I invite you to join me in an arrival practice.
This is just a short warm-up meditation as we prepare,
As we become centered,
As we come into the here and now before we dive into the deep end of this practice.
So I ask that you please go ahead and find that comfortable place.
Find your comfortable posture.
If possible keep your head,
Your neck and your spine aligned.
Take in some deep comfortable breaths and with each passing exhale I ask that you let go of any tightness in your body starting from your face.
Relaxing your eyes,
Releasing the chin,
Letting that jaw hang,
Making sure your fists are unclenched.
You could be doing this practice either lying down or sitting up.
If you're sitting up I ask that you keep your feet either cross-legged or firmly planted on the ground.
Breathing nice deep into the belly with each passing exhale relaxing letting it go releasing any tightness.
So bringing your awareness gently into the center of the forehead also referred to as the third eye chakra and visualizing a point of radiant light.
I visualize that this light emanates a healing energy,
A soft white glow and that light radiates into every corner of your body spreading this healing energy.
Now with each exhale let this light spread to a different part of your body until it encompasses every nook and cranny.
Helping you to come home,
Coming home to yourself,
My form as a being of light,
My language,
The language of the soul is silence,
My religion is love,
And welcome home.
So thank you once again for being here and the flow of today is going to be as follows.
I'm going to go into a pranayama practice some powerful breathwork powerful at the same time very simple it's a conscious practice of cultivating prana and I will then segue that pranayama practice into meditation on gratitude.
So today's topic is the art of cultivating an attitude of gratitude.
With that said I ask that you please go ahead and find that comfortable posture again.
Go ahead and downshift your gaze or close your eyes and I want you to please put one palm on your anahata chakra which is your heart center and the other palm on your swadhishtana which is your sacral the belly so just below the belly button then observe the breathing as you're using your diaphragm to open and close your abdominal cavity breathing nice and deep into the belly softening the abdomen and as you squeeze releasing the air you let go what the body does not need.
Nice even breathing and putting your attention on the flow of air the cool air that comes in through the nostrils filling the very bottom of your abdomen the very bottom of your abdomen noticing the expansion on that palm that's on the abdomen and as you exhale it comes out as a warm breath that you can feel at the tips of your nostrils letting off what the body does not need.
Staying with this awareness of this breath that is energizing,
Filling,
Rejuvenating every cell of my body and with that exhale noticing the warm breath come out.
Now with this next exhalation I ask that you go ahead and release the air through your mouth and let it come out like a whoosh imagine if there is a mirror that's in front of your face right now and you're fogging that mirror so go ahead and exhale nice and long through your mouth making the inhale slightly shorter than the exhale so extending the exhale as much as you can in the art of pranayama the emphasis is on the exhalation when you learn to let go you learn to give the universe will automatically teach you how to get so make your exhale nice and extended deep inhalation into the belly and the exhalation through the mouth and out fogging that mirror with a whoosh continue this for a couple more rounds now we're going to change this up a little bit on this next round inhale and this time you're going to keep your mouth closed and you're going to exhale with a hum that hum originates in your throat chakra and it's you're going to exhale through the nostrils it's going to look like this sound like this notice that my exhalation was nice and long and my hum came from a very deep place in my throat where the deeper i go in terms of a note the more i am reverberating and i'm actually creating a scenario where i'm massaging the organs in my head including my sinus cavities my eyes my mouth my tongue etc so let's do three rounds of this humming it's called bhramari or the buzzing bee um now this last round can you go deeper in your note as you extend the exhalation with the hum as long as you possibly can now return back into the natural state of breathing inhaling and exhaling for an even count in through the nostrils and out through the nostrils and acknowledging for yourself how has the feeling the experience in your body changed with this last practice so now we're gonna do a practice of holding our breath and in this case what we're gonna do inhale for a count of five through the nostrils we're gonna hold for a count of seven with our lungs full and then exhale for a count of eight so five seven eight breathing so together let's go to an inhale four three two one hold seven six five four three two one exhale eight seven six five four three two one inhale five four three two one hold seven six five four three two one exhale eight eight seven six five four three two one one last round inhale five four three two one hold seven six five four three two one exhale eight seven six five four three two one and return to natural breathing even rhythm of weed inhaling and exhaling so now as we prepare for the next round and the final practice in pranayama set i'll give you instructions we're gonna do something called the om chant you all may be very familiar with it there are three syllables in the word om ah ooh ma so these three represent the three elements the three primordial sounds and as you exhale try to go from and if you do that after three rounds of this practice you'll notice a considerable change not just in your mental capacities and your clarity in your head but also your body will respond lowering the blood pressure regulating the heartbeat reducing any hypertension and so together i ask that you go ahead and take a nice deep inhale into the belly and first round um oh Umm.
.
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Drop into the experience of how you're feeling In your breath,
In your brain,
And in your body Acknowledge how you feel right now Notice the slower pace of thoughts in your mind The ease of your breath And the lightness you may be feeling in your entire body And the lightness you may be feeling in your body This is the power of pranayama practice Just 15 minutes a day and you will change your entire make-up of your mind And the constitution in your body You compensate for those times when we inadvertently hold our breath We deprive ourselves of the much-needed prana with shallow breathing So this 15 minutes practice is a breakfast for your lungs Nourishing and rejuvenating every cell of your body Now I ask that you keep your eyes closed as we segue into the gratitude meditation practice Thank you for joining me in this practice What you appreciate,
Appreciates And that when you acknowledge the good that you already have in your life You're creating a foundation for abundance Neuroscience has shown that the brain cannot hold the state of appreciation and fear at the same time That means you can either be grateful or afraid Not both Gratitude is the affirmation that there are good things in the world Gifts and benefits that you've received And you recognize that the source of that goodness,
The source of those benefits is outside of yourself With gratitude you're acknowledging other people The supreme being,
Divine,
Call it god or whatever name you want,
Mother nature Has given you,
Has bestowed these gifts big or small Giving you a good life And remembering and acknowledging this goodness that comes from outside of you Emerges this attitude of gratitude And besides igniting abundance,
It's also a major source of happiness Now,
When you forget that When you have the sense of entitlement That puts a damper on your happiness So be grateful for the kindly friends that walk along your way Be grateful for the skies of blue that smile from day to day Be grateful for the health of your own,
The work that you find to do For round about you there are people less fortunate than you Be grateful for the growing trees,
The roses soon to bloom The tenderness of kindly hearts that shed your days of gloom Be grateful for the morning dew,
The grass beneath your feet The soft caresses of babies and all their laughter sweet Be grateful that you can recall the joys that you have had Now I want you to please bring your attention to the very bottom of your body Your feet and your toes Wiggle your toes Acknowledge their presence They help you to maintain balance They help you to find stability So express gratitude for your toes Moving into the soles of your feet Acknowledge the presence of the feet and their role in holding you up Carrying your weight Help you to tread distances Now acknowledge your ankles,
That very important joint That helps you to maintain balance and shift your weight from side to side Helps you to stretch your feet,
Point your fingers to toes out Helps you to swim Now bring your awareness to the calf muscles That muscles that are important in your mobility And then bring your attention to your knees An important joint to help you flex,
For you to sit down,
For you to get up Acknowledging and showing gratitude for the functioning of your knees Bringing your awareness up into the thighs The strong big muscles of the thighs,
Regardless of their shape Expressing gratitude for their presence,
For the important role they have in helping you to move Now coming to the hip joints,
The vital joint that is instrumental in helping you to pivot,
Helping you to rotate Acknowledging and expressing gratitude for the functioning of my hip joints Now bring your awareness to the biggest muscle group in your body,
Your buttocks You are probably laying down or sitting and using the support of this muscles of the buttocks right now Expressing gratitude for these muscles And now bring your awareness to your reproductive system,
Your groin,
The excretion system that is necessary for your health Expressing gratitude and acknowledging the importance of this part of my body Bringing your awareness into the belly,
The muscles in your abdomen that hold your body upright And this is the container that holds very vital organs in your body,
Acknowledging and expressing gratitude for my belly Now acknowledging the presence and the role of your spine that runs all the way from the bottom of your skull down to the tailbone The spine that holds the vital nervous system and protects it and helps me to communicate sensations in every part of my body to the brain Where I can process,
I can recognize and regulate it Now bring your awareness into the rib cage,
The chest cavity that holds vital organs like my heart and my lungs Acknowledging and expressing gratitude for this part of my body and the vital functions it does in being alive and being vibrant in my health and happiness Bringing awareness to your shoulders and those muscles and the joints that help you to be able to move your arms in any which way to be able to hold up weight To be able to help you to perform tasks with ease because of a perfectly working set of shoulders and their muscles and their joints Now acknowledging the role of the muscles in your arms,
Your forearms,
Your upper arms And expressing gratitude for them to be able to help you to do tasks with your hands,
To be able to express through art,
To be able to be creative And bring your awareness to the wrists,
Those muscles,
Those complex set of muscles that help you to rotate your palms,
Move around your fingers,
Connecting the arms with your palms Now bringing your awareness to the palms and the fingers,
Your ability to be able to make a grip,
Your ability to be able to hold fingers against your thumb A unique feat that we humans have that a lot of species on the planet can only wish they had It's an enormous tool,
These palms and the fingers Now bringing your awareness to the neck,
The muscles around the throat that hold my neck up so that I can support the ever so important head and keep it balanced and connected to my heart and the rest of my body The vocal cords,
Part of my breathing and my digestive system that are held by this area of the neck Now moving into the headspace,
My ability to express,
My ability to think,
My ability to smell,
See,
Hear and feel the wind against the skin of my face Acknowledge the role of this headspace and the multitude of sophisticated organs that are contained within my headspace Now acknowledging your entire body as one unit,
An incredible sophisticated gift from the universe so that you can experience and express yourself in this drama that we call life What a wonderful costume This is my vehicle to experience time and my movement across it in this phase,
In the sliver of time Now bring your awareness and attention to your energetic body,
The soul radiating this energy and every chakra illuminated Starting from the crown,
Going down to the third eye,
Into your throat,
To the heart,
To the solar plexus just below your ribcage To the swadhishthana or the sacral chakra just below your belly button,
Also referred to as the dantian And then all the way down to the tailbone which is the center of the root chakra,
The muladhara Now let this radiance from this energetic body of yours emanate out of your skin creating a halo,
An aura all around your body above,
Below,
In front,
Behind and to the sides This is your energetic presence that people can feel,
People,
Animals,
Anybody who comes into this circle of your influence can feel your presence So let's take a moment to acknowledge and have gratitude for my energetic body that extends outside of my physical body And let that extend out acknowledging the people who have been in my life,
Those people who have been and gone,
Those people who have newly come in Just acknowledging the presence of everybody that's been influenced and come within my circle of my energetic body Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
For if you did,
What would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something for it gives you the opportunity to learn,
Be thankful for the difficult times,
It's during those times that you grow Be thankful for your limitations because they give you opportunities for improvement Be thankful for each new challenge because it helps you to build strength and character,
Be thankful for your mistakes,
For they teach you valuable lessons Be thankful when you're tired and wary because it means you've made a difference It's easy to be thankful for the good things,
A life rich of fulfillment comes when those of you can be thankful for your setbacks And fulfillment comes to those who are thankful for the setbacks When you cultivate an attitude of gratitude and generosity,
You'll find yourself in a life of service,
Service for the gifts that you received so you can share them with others Now I ask that you please bring your palms together in Anjali Mudra at your heart center in prayer position And I want you to please rub your palms kindling some chi or prana,
The life force in your body And when you feel a nice warm ball of chi ignited between your palms,
I want you to go ahead and cup your eyes,
One with each palm and bless yourself with this chi I'm grateful for what I have,
I'm grateful for my health,
I am safe and I am protected I'm being nurtured and I'm being guided Thank you Now I ask that you please bring your palms together back in prayer position at your heart center and ask yourself,
What has this practice done for me?
Acknowledging how you feel right now,
I ask that you summarize how you feel right now in one word And invite you to share that word Om Shanti
