Taking time to appreciate yourself can improve not only your relationships with others, but it can also brighten your outlook on life itself. Below is a meditation script for appreciating yourself.
This meditation is best practiced before or after yoga. Try doing fun and sweaty flow, to help you feel invigorated and energized. Then, when you’re ready, come down to a seated position.
Cross your legs at the shins, and ground your sitting bones down on your mat. Grow taller from the base of your spine, and lengthen your neck. Feel the crown of your head energize skyward.
As you sit up tall, notice the weight and shape of your body. Take time to appreciate your body—how it looks after you, how it heals you, how it keeps you safe. Scan your body, softening and relaxing any areas that may feel tense or fatigued.
Next, notice your breath. Feel the natural rhythm and cadence of your breath, and also appreciate your breath. Acknowledge that your breath helps sustain you, and cultivate feelings of gratitude for this prana that flows through you.
As you continue to be aware of your body and breath, start to think about something that you appreciate about yourself. As you do this, the mind will start to become very busy and will start to think very hard.
Let go of the tendency to think too hard, and simply focus on those feelings that rise up. Notice how appreciation and gratitude feel like. Don’t try to label it or try to explain it—simply feel and bask in those positive emotions.
Allow yourself to feel these feelings in your body and in your breath. In fact, allow these feelings to spread across you—leaving you warm and light.
When you are ready to end your meditation, let go of these feelings. Acknowledge that these feelings of appreciation and gratitude are always there. Then, come back into your body and breath. Finally, open yourself.
This is a meditation script for appreciating yourself, and make sure that you take time to integrate this in your own meditation script as much as possible!
