Training our mind is like training a muscle - the more you do it, the better you’ll become. Practicing gratitude becomes way easier through meditation. By doing this regularly, we are reprogramming our mind in a way that will make it easier and easier to dive into the feeling of deep routed gratitude. With this blog entry, I’m sharing my number one favorite guided visualization meditation. I’ve developed and written this meditation over the course of many years, figuring out what works best for me. Having a guided meditation like this would have saved me lots of time and energy, so I’m sharing it with you, hoping it’ll support your journey.
GUIDED VISUALIZATION MEDITATION
This meditation is super powerful and easy to follow along. Read the text as many times as you have to and as soon as you feel ready, put your device aside and try it on your own.
Sit down in a comfortable position, close your eyes and let your body and mind relax. As soon as you feel ready, start with the visualization.
You are sitting on a cliff overviewing the endless ocean. You are facing south, and the sun is in front of you, bathing the water in light, making the sea appear like a molten piece of gold.
While you sit there, admiring the view, you notice that within your chest there is a beautiful, small ember of light starting to shine. This ember is fueled by your gratitude, joy and love.
Now begin to think of something in your life that you are grateful for.
For example, you can start with your feet. No joke, focus only on your feet.
Feel them being connected to the earth. Really feel into them, into this body part of yours.
Think about all the places you get to visit, all the people you get to meet. Music you get to dance to, nature you get to explore. Think about all the miles and miles these feet of yours have already walked. Say, “Thank you,” and mean it. Feel it.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank your body for its service.
Slowly work your way up within your body. Visit your calves, your knees, your thighs. Think about all the service they have done. You can think about your ears you can hear with. Your eyes you can see with. Your mouth to taste with. Your mind to think with. To love with.
Again, say, “Thank you.”
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Keep going. Visit your inner organs. Your heart, beating all your life long.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
While you sit there, thinking about all the things you are grateful for, you feel that ember of light within your chest starting to glow and to grow. It is growing and growing, illuminating every cell within your body. Everywhere the light reaches, there’s only love and joy.
And the light keeps expanding and expanding, until it reaches the earth beneath you and the air around you. And still, you sit there saying, “Thank you,” again and again.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Now you think about more things in your life that you are grateful for.
That can be the roof over your head. The running water in your home. The food in your fridge. You can think about your family or friends, your partner or kids. Your pets or your plants. Anything that evokes a feeling of gratitude within yourself. A comfortable bed. Exciting books that make you stay up all night long. Music that makes your soul dance. Sunsets so beautiful they make you cry. A world around you that’s worth living for. Say, “Thank you,” again and again.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The light you’re emitting reaches farther and farther. Into the ground below and into the sky above. Down into the ocean and up into space.
Up, up, up you go, until the light shines so brightly it reaches the atmosphere, the orbit and finally, the sun. As your light touches the body of the sun, you realize that you have become a sun yourself. You are a sun in your own right, emitting love and light.
And still you say, “Thank you,” for all the blessings in your life. Your life itself. The fact that you are here, right now. The very fact of your existence.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You bathe time and space with the light that is your gratitude and joy, still saying, “Thank you,” because right now, that’s all you want to say.
Sit in that feeling for a moment.
Now gently, gently retreat the light all the way back to yourself, still sitting on the cliff. Back and back the light travels, all the way back into your body.
Within your chest there isn’t the small ember of light anymore. Now there is the Sun that is all the love, all the joy and all the gratitude you’ve been bathing the whole universe in.
Throughout your day you will carry this Sun with you, always sending out a message, saying, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
If you have any questions or thoughts I'm more than happy to hear from you. Don't hesitate to reach out via info@valeriesoleil.com