Sharing with you today, from the “Into Flow” Mindfulness Challenge I currently have going…

Creating content for this daily whilst my beta group tests it out… Written work, audios, practical exercises… Which, is it’s own challenge, and has it’s own joy for me… Building that routine, building that challenge for me… I’m loving it! Interested? Take a look!

Hello darling. 

How are you today?  

All these famous people, talking about their stories, sharing exercises and practises – really wonderful and inspiring.  I love it! Not knowing what to expect, last night I wrote a blog post about my story with Gratitude. (You can find it here.) I was worried about today, worrying about what I would say, how I would dress, how much time I’d have to talk for, the format of it – Would Scott ask me questions?  I just worried – and could feel myself getting lost in my head… So, I wrote last night – to come clearer in my sense of self and to allow me to come into being in the moment…. It meant that, all of that stuff about “what might I say about my story” – I got it out.  And the worry cleared.  It meant I could be present this morning – to the school preparation morning shift with kiddo, and be present with him and his morning rarrrrr… He went off to school, and I took my cup of tea – and, heart in my throat, joined the live call….  And I shared the gratitude I feel for my boy, wanting to do a teabag rocket this morning, while waiting for the school bus…  Because in the moment, this is what I am most grateful for.  He asked to do it a couple of days ago, there hasn’t been time.  I found the time today – and that is a memory which will stay with us… And everyone else on the call loved the idea of trying out the teabag rocket for themselves… The science of it, the curiosity… 

My cynical mind jumps in and starts “should-ing” and “should not-ing” – made better use of the time, marketed myself…   And really, what matters most when I pause and listen within myself is what is in my heart.  Because whilst I could go into the self judgements, and the second guessing – that does not serve me today.

Today, this is my invitation to you. 

To come into your gratitude – and feel the energy of it.  Feel the emotion of it. Where it goes in your body. What it is doing within your body.  Feel the energy of it – how it ripples out from you and into the world around you. Not simply to think it.  To feel it, and to come into the feeling of it. 

Steve Richards, who was on the Live call today shared the bones of a gratitude exercise with us which made me smile.  I hadn’t written today’s “Into Flow” yet.  And I just thought “That’s it.  That’s what I am looking for in today’s practise…” So, I’ve taken the bones of what he shared… and wrote this, to share with you…

So, take a seat.  Breathe deep. 

Think about someone in your everyday life that you are grateful for. Close your eyes if you like. 

Follow that breath deeper.  Into your body. And feel into that sense of how you are grateful to that person.  Why?  What action are you grateful for?  What does their presence bring to your moment to moment experience? 

Let yourself think about them, and why you are grateful for them. 

And allow yourself feel into that sense of gratitude.  Sinking into it, or feeling it rise up through your body.  Perhaps spreading out from your heart or your belly. 

Breathe into this space, this energy, these sensations. And just watch what it is that is happening within your body… Feeling into it. 

Notice the sensations, notice the emotions coming up…

Keep coming into the sense of gratitude you have for that person or the experience of your gratitude.

If you feel sadness or grief coming up – this is ok. This is just emotion leaving the body, a cleansing if you will…  Give yourself permission to allow these emotions to move through you… 

Come back into the gratitude, and keep breathing into this. Into the sense you have of the gratitude you feel… 

Keep breathing into the sensations, into how you feel. 

The feeling is where the juiciness lies. The energy.  The magic.  Breathing into the feeling of Gratitude… 

Noticing what is happening in your body as you do this.

Notice where the energy you are feeling needs to go within you, or through you and into the space around you.  Simply allowing whatever is moving through you, to move through you, to where it needs to go.

Breathing into how it feels to FEEL this gratitude – the energy of it throughout your whole body.  Moving into every cell of your being.  And how those cells respond to this energy.

So often we think the gratitudes, listing them and acknowledging them.  It is a different experience to come into feeling them.  Experiencing them.   

Breathing into this space, feeling and allowing the energy of this gratitude.

Perhaps now, if it is appropriate for you within this moment, imagine yourself coming into conversation with this person.  Offering to them the appreciation you feel for them. 

How would it feel to do this?  How do you imagine this person might feel, or respond?  Imagining the expression on their face as you do this. 

Thank you. For being here, and for being yourself…. 

Morag