With each breath,
Letting go of anything you're holding onto from the night or the daytime.
Now bring some awareness to the breath,
Noticing how your inhalations and exhalations match each other.
Resting in the space between your inhalation and exhalation,
Pausing for a moment,
And then allowing the exhalation to come naturally.
And then pausing again at the end of the out-breath,
Allowing space or gap before the inhalation naturally occurs.
Becoming curious to the breath,
The quality of the breath.
Now turning your attention away from the breath,
Draw your awareness to your sense of sound,
Bringing attention to all that you hear in your environment.
And as you listen,
Give thanks,
Thanks to your ears,
Your ability to hear,
Thanks to the sounds that you hear,
Those near and far.
Your thanks and gratitude for what you hear may go as far away as the birds in your environment or as close as the hum of your computer,
Not judging the sounds,
But being grateful that you're able to appreciate all the sounds in your environment.
Now notice your sense of smell,
Offering your appreciation for your nose,
Your olfactory system,
Noticing the smells in your environment and also those that bring you joy,
Perhaps cookies baking in the oven or a particular fragrance.
Giving thanks to your ability to appreciate the smells and scents,
Offer some sense of gratitude and awareness for how a sense of smell augments your ability to taste and impacts your appreciation of perhaps the food that you bring in to your body for sustenance.
With that,
I invite you to turn your attention to your taste buds,
To your tongue and your mouth,
Offering appreciation for the ability to taste,
Noticing what you taste currently and offering gratitude for those tastes that bring you joy.
Notice if your mind drifts to a particular food,
Perhaps a fruit or something else that brings you happiness.
If you notice a smile,
Maybe even coming to your face as you think about it and offer again some gratitude and thanks for being able to appreciate whatever it is that's coming to mind.
Now notice what you feel on your skin,
A sense of touch.
Perhaps it's your own breath as you exhale on the roof of your mouth or it's the feel of your clothes against your arms or your legs.
Become present to the sense of touch and offer some thanks and gratitude for all that you feel.
Now turn to your eyes,
Even with your eyes closed,
Bring to mind an image that brings you joy,
Perhaps someone that you look at or a particular place and send gratitude to your eyes for giving you the ability to have that vision.
Think of all that you take in through sight in a day and how it deepens your experience of the world.
Again,
Offer some thanks and gratitude for your ability for sight to your eyes,
To your brain to process those visions.
Next,
Bring to mind someone who's easy to love in your life.
See them in front of you,
Perhaps their face,
Their smile,
And thank them.
Thank them for being in your life however they show up for you.
Now choose another person,
Perhaps a few more people,
Recognizing that offering gratitude and thanks for one person doesn't take it away from another,
That we have sufficient thanks and love to share.
Spend a few minutes now thinking about all those people in your life whom you're grateful for,
Thinking of those people who have supported you,
Perhaps childhood friendships,
People who have newly entered your life,
Remembering to still take some deep breaths while bringing some gratitude and some thanks to the visions that you're drawing forward in your mind.
Finally,
Send gratitude for everyone you'll encounter today,
Anyone you've already encountered today,
People you know and don't know.
Next we turn to the possessions that have the most meaning for us in our lives.
Perhaps there's some singular object or a few things in your life that hold dear,
Dear value and offer thanks to have them.
Now move further beyond those individual objects to the objects in your room right now or in your outdoor space if you're outdoors,
Perhaps the chair you're sitting on,
The roof over your head,
The walls in the room,
And offer gratitude for having all that you have.
Shift your attention to the clothes you have,
The money,
The abundance,
All that you give and receive.
Release any feelings of guilt or sense of shame that might appear when you think about your material possessions and truly appreciate them for what they've given you.
Now take a deep breath and connect to the present moment.
You may consider opening your eyes if you choose and offer gratitude for everything that is present,
Allowing you to hold this space for you to meditate right now.
Gratitude for the others who are here practicing with you.
Now take a final breath and smile,
Feeling any warmth that you might feel in your heart space.
And when I ring the bell,
Sit for a moment,
Feeling all the thanks and joy and abundance that you have in your life.
