Hello,
I'm Anne Sussman,
Founder of Mindfulness Meeting Place and the author of the Bliss Buddy Project,
How Sharing Gratitude Increases Joy.
Today we will focus on gratitude for the blessings in disguise.
When things go wrong,
When events happen that we didn't expect or tragedy befalls us,
In the moment we might be angry,
Disappointed or possibly even grief stricken.
And then as time passes,
Maybe weeks,
Months or years,
We begin to see that past event through a different lens.
You may have heard people say,
Oh when I lost my job I thought it was the worst thing that could happen,
But now.
Or when I got cancer I thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen to me,
But now I see it differently.
So now,
In hindsight,
They may reflect on how loved and cared for they have been since receiving their diagnosis and before that they never really felt loved and appreciated in the same way.
Now their relationships are richer,
Deeper,
So they can say my cancer was a blessing in disguise.
Have you ever thought about what that phrase really means?
When events happen,
We judge them from the space of our small minds.
Shakespeare said,
There is nothing either good or bad,
But thinking makes it so.
Most events in life are neutral.
They're just events.
It's the meaning we ascribe to them that makes the difference.
It is possible to begin to see all the events in your life as opportunities and only you can choose to bring an attitude of gratitude to each situation.
We don't have the luxury of seeing far into the future,
So with hindsight we are able to see that even events that we judged as awful in the moment can then be the ones that bring us the greatest opportunities,
Opportunities to learn and to grow.
We can be grateful for the gifts that might show up down the road in the moment that they are occurring.
I invite you to notice the story you are telling yourself about what is happening and then let it go and hold that neutral event in kind attention with gratitude even if it seems like the worst thing that's ever happened to you.
If you can take that step back,
See it from the witness perspective,
You might be able to be grateful for all that has happened in your life.
The wonderful and the horrific,
The totality of all is what makes you,
You.
So today let's meditate with gratitude for the blessings in disguise.
So before we begin let's keep in mind these essentials for any meditation practice.
Remember it's okay to have thoughts in meditation.
The biggest misconception is that you need to clear your mind.
Don't try too hard at this.
It's really just a gentle shifting of your attention from thought back to breath,
From thought back to breath.
Doesn't matter how many times you return to the breath,
That is the practice.
You're doing it just right.
Let go of expectations and be kind to yourself.
Stick with it over days,
Weeks,
Months and years.
The changes that meditation will bring to your life are subtle yet profound.
So let's begin.
Come to find a comfortable seat,
Upright if that works for you and relaxed.
Minimize your distractions for our time together.
We will be meditating for about 20 minutes.
When you are ready you can gently close your eyes and begin by taking a few long,
Slow deep breaths in and out of your nose,
Signaling the body that it's time to relax,
Controlling the breath right now,
Knowing that you are safe,
Grounded and present,
Making this choice to meditate.
As you listen to the sound of the time,
You can now let your breath return to its natural depth and rhythm.
You may notice your breath speeds up or slows down,
But your breath knows just how to take care of you,
So no need to control it anymore.
Notice the temperature on your skin,
The warmth or coolness of the air.
Notice the sounds around you,
Distant sounds outside the room.
The sounds need not be a barrier to your meditation.
In this practice we want to welcome everything that arises internally,
Externally,
Resisting nothing,
Holding everything in kind attention.
Let's bring some relaxation to the body,
Starting at the top of the head,
Softening the scalp,
And furrowing the brow,
Allowing the face to be soft and easy,
No expression necessary,
Checking in with the jaw,
Seeing if you might need to unclench just a little bit,
Allowing the tongue to rest comfortably in the mouth,
Inviting the shoulders to soften down the back away from the ears a little bit,
And checking in with the spine,
From the base of the spine to the top of the head,
Reaching tall,
Holding the body in a posture that feels like dignity to you,
Relaxed,
Alert,
Softening the front body from the top of the chest on down through the diaphragm,
All the way to the belly,
Just letting it be soft and easy,
Like a great big Buddha belly,
Shifting your attention to the right arm,
From the shoulder on down through the elbow,
All the way to the fingertips,
Just softening,
And then the left arm,
Letting go of any tension you might be holding there,
From the shoulder on down through the elbow,
All the way to the fingertips,
Just letting your hands rest comfortably,
Noticing the pelvis sinking a little bit deeper into the cushion beneath you,
And seeing if you can notice the cushions beneath you rising up in reciprocity to support you in your practice,
To hold you,
Softening the right leg from the hip on down through the knee,
All the way to the toes,
And then the left leg,
Letting go of any tension you might be holding there,
From the hip on down through the knee,
All the way to the toes.
Now scanning your body,
Seeing if there's any place we might have missed that's calling for some ease or comfort,
Knowing in this practice you can always shift or move if you need to,
And sitting still as you can,
And now turning your attention inward to the interior realm of you,
Coming to notice any tingling or pulsing,
Any sensation in the body,
You might notice that most in your fingertips or your toes,
You might not notice anything at all,
That's okay too,
But that sensation is your aliveness,
We're alive in our bodies,
We almost never notice.
And now in the interior,
Find your breath,
Wherever it's most obvious for you,
That might be at the tip of the nose,
Noticing the cool air coming in through the nostrils,
Leaving a bit warmer above your upper lip,
For you,
You might notice the breath most in the rise and fall of the chest or the belly,
And just resting your attention there on the sensations of breathing,
On the expansion as you breathe in,
Space,
Contraction as you breathe out,
And the space between the next breath.
And quite soon you'll notice your attention wanders to thought as it will over and over again,
Just gently without judging it,
Shift your attention back,
Find the rhythm of your breath,
Doesn't matter how many times you return from thought to breath,
From thought to breath,
You're doing it just right.
Now bring to mind a time in your life that you felt grateful for something that you thought was awful at the time it happened,
Maybe you lost your job or maybe you were told you were sick.
It can be something great or small,
But now in hindsight you see that even if it was something small,
There was a gift,
An opportunity that you can be grateful for.
So I'd like you to focus your attention now on the gift.
What was it that unfolded for you that might never have happened?
And you notice something that might seem insignificant,
But as you sit with it you can begin to feel grateful for what arose out of that situation that was difficult.
Each moment we are alive is a gift,
An opportunity for growth and change.
Spend some time here floating back to those moments that turned out to be the blessings in disguise for you.
Okay.
.
And now let the image of the blessings fade.
And imagine there is a cup in the space of your heart and that cup is overflowing,
Overflowing with beautiful radiant light and gratitude.
Feel the gratitude for all that you have in your life.
Let the gratefulness radiate throughout your body.
Feel the glow.
The cup in your heart will never run out.
It is always overflowing.
My cup runneth over.
Spending some time here feeling that cup overflowing,
Radiating the gratitude throughout the body.
.
Remember that seeing each and every moment in your life as a gift,
As an opportunity,
That is your choice.
It is up to you each and every day to live in the sphere of gratitude.
It is up to you each and every day to live in the sphere of gratitude.
Now let any images you are still holding fade away,
Allowing the image of the cup to just gently fade and return to the sensations of your breath.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the chime.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
We'll sit like this in silence until you hear the sound of the cup.
So keeping your eyes closed,
Sitting in stillness just a little longer,
Listening to the sound of the chime.
It's always so important to come out of meditation very slowly.
So taking your time,
Keeping your eyes closed,
You can begin to deepen your breath,
Wiggle your fingers and your toes.
Slowly start to stretch into the space around you.
Taking your time,
There's no rush.
This is the part that most people forget about meditation.
So lastly,
When you feel ready,
You can slowly open your eyes,
Gaze at the floor,
Letting in a little bit of light before coming back fully to the space.
So thank you for joining me in this meditation on the blessings in disguise and how to be grateful for all that happens in your life.
I want to leave you today with a quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross,
The psychiatrist who was a pioneer in near-death studies and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying.
She said,
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in life has purpose.
There are no mistakes,
No coincidences.
All events are blessings given to us to learn from.
Wise words.
I wish you peace.
