For the next five minutes,
You'll be bringing your awareness to things in your life that you are most thankful for.
For this short time,
Simply allow gratitude,
The opportunity to arise naturally.
And when it does,
Just let yourself relax into the feeling without concern or judgment of any kind.
Notice how it feels,
How it affects your energy.
And if it doesn't come up for you right away,
Be grateful,
Simply for this opportunity to sit.
You don't need to try to make yourself feel anything at all.
Now I invite you to consider some aspects of your life that you might be grateful for.
First of all,
Notice your breath as you inhale and as you exhale,
With the awareness that each breath is precious and enables you to continue living.
Next,
You may consider your heart as it beats in your chest,
Pulsing,
Filling you with love,
Compassion and peace.
Now bring awareness to your eyes that allow you to see color and faces,
Smiles and nature,
The sunrise and the sunset,
A rainbow,
The moon,
The stars,
And even yourself when you look in the mirror.
Bring your awareness to your ears,
That beam in sound and music and laughter,
The voices of those you love,
The silence,
The most beautiful sounds of life.
To your nose,
The smell of the ocean breeze,
The aroma of sweet perfume,
Flowers,
Trees and newly cut grass,
The wafting smells that come from the kitchen at supper time or fresh baked chocolate cookies.
Now your lips and your mouth,
The gift that gives you taste for savoring,
For nourishing,
For kissing and speaking,
Whispering and singing at the top of your lungs.
Bring your awareness to your hands,
To hold and to touch,
To caress,
Your arms and shoulders to carry and hug,
Lift and your feet to move you,
Walking,
Running,
Dancing,
Leaping.
At this point,
Let's consider our tears,
Our challenges and find gratitude for the lessons that they hold and the growth that they produce within us.
And at the same time,
Can we notice our abundance,
Our evolution,
Our movement and your ability to recognize the potential that exists in every moment right now?
Let's breathe,
Feel the grace and the ease from which it arises within you and embrace the feeling that this sense of gratitude offers.
Open your awareness to consider any nurturing relationship in your life,
Old or new and notice any material objects that came to you unexpectedly as well as the things that you achieved through great sacrifice,
Commitment and hard work.
Think of love wherever it resides in your life and notice that when we stop taking so many simple things in life for granted,
We open up to gratitude for simply everything.
Sit with it now.
Breathe with it now.
Be with it now.
