Guided, taking things away and putting them back. Music underneath
Not the abundance you are told to chase. The kind already in the room, that you stopped seeing years ago.
About 13 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the morning.
Take the chair away. Feel the floor, the awkwardness, the annoyance. Now let it come back. Then the pillow, the quilt, the kettle. All of it just works until it does not, and then it is all we can think about. This morning arrived. You woke up. There is another breath and another day, which was never guaranteed.
Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on stevenwebb.uk
Thank you for sitting with me.
Steven
Who this is for
Gratitude practices that ask you to think of three good things and come up empty.
This one goes at it backwards. Not the abundance you are told to chase, somewhere ahead of you. The kind already in the room that you stopped seeing years ago.
What happens in this meditation
You settle, then we take the chair away. Imagine nothing under you. Feel the floor, the awkwardness, the annoyance of not having it. Then let it come back.
Then the pillow. Then the quilt, and a night without it, colder, with your neck hurting by morning.
Then the small things that just work until they do not. The kettle. Your shoes. The car starting.
And then this morning itself, which arrived, and you woke up in it, which was never guaranteed.
How to get the most from it
Thirteen minutes, and it is built for the start of the day.
The taking away is the part that works, so do not rush past it into the nice feeling. Sit in the version without it for a few seconds and let it be genuinely annoying.
Then during the day, when something works, try it. Imagine the morning without it, then put it straight back.
Questions people ask
Is this just gratitude with extra steps?
It is gratitude that actually lands. Being told to feel thankful for a chair does nothing. Feeling the floor for ten seconds does.
What if I am genuinely short of things to be grateful for?
Then start smaller than you think. This is about the pillow and the kettle, not the big obvious blessings that everybody lists and nobody feels.
Is it a morning meditation only?
It is written for the morning and works whenever. Late evening is a decent second choice, looking back at what quietly held you up all day.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
morning · gratitude · mindfulness
Read the transcript
Hello and good morning. I'm Steven and this morning we're going to do a little practice that I call morning
abundance. Seeing what was always there.
So just while you're settling in,
allowing your body to relax and
making yourself comfortable.
And as you're slowly becoming aware of your breath,
aware of this moment.
Just to let you know you don't need to do anything with your breath.
Your body knows how to breathe.
You don't have to do anything with your body. your body knows how to relax.
So just allow your body to relax and
breathe into this moment. And just to keep your mind a little busy,
And just to keep the mind busy, you can imagine breathing in calm, breathing out relax And
what does that look like?
Maybe the body's moving very slowly, very subtly, just forward and back slightly.
Maybe with every out breath, there's
a part of the body it just relaxes a little more.
Maybe it's your shoulders or your hands.
Maybe it's even your ears or your eyes.
Maybe it's even your whole body allowing it to relax into this moment.
And in this meditation, if you miss something I say, or you wander off, just smile and bring it back
to this moment. And just bring it back to the awareness of breath and
then catch up on the next thing I say. It
really doesn't matter, it's okay.
You have permission to be human,
to be distracted, for
the mind to wander just When you notice it has, bring it back.
And this moment is already everything it needs to be
we don't need to add anything to this moment.
And I'd like to invite you to notice something this morning, not something new, something that's always
been there.
And there is an abundance in your life right now. Not the abundance we're told to chase. Not
something waiting for you somewhere ahead. Abundance that is already here, so familiar
you've even stopped seeing it.
And I'd like us to gently change this this morning.
So first of all, just bring your attention to the chair, or the cushion, or whatever's holding you up now.
And just for a moment, imagine it isn't there.
There's no support beneath you.
Nothing holding you.
It may be really uncomfortable sat on the floor.
Maybe there were no cushion
Feel the uncomfortableness.
The frustration, the annoyance of not having.
And now let it come back. Feel the support returning a
solid but quiet, faithful presence that's something that holds you every single day.
And just let yourself feel that for a moment. Not as a thought but as a feeling. The
joy of having this.
Now I want you to think of something that made your night more comfortable. It could have been your bed,
or just your pillow, or your lovely quilt. One of those things. I want you to imagine
tomorrow morning it wasn't there. And
how much more uncomfortable. And
how much more frustrating your night would have been.
How much colder. And you might end up with neck ache and pain and frustration.
And now imagine your bed with whatever it needs to be. Your lovely pillow or your quilt.
How much nicer is that to return?
And there's so many of these little things. From our kettle that I mentioned quite often. To the quilt, to
our shoes and our clothes. To the morning cupboard to your coffee To
the car us starting All of these little things just happen. Until they don't and then we get frustrated.
So now let's return just to the breath.
Breathing in calm, breathing out relax
And now we'll let the feeling widen. Beyond
the quilt or the pillow. Beyond the chair. Into this morning itself.
This morning has arrived. You've woke up.
And at the moment there's very few conditions.
It simply came the way mornings always do.
Carrying with it another chance to notice what it means to be alive.
Another breath to take.
Another day to move through.
Another opportunity to see what has always been there.
Quietly sustaining you.
Just waiting to be seen.
We already have so much in life.
It may not be perfect.
Our bodies may be ageing slowly.
But it's all doing its best.
And we tend to focus on the things that we have to worry about. The things that we have to
pay attention to.
The things that stop us in our tracks.
Sometimes I think we need to take a step back and appreciate the things that are just there anyway.
The things that don't stop us because they just work.
And just rest in this moment. Let's just breathe in and calm.
Breathe out, relax.
Feeling all the abundance you have in your life right now.
The quiet fullness of what is already here.
And when there's a willingness to notice the ordinary things that are truly just there for us.
They suddenly become quite extraordinary. We suddenly feel that abundance
And just before we return to this moment. Very often when someone says to us. What
should we be grateful for? What should we thank this moment for? It's not always easy to think of things.
But when we do practices like this. We realise there's an endless amount of things that
we wake up to. Every morning that
make our lives slightly more pleasant. And
without them it would be less joyful.
So just gently bring your awareness back into the room. Take a slightly deeper breath and let it go slowly.
And
five. Feel the weight of your body held. Four. Wiggle your fingers and toes.
Three. Let the sound of the room come back in. Two. Softly open your eyes.
One. Just take a deep breath right now and let it go with some energy.
Just when you're going through your day. Imagine what would my life be like if my car didn't work today
or Or if I forgot my cup on the way to work. Or or what if I didn't have my
favourite jump parent all these little things. Just imagine your life without them just for a moment. And then
instantly bring them back in and go ah Thank you for being there.
I'm Steven Webb and I'm always grateful for your support. And those that can that donate a coffee keep these
meditations free with no adverts. So I'm deeply grateful and I know everybody that listens to the mark
You can find out more about how you can support me and my links on my other podcast on StevenWebb.uk
Have a lovely day. And realise what abundance you already have.
