Gratitude Meditation - Cultivating Feelings Of Gratefulness

Welcome to today's practice.

Now gratitude is one of the nine attitudes of mindfulness and practicing gratitude can be a game-changer for many of us.

Now for some of us gratitude comes naturally and for some of us it's a skill that can be developed.

The research shows that gratitude practices can do everything from improving our mental health to improving our relationships with others.

When we live our life with gratitude it helps us notice the little winds,

The small winds like the like the bus showing up right on time or a parking space right outside my house or with the sun shining on your skin.

Now with practice each of these small moments of gratitude strings together to create a general sense of well-being that over time strengthens your ability to notice the good in your world.

Now this meditation is going to help you build your skill of gratitude and my invitation to you is to do this meditation regularly.

I suggest daily and then after a week notice if your life is different in any way and notice how you feel.

Now we're going to begin today by placing our attention on the breath.

We'll then be bringing awareness to our five senses and as we move through the meditation we're going to be practicing gratitude and we're going to end the meditation today by bringing to mind people and things in our life that we're grateful for.

Each time we get distracted with thoughts of the past or the future which we will over and over we're going to bring our awareness back to our present experience and if we notice any unpleasant or difficult experiences we're only going to stay with those experiences for as long as it feels manageable.

Okay so we can acknowledge the difficulty or the discomfort but knowing that it's okay to shift our attention away from any discomfort at any time.

So let's start by finding a comfortable position so sitting in an alert and a relaxed posture.

Knowing that it's okay to move at any time during this meditation.

I invite you now to close your eyes or you're welcome to leave the eyes open and if you are going to keep your eyes open just have a soft focus,

A soft gaze,

A few feet in front of you on the floor and if you are keeping your eyes closed still maintain that soft focus even though the eyes are closed.

Okay so soft focus with the eyes relaxed.

Now let's just have a quick check in with what's going on inside the mind and inside the body and in particular noticing whether or not we're here whether or not we're present.

Are we focused on today's practice or perhaps have we got other things running through our mind?

Stresses of the day or worries of the week ahead maybe.

You know not that it matters but we do want to be aware of where our mind is.

So if we're feeling calm and present then we just bring awareness to our calmness.

If our mind is somewhere else we bring awareness to the fact that our mind is elsewhere.

So I invite you now to join me in becoming aware of the breath.

Noticing the inhale and noticing the exhale.

Without trying to change anything about the breath I was simply being curious about how the body is naturally breathing.

The body knows what to do and we might find that there's an urge to direct the breath to control the breath in some way.

So without trying to change anything we're simply noticing how the body's breathing and we're accepting the breath exactly as it is.

So is it a slow breath?

Is it a rapid breath?

Perhaps each breath is different and it's changing from breath to breath.

Is it a deep breath or is it a shallow breath?

Are we breathing into the chest or into the stomach?

Is the inhale longer than the exhale?

Is the exhale longer than the inhale?

So we're just noticing without trying to change anything.

Noticing that we don't have to do anything or make any effort to breathe.

The body knows exactly what to do.

So just pause for a moment and notice that.

Notice that the body can breathe all by itself without any effort from you.

And we're not so much watching the breath we're experiencing the breath.

We're feeling the breath.

So what does it feel like to breathe?

Perhaps we can feel the cool air coming in through the nostrils as we breathe in.

As the lungs and the chest and the stomach expand.

And then we might notice a short pause as the breath changes direction.

And then we might notice the warm air leaving the nostrils as we breathe out.

As the body softens and relaxes and sinks deeper into the chair.

We breathe in and the body expands.

And we breathe out as the body softens and relaxes and sinks deeper.

Now as this meditation goes on I'm going to be bringing your awareness to things in your life that you're thankful for.

So my invitation to you is to just give the gratitude the chance to come up naturally.

And when it comes up just let yourself allow yourself to sink into the feelings.

Surrender to it if you can.

And I want you to notice how it feels in your body.

How your energy feels.

And if the feeling of gratitude or gratefulness doesn't come up that's okay.

You don't need to try to make yourself feel it.

Just surrender to your heart and not to your head.

So let's flash through all aspects of your life that you might be grateful for.

So firstly let's just bring awareness to our breath.

As you inhale and as you exhale.

And just become aware of the fact that each of these breaths gives you life.

Bringing gratitude to the breath.

And becoming aware of your heart beating.

To the heart pulsing.

The heart filling with love and compassion and peace.

And maybe we can feel that sense of flowing those feelings back out.

So the heart beating and pulsing.

Filling with love and compassion.

Flowing in,

Flowing out.

Just keeping our awareness in the heart.

And bringing our awareness now to your eyes.

These eyes that allow you to see color.

To see faces.

See smiles.

Nature.

The sunrise.

The sunset.

Rainbows.

Moon.

Stars.

You can see yourself in the mirror.

Bringing awareness to the eyes.

And bringing your awareness to your ears.

These ears that hear music,

Hear laughter,

Hear the voices of those that you love.

That hear silence.

That hear all the beautiful sounds of life.

And bringing your awareness now to your nose.

The nose that smells the ocean breeze or the aroma of perfume or flowers.

Trees.

Newly cut grass.

Smells from the kitchen.

Cupcakes in the oven.

Bringing awareness to the nose.

And bringing your awareness to your lips and your mouth.

The mouth that tastes and savors and nourishes.

Kisses.

It speaks.

It whispers.

It sings.

And bringing awareness to your hands.

Hands that hold and touch and caress and open and close.

They applaud.

They squeeze.

And bringing awareness to the arms and the shoulders that carry and hug and lift and stretch.

Noticing any feelings of gratitude or gratefulness that might be in the body.

Perhaps in the chest.

Perhaps in the heart we can feel that gratefulness.

Now we're gonna move our focus or our attention to people that we maybe work or live with.

And let's begin by thinking of a particular person whose work or whose effort directly supports your work in life.

Now appreciate their contribution.

Appreciate their good intention.

So we conjure them up in your mind.

Once you've got that image of this person in your mind,

I'll be saying silently in your mind,

Thank you.

You can thank this person.

Now I invite you to bring to mind someone that you care about.

It could be anyone.

Picture them in your mind.

It could be in person.

It could be a child.

It could be a pet.

Someone that you care about.

Once you've got that picture in your mind,

Think about what this person means to you.

What this pet means to you.

What do you appreciate about them?

About who they are.

About you know what experiences you have together.

An experience that they've had in your life.

As you're imagining them,

Notice what feelings you're experiencing.

What sensations can you detect in your body?

Especially those in the area of the heart,

The chest.

What sensations can you feel in the chest as you think about this being?

As you picture them,

Allow yourself to express gratitude towards them.

So thanking them for being who they are and for their presence in your life.

Imagine them receiving your gratitude.

Now I invite you to bring to mind something in particular that you're grateful for today.

Feel the appreciation and the gratitude for its presence in your life.

It could be anything.

Something that you're grateful for today.

As you're imagining this thing,

Really try and feel the appreciation and the gratitude for its presence in your life.

And as you're bringing these things to mind,

These things that you're grateful for,

Allow yourself to rest in this experience.

So when we cultivate the practice of gratitude,

You may even find yourself,

As time goes on,

Being able to be grateful for difficult or unpleasant experiences.

Maybe once we have these experiences and we have exercised that gratitude muscle,

Then maybe we start to notice things that we can learn from difficult times.

So we can be grateful for those difficulties.

And perhaps you might like to bring to mind an experience in your life that is challenging.

Perhaps there's something that is challenging,

But one with which you'd like to be able to express gratitude.

So you can offer your gratitude and appreciation for this challenge and you can thank this challenge for what it might offer you.

And we've got gratitude for our body,

We've got gratitude for our mind,

Just gratitude for the simple fact that we're being alive and experiencing life in this moment.

As we near the end of this meditation,

The last minute or so,

I want you to just let go of any effort.

So don't try to pay attention to anything and let's just see what happens.

So just relax and let go of any effort for the next 30 seconds or so.

And after a few more breaths,

Choosing to bring our attention back now to the body.

Feeling the body once again connected to the ground or to the chair.

And noticing how the body's feeling now.

Does it feel different in any way to the beginning of the meditation?

So just noticing.

And keeping our eyes closed,

We can bring our attention now to sounds inside the room and sounds outside the room.

And we can maybe gently wiggle our fingers and toes.

Whenever we're ready,

We can gently open the eyes,

Your own time.

Having a little stretch and congratulating yourself for having taken some time to look after yourself over these last 20 minutes.

Have a wonderful day and keep your eyes open so that you don't miss all those beautiful things to be grateful for.

I'll see you in the next session.