Reflect on Gratitude

(mouse clicking) (soft music) Headspace Studios. (feet tapping) (gentle music) Hi, my name is Dora from Headspace and welcome back to "Sunday Scaries". So before I started working as a meditation teacher, I was working as a nurse in Vancouver, BC. When you're a nurse, the normal work week doesn't apply. We still got days off, but it wasn't necessarily Saturday and Sunday, but no matter when it was, there was always a feeling of uneasiness the night before work. You know, something I've been thinking about when it comes to Sundays is that there's something about them that produces an enormous amount of anxiety. But the thing is, it's just a day, nothing more. It just happens to come before Monday. So sometimes it's not the day that we dread, but what we're returning to. When we look forward, we tend to lose sight of what's happening in the now, or forget about the moments that led us to the present moment and all the things that we enjoyed or what went well for us. What stands out to me is that our feelings on Sundays can influence the entire week. And something else is that we as human beings tend to focus on the things that didn't go well. Perhaps we fell short of our expectations or we may feel as if we ran out of time. But each and every week, if we can be present like we are here, we'll start to remember that there were some things that actually worked out. Trust me, if you think hard enough, something went well last week, even if it's something small like a delicious breakfast or really enjoying a book. And it's so important to get back to these things and remind ourselves that they happened. And when we do that, it gives us a sense of confidence and optimism heading into the week. Before we go any further, let's try that out and take a moment to reflect. So take a moment right now just to get comfortable. Leaving the eyes open to begin with, and just taking a big deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out, just gently closing the eyes, feeling the weight of the body sink down, that feeling of contact, and just enjoying the moment of having stopped. And just allow a particular moment in time from last week just to arise in the mind. So something that went well. It can be something really, really small, something big, doesn't really matter. Just allowing that to come into the mind and just gently holding it there. And as you hold it there, remembering that feeling of it having gone well, and remembering the feeling is almost as though you're re-experiencing the feeling. And just allowing that feeling to remain as you become more aware of the breath in the body. Just feeling that rising and falling sensation. (no audio) Hand on your stomach or your chest,...