

So slowly,

Gently,

Eyes closed,

Shoulders maybe pull away from your ears.

Let's start to meditate.

And I invite you as you close your eyes to be the same person as when your eyes are open.

No need to impress me with your super straight spine or perfect stillness.

Just be yourself when you close your eyes.

Let's just step into our own interior worlds.

That's all you're doing.

Maybe even notice like a couple of steps.

You just like one,

Two,

And then boom.

You're on the inside of you.

Your awareness is in your body,

Behind your eyes.

Here you are.

Like I mentioned,

We're going to practice the three G's.

So grounding,

Gratitude,

And giving.

We're going to start ourselves off with grounding.

This exercise is one of my favorites.

So as we step into meditation,

I want you to imagine a nice tree trunk just growing right out of the base of your spine,

Right into the earth.

And I want you to choose what kind of tree trunk.

Maybe it's a sequoia,

Redwood,

Or maybe it's an oak or a pine.

Choose a tree that resonates with your soul.

Choose something that's really true for you.

Maybe it's a coconut tree that no matter how much wind blows,

It just is flexible and never breaks.

And as the holidays come upon us,

It's easy to kind of lose ourselves to our family and friends and all the energy out there.

And as we ground ourselves,

As that tree trunk grows and roots into the earth,

You recognize that you don't have to lose yourself to all the energy in the world.

Even if you've got 10 people coming over today or have to buy presents or whatever it is,

You don't have to lose yourself to the world.

And as you create a tree trunk into the earth,

You can feel it almost like an animal has a tail.

So most of our human awareness,

We look in front of us,

But an animal that has a tail,

It feels the earth underneath it and behind it.

So it's kind of looking and feeling,

Sensing in both directions.

As humans,

We lose that connection downwards to the earth.

So imagine the extension of this tree trunk from your spine is almost like that awareness.

Not only am I aware of the future of time,

Of the people in front of me,

But I'm aware of the earth beneath me.

It's almost like your umbilical cord into mother earth.

It's here as long as you're alive.

You're just validating it and seeing it.

And if you don't want to use a tree trunk,

Maybe you just see a line of energy of light.

You are 100% organic earth made,

Watered by the sun,

Fertilized by the soil,

And the rest of humanity has helped you grow.

The human family with all of its technology and medicine,

Language,

Love has helped you grow into a human being,

Unless you were raised by wolves.

So you can have appreciation for this planet,

For all the people that it's created,

And for all those people that have helped create you.

As we have gratitude today,

We realize we're not islands unto ourselves.

We're connected to an entire species.

Light smile on your face.

Sure,

Some of them you could do without.

But look at this beautiful species that you're connected to.

The ideas,

The creativity,

The art,

The music,

The love,

The sacrifice,

The exploration,

The spirituality.

And today,

How much gratitude is there on the planet?

There are millions and millions,

Billions of people perhaps at some point today feeling gratitude for something,

For someone.

You're part of that symphony of humanity.

You're part of all these beings.

You are not alone.

And all of us as beings,

We are sitting on this incredible planet that has taken four and a half billion years to evolve so that we can have this human conscious experience.

And every day it nurtures us with food,

With water,

With a safe atmosphere full of oxygen.

And sure,

We can complain we didn't get enough of a discount on something we bought or we're mad at some customer service person.

Someone criticized us.

Sure,

We could focus on that.

The world is imperfect.

Or we can focus on this incredible group that we are all a part of.

And even from your own still meditation space,

Even if you're in a room by yourself,

You are affecting all of humanity as you open your heart.

All of humanity,

Whether they know it or not.

On a deep mental energetic level,

You're affecting everyone with your energy.

So we're nice and grounded and we have gratitude.

So gratitude for all of it.

The earth,

The human species,

The animals,

The plants,

And the stars.

This beautiful galaxy that we call home,

Solar system.

You are part of an undefinable,

Incredible symphony of energy.

Allow yourself to just own that,

Feel that,

Appreciate that.

And bring your awareness right into the center of your chest.

Right into the center of your chest.

Your heart center,

If I was to ask you to point to yourself,

This is probably where you would point.

This is where in a lot of traditions they say the spirit meets the body.

This is where the blueprint of our soul sits.

And this is where we have a real deep ability to feel gratitude.

Just like your eyes can see and your ears can hear,

Your heart can feel gratitude.

It's one of its abilities.

It's one of your senses,

You could say.

It's a place we can feel connection from.

And yes,

It's a place sometimes we carry grief and pain and hurt,

Sorrow.

And I want you to just take a look inside your heart.

It's almost like you peek into your heart space.

In the center of your heart there's this beautiful flower,

Whatever kind of flower you see.

And it represents your own inner ability to feel and have gratitude.

I want you to take a look at this flower,

Just like if you were walking in nature and you saw this,

Wow,

Look at this beautiful flower on the path.

You kind of kneel down and take a look at it.

I want you to see how is your flower of gratitude doing.

Does it look nurtured?

Does it look like it's growing well?

Does it look like it's a little dusty or keeled over?

Does it need some attention?

Have you been spending enough time feeling gratitude and cultivating that energy in yourself?

Or does it look like it's been perhaps ignored,

Unattended to?

So take a look.

I want you to be really honest.

Meditation is about being honest with ourselves.

So you look inside your heart,

You see this flower that represents your ability to have gratitude for the world.

And take a look.

Are the petals bright and glowing and open?

Are they,

Some of them hurting or dark?

Is it grief or loss or pain?

Something that keeps you from feeling gratitude,

Resentment?

And if there is,

Here's the real work that we're doing together today.

If there is something here,

Really fully blossoming and growing,

If there is something,

I want you to have gratitude for that.

Just like I mentioned earlier how I have gratitude for what my family went through because it got me to where I am and it helped them get them to where they are.

Even if there's pain or resentment or loss,

Can you have gratitude for that?

For what it's here to teach you and show you.

All growth comes from the friction we experience with life and the reflection.

There's this saying pain plus reflection equals growth.

Let's add to that pain plus reflection plus gratitude equals growth.

So we can sit and be a victim to the energy that we feel or we can have gratitude for even the worst of circumstances and what they're teaching us.

And take responsibility for our energy from the inside out.

That is the work.

That's the real work here.

Even if something really feels like it sucks,

Can you have gratitude for it anyway?

And as you do,

Maybe some of these petals on your flowers start to open.

Some energy melts off or releases,

Peels off.

You might feel some emotion move.

And it could be as simple as during the holidays I get really angry and resentful and frustrated with family and okay,

There it is.

Let me be grateful for that.

And then out of that flowers,

A gratitude for them.

The power of meditation is really to shift ourselves from the inside out by being honest with who we are and how we feel,

What energy we get stuck on and watching that energy shift.

And how does it shift?

By being really,

Really upfront with it.

Just taking a clear look at it and letting it teach us.

So if in this moment right now with me today,

It's so easy for your mind to want to put it off for later.

In this moment,

You can look right deeply into your heart,

Go,

What am I truly grateful for?

Maybe that's caused me some pain or hurt and that's helping me grow and heal.

If you could really look at that and own it,

Just allow that energy to shift and gratitude will start to flower naturally all the time.

So rather than the negativity sucking the air out of the room or out of your space,

You use it as a fuel.

Whatever you've been through can actually become the rocket fuel that launches you into a really happy,

Peaceful life.

There's this saying,

The worst thing that's ever happened to you has already happened.

Let your flower start to open.

Let it really start to open.

And once you do start to open from the inside out,

That's when you can give.

We can't keep all of this energy to ourselves,

But we can't give before we flower.

If we don't have enough energy,

We can't give.

As you heal yourself from the inside out,

Then you can start to give.

Let's start by just giving some gratitude.

Maybe just give some gratitude to the people around you,

Even the ones that hurt you.

Give some gratitude to them.

Even if you did something terrible to me or you let me down,

I'm grateful that you brought me to a place where I'm learning this lesson.

And I can love every human being.

I don't have to like everyone,

But I can love every human being as a soul trying to figure it out in a body.

So what are you grateful for today?

And what would you like to give from that gratitude?

What do you want to give the world today?

How do you want to share yourself with the world today?

Do you want to call someone you love and tell them?

Do you want to write a poem or a song?

You want to smile at everyone on the street?

How do you want to give today?

Open your heart up.

Let that flower start to flower.

That's what flowers do.

They flower.

And that's what human beings do.

Our consciousness starts to flower,

Start to become more aware,

More aware of energy.

When we have awareness and love together,

That's when a human being really takes a step.

They have awareness and love.

You don't want to have awareness and just be cold.

And you don't want to just be a walking heart without any awareness.

It's two sides of the coin,

Presence and love.

And isn't that the ultimate present love?

Gratitude is a form of love.

It's a shape love takes as you have gratitude for yourself or for the world.

So today,

Let your love take the shape of gratitude.

Give some to yourself and then give some to the world.

Make a commitment that you're going to do that today.

Beautiful work.

Wow.

And when you're ready,

Take a nice big deep breath in,

Easy,

Soft sigh out.

As you sigh out,

Maybe you feel a thousand flowers just go right out of your heart to a thousand people,

Just a thousand flowers.

They just with a feeling of gratitude in each one,

They just go to a thousand people and say,

I love you.

Thank you.

On a kind of psychic energetic level,

Send a thousand flowers out to a thousand people and say,

Thank you.

I love you.

I appreciate you.

Someone might message you later,

Say,

Hey,

I thought of you randomly and just felt this warmness in my heart.

Nice big deep breath in.

Easy soft sigh out.

Great job.

When you're ready,

You can slowly open your eyes and stretch.

Beautiful work everyone.