This is an ancestor gratitude meditation.
In this meditation,
You will contact your ancestors,
Their continuation in you,
And use them to practice both self-compassion and compassion for our planet.
Go ahead and settle into a comfortable position.
You can do this meditation lying down or in a seated position,
Making contact with the ground,
The earth underneath you.
You can gently close your eyes or let your eyes remain softly open,
Focusing on a spot a few feet in front of you,
Bringing your awareness into the here and now,
Contacting your senses,
The sense of sound,
Maybe following one sound,
Contacting your sense of touch,
Areas that are cool or warm on your body,
The feeling of air on your skin,
And contacting the sense of movement,
Your body moving with each and every breath,
Breath moving in,
Breath moving out.
And this breath,
This air that you breathe,
Is a continuation of a breath that has a long history for you,
A history that began way before you were born.
So as you sit here on this X marks the spot of your life,
I'd like for you to imagine that there is a timeline that travels out to the left of you,
And this timeline travels back in time to you as a child,
To you as a baby,
To the moment when you first took your breath in this world.
This timeline travels back to you being in the womb,
To you being an egg cell,
A sperm cell that came together.
It travels so far back that it travels into your parents,
Your grandparents,
Your great-great-grandparents.
Each breath that you take is a continuation of your ancestors and your lineage.
And with each breath,
You also breathe the strengths,
The values,
The commitments,
And the resilience of your ancestors.
As you travel back in time along the timeline of your life that begins well before you were born,
Bring to mind one of your ancestors that demonstrated strength,
Resilience,
And a commitment to their values.
An ancestor that overcame something or transformed something difficult in their life.
Remember them,
What they did,
Who they were,
The adversity they faced,
And the wisdom,
The courage,
And the love that they brought and carried on and passed on to you in this very breath.
As you breathe in,
Breathe in the strength and resilience of that ancestor in your body,
Right here and right now.
They still live within you in every cell and in every breath.
What are the strengths and qualities that you would like to breathe in from this ancestor?
Breathe them in and feel them filling up your body.
And then going back in time even further down the timeline of your life,
Bring to mind another ancestor or group of people that are in your history,
In your lineage,
Who overcame challenges,
Difficulties.
Maybe who had the courage to say something,
To speak up.
Maybe who had a commitment to the well-being of others,
Or a connection to our planet or nature in some way.
Make contact with another ancestor or group of ancestors that are in your lineage.
And as you consider their strengths,
Their courage,
Their wisdom,
And their capacity to transform suffering into something beautiful or beneficial,
Imagine that you can breathe in those qualities into your body in the here and now,
Breathing in with gratitude for those ancestors,
Feeling them present with you in the here and the now with each and every breath you take.
They are in every cell of your body,
And they are in your beings,
Breathing in their commitment,
Strength,
And wisdom.
And then I'd like for you to imagine that this timeline of your life also spreads to the right of your body,
To you growing older and eventually you dying.
But it continues on to beyond this lifetime,
Because someday you will become an ancestor.
Someday you will become a source of strength,
And courage,
And wisdom for somebody in the future.
And as you look to the right of your body,
The timeline that will carry on from you from this moment,
Focus on the out-breath,
Breathing out the qualities that you would like to send into the world.
With each out-breath,
Breathe out qualities of compassion,
Courage,
Understanding,
Maybe breathing out a commitment to be of service,
To contribute to the well-being of others,
The well-being of our planet.
So with each in-breath now,
You breathe in the strength and commitment,
Deep gratitude for your ancestors.
And with each out-breath,
You breathe out your own strength and commitment to be of service to our future.
Breathing in strength,
Breathing out strength.
Breathing in commitment,
Breathing out commitment.
Breathing in gratitude,
Breathing out gratitude.
Breathing in peace,
Breathing out peace.
And as you go about your day today,
Reflect on these qualities that your ancestors have left inside of you that are part of you.
And reflect on the qualities that you would like to bring to the future.
Many blessings and more good to come in your day.
You can begin to bring your awareness outward to sounds in the room,
To the temperature of air on your skin,
To your body making contact with the floor.
And eventually,
Gently opening your eyes and bring yourself more fully back into the space.
