“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around” ~ Willie Nelson

Welcome to Day 7 of our Gratitude Experience.

Today is our final day of the 7 Day experience, what a week! some of you have fully immersed yourselves and will be taking a few more days to get through the content provided, some have struggled to find the time to reflect and have enjoyed the images shared and others have given us some amazing feedback, with the daily meditations touching them deeply.

Throughout the 7 days, we recommended you to:

• Use a journal for your thoughts, reflections and to capture any inspiration or ideas; what a wonderful way to hold all of this learning in one place to refer and to acknowledge, and trust you will continue to allow yourself this beautiful self expression;
• Commit to a meditative practice, we hope you have found this self care tool supportive and recommend you find a way to incorporate every day; a few moments each day will do wonders; and
• Open your heart and mind to enjoy the experience and be willing to allow what arises, we trust that this occurred and understand that nothing was ever right or wrong with this experience, it was your “gift” to do with whatever felt right for you.

If you would still like to share your thoughts and comments, we welcome this on our Facebook page. And remember if you would like to connect to anyone in our Embrace Life community, check out out our members directory or visit us at one of our upcoming festivals within in your local area.

Today’s affirmation: ” I value my uniqueness and rejoice in it”

You may want to reflect on this affirmation, and set the intention to bring into your meditation.

Remember that the use of an affirmation can assist you when your mind drifts in a meditation, so if you feel you drifting off and becoming aware of your busy mind, then come back the affirmation. It also is a wonderful way to keep focussed throughout the day.

Your Daily Meditation

Now, take a few moments to look at the image we have captured today, what does this image reflect for you? Look at the colours, the vibrancy and within the simplicity there is such beauty.

This flower represents the beauty within you, and how unique you are with all your gifts and blessings.

To honour this within ourselves is so important, when we can fall into a comparison game, self judgement or impatience and not allowing your time to bloom.

(Remember to capture your thoughts in your journal)

Take a few deep breaths and concentrate on the image, breathe it in, connect to the simplicity of the flower and with each breath, bring in what you are grateful for and if need on your breath out, the letting go.

And what about the quote :“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around”, what blessings can you capture that you have in your life, right now?

Some further questions to ponder today:

• Do you ever fall into the trap of comparing your achievements to others?
• Every season, has its time; what season are you in now? and how is that playing out?
• What 10 things can you see within yourself, your unique talents and blessings, and how will you acknowledge them today?

Thank You’s

We want to thank you all for spending the last 7 days with us, we hope you enjoyed the experience and invite you to keep in contact through our newsletters, future experiences and to come along to our Embrace Life festivals.

A big “thank you” goes to Rachel Luongo from BInspired Images who provided you the most wonderful images, and is one of our amazing creatives within the Embrace Life community, we are blessed to have her on the team!

We wanted to finish on a high, so decided to include this short videoclip of a song called “Grateful”, for spending the last week together we are truly grateful and you all are amazing!

Musicians Nimo Patel and Daniel Nahmod brought together dozens of people from around the world to create this beautiful, heart-opening melody. Inspired by the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge, the song is a celebration of our spirit and all that is a blessing in life.

For the 21 Days, over 11,000 participants from 118 countries learned that “gratefulness” is a habit cultivated consciously and a muscle built over time. As a famous Roman, Cicero, once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

This soul-stirring music video, created within a week by a team of volunteers, shines the light on all the small things that make up the beautiful fabric of our lives.