Welcome.
Today I invite you to do this meditation of harnessing the power of gratitude in our lives.
Gratitude is a state of feeling grateful,
Feeling thankful.
There have been lots of studies showing how important gratitude is in making our lives more positive.
A study by Harvard researchers found that after 10 weeks,
Those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives.
Another study found that being grateful reduced fear and anxiety by regulating stress hormones,
Increased a happiness index by releasing the feel-good hormones of serotonin and dopamine.
By consciously practicing gratitude every day,
We create new neural pathways that get strengthened with every day of practice,
Ultimately creating a permanent state of being grateful.
Being grateful rewires our brains,
Brings more happiness in our lives,
Enhances both our personal and professional relationships.
It also reduces our stress and anxiety level,
Boosts our confidence and most importantly shifts our focus from a state of lack to a state of feeling abundant.
Now let's begin.
Take a moment to check within yourself,
Becoming more aware of how you're feeling inside.
Let's just make ourselves very comfortable.
You can either sit or lie down.
Let's focus our attention on our breathing,
Feeling grateful for every breath.
Each in coming breath bringing more peace and tranquility.
And every outgoing breath taking away stress,
Worry and anxiety.
Incoming breath is filling our lungs with more oxygen and positivity.
Every outgoing breath is taking away stale energy and carbon dioxide out of our body.
Take some time to acknowledge yourself for showing up for today's practice.
Make any final adjustments to your posture to get into a space of peace and comfort.
Gently becoming aware of where you are,
Becoming aware of your body.
Feeling completely present in this moment.
I want you to now put one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly.
Just connecting with the warm sensations of your hands.
Now transfer those warm feelings to your heart and navel center,
Giving them fresh energy,
Awareness,
Power and peace.
Listen attentively to the sounds of your heart,
The incessant beating of your heart that happens on its own.
Your heart works for you day in and day out,
Pumping fresh blood and nutrients into our body and releasing the old blood out.
This fist sized powerhouse beats 100,
000 times per day,
Pumping 7200 litres of blood every day.
If it wasn't for the love of your heart,
You wouldn't last a single day more here.
So just bringing some awareness and gratitude for the fact that our heart and our body loves us unconditionally and serves us even without us asking.
Let's slowly bring our attention to our belly.
Notice the gentle rise and fall with each breath in and out.
Breathing in,
Focusing on how the belly expands and breathing out,
Observing how the belly shrinks.
As we continue to breathe with presence,
We realize that our food gets digested every day without us even trying.
Our food gets converted into this invisible form of energy by the power of our belly,
Our body.
Just filling yourself now with a sense of gratitude towards your belly.
With every incoming breath,
Feeling grateful.
With every outgoing breath,
Feeling a sigh of relief that we don't have to ask our body to work for us,
It does it on its own automatically.
Now let's slowly move on and bring our attention to our senses.
The sense of seeing,
Hearing,
Touching,
Smelling and tasting that brings more meaning to our lives and makes this world a wonderful place to live in.
Let's bring our attention to our eyes,
Which help us to see the beautiful world of colors around us,
Helps us to see nature and its wonders.
Gently moving on to our ears,
Which helps us to listen to the beautiful music,
Music which is the great source of joy for many.
It also helps us to listen to the words of encouragement from our friends when we are going through a challenging time.
Moving on to our mouth,
Which helps us to taste delicious food that our mothers cook for us with love.
Our nose that helps us to smell wonderful aromas and scents.
I love the reassuring fragrance of the flowers in my garden when I come back home after a long day.
That sense of touch that helps us to comfort our loved ones or to give a hug to our friends and family.
It helps us to connect with the outside world.
Thank God for our hands that allow us to do wonderful things.
We are so blessed that we have been given such amazing gifts.
Take another deep breath in and bring all these wonderful feelings of gratitude to the center of your heart.
Now think of three moments of joy and happiness in your life.
Three times when you felt like you were the king or queen of the world.
Like you were the luckiest person on this planet.
Like you just won a lottery.
Feeling grateful for these beautiful moments in your life.
Allow these beautiful feelings to multiply five times more in the center of your heart.
Let these feelings of joy expand fifty times more.
Let this happiness expand more and more from the center of your heart to the whole of your body.
Hundred times more.
And let it penetrate each and every cell of your being.
You are filled with this feeling of being grateful and thankful in your life for all these wonderful gifts that life has given you.
Whether you are aware of them consciously or not,
It doesn't matter.
The very fact that you are alive is a miracle.
It's a gift.
So allow these feelings to enrich your life.
Take a deep breath in and slowly breathe out.
Another beautiful,
Healing breath in.
And as you breathe out,
Just gently become aware of your surroundings,
The sounds around you.
Another cleansing breath in.
And as you breathe out,
You can wiggle your toes,
Wiggle your fingers.
One last energizing breath in.
With a big smile on your face,
You can slowly open your eyes.
Feeling grateful,
Feeling wonderful for this beautiful life that you've been given.
Thank you for listening to this meditation today.
Namaste.
