Three things, in a set order. An object, a person, and something you actually pulled off recently.
About 15 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the morning.
The object can be your kettle or your quilt. Picture waking without it, then picture having it back. The person can be a pet, or someone who is gone. Then you tell them the thing you managed, and how proud of it you are. That last bit is usually the uncomfortable one. That is where the joy is.
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
You wake up and the day is already a list of things to get through.
Most gratitude practices ask you for three things and then leave you to it. This one gives you the order, and the order is the part that works.
What happens in this meditation
First, settle. There is a nice trick at the start where you let the pressure inside you and the pressure in the room be the same thing.
Then an object. The kettle, the cup, the quilt. Something ordinary that serves you. Picture waking tomorrow and it is gone, then picture having it back.
Then a person. A friend, a pet, somebody from your past. Sit with them somewhere.
Then, while they are still there, something you managed recently. Something harder than you expected that you did anyway. Tell them about it, and tell them how proud you are of it.
Then five to one and back.
How to get the most from it
About fifteen minutes, and it earns its place first thing rather than last.
That third part is where most people go quiet. Saying you are proud of yourself, even silently, even to somebody who is not there, is uncomfortable. Stay with it. That is where the joy actually is.
Eyes closed if you can. A soft gaze a few feet ahead if not.
Questions people ask
Is this just a gratitude practice?
Nearly, and the difference matters. Gratitude usually points outwards at things. This ends up pointing at you, which is the part most of us skip.
Can I pick somebody who has died?
Yes, and plenty of people do. You are sitting with them for a few minutes and telling them something good. That is not a sad activity.
Why does the last part feel so awkward?
Because we are not practised at it. Being proud of yourself out loud feels like showing off, even in your own head with nobody listening. Doing it anyway is the exercise.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
morning · joy · gratitude
Read the transcript
Good morning. This is a nice little meditation to
allow you to find a little joy in every single day. And it's similar to a gratitude meditation where
we're just going to bring three things to mind that gives us that sense of joy and that life
is a little better than we perhaps think when we wake up.
So we'll start by becoming comfortable and just as you're relaxing into a more comfortable position,
I'm Steven Webb and I'm the host of Stillness in the Storms podcast. I also have a YouTube channel and
all my links you can find on StevenWebb.uk.
The link will be below the meditation of this podcast or on YouTube.
And
you can catch up with the other podcasts and things like that if you go there. But for now, let's
just settle in to this moment.
And as we settle in, remember you can choose to close your eyes gently or just soften your gaze a
few feet in front of you
And just become
equal with the pressure outside. And what I mean by that is whether you're sat in a room or your
car or the kitchen table, it doesn't matter where you are. What does it feel like for the room and
you and inside all to be the same pressure?
As you're breathing in and out.
Everything just feels equal.
It's just a different way of relaxing into this moment.
And as you breathe in calm, breathe out relaxed,
the mind automatically becomes a little quieter. The
body becomes a little quieter.
And the sounds around us become a little bit quieter.
You don't have to do anything with your breath. Just allow your body to breathe naturally.
You're just becoming the witness, the one that's aware of the breath.
You're aware that you're here. You're
sat.
You're aware of the pressure on the outside and the inside is
just perfectly equal.
Just for us to
Feel calm in this moment.
Breathing in calm.
Breathing out relaxed.
And if you find your mind wandering, just smile and acknowledge that that's what the mind does.
And that's okay.
And then bring it back to the breath.
And then ultimately the big awareness of this moment,
which includes everything.
Your breath, your body, the sounds,
Your relaxing body.
Now I want you to bring to mind something that gives you joy. And
the first thing is something quite simple. It
could be your cup that holds your morning coffee or the
kettle that warmed your water for the coffee this morning or your quilt or your pillow.
Some object that
gives you comfort
And feel that joy that that object gives you.
And you can very briefly imagine your life without it
wake up tomorrow and that object isn't there.
And you're searching around for it.
Or you're maybe if you chose a quilt you maybe you're cold.
And now imagine what it's like to have it back.
Welcome back. I
missed you.
And the satisfaction that is in your life.
Now bring your focus back to your breath
Breathing in calm. breathing out relax
And the first object just give you a little bit of warmth.
And this time I want you to bring someone to mind there
might even be a pet or someone from your past or someone now. And
someone that gives you particular joy and someone you, not
in the same way you're grateful for, but someone that just gives you that sense of calmness.
That wisdom that you know is there.
And that sense of joy that
thank you for being there.
And perhaps you can imagine walking with them or sat on a bench with them somewhere.
Imagine whatever joy feels like to you. It may be a warmth inside your heart.
Maybe feel that grow throughout your body
and Slowly feeling your whole body
And While they're there, I want you to bring a final thing to mind. And
it's something you did recently. It's something that you...
Achieved or something you got over or it's something you overcame that perhaps you thought might be
more difficult, but you managed it anyway.
While you're there with the person or pet,
just share that sense of achievement with the person.
You did it.
You achieved it.
And how does that feel?
Maybe you could imagine sharing the story with them
silently in your head, just telling them, What you did and how you felt.
And tell them how proud you are of yourself.
And sometimes it might feel a little uncomfortable.
That's okay.
This is all part of finding the joy within.
Joy is that moving from that uncomfortable place to a place that we
feel comfortable. A
place that we feel content and
we feel balanced and we feel a
sense of acceptance.
We accept that The quilt or the cup or the object that you came up to
mind with
doesn't judge you, doesn't do
anything but serve you.
It's just there for you each morning. And
the same as this person is or was and
still is in your mind's eye and
especially in your heart
And even if you thought of a pet, it's the same.
Just acceptance of you.
And the third thing we brought to mind was a
sense of achievement. A sense of something you were very proud of.
And the joy that it gave you from accepting that you did it. You achieved it.
And sharing this with somebody else.
Feel that sense of your confidence growing. Your belief in yourself and
ultimately your love and acceptance of
you're doing okay. You're
doing well.
And as we combine this whole sense of joy and acceptance,
Imagine taking this feeling with you the rest of the day
reach breath in it's slightly more confidence and acceptance. More love and joy.
And as life hurdles today, you know you've got it. You may stumble and fall, but you know you can
get up because you've done it a thousand times already. You
may not see it, you may not always appreciate it, but you've done it.
Be really proud of that.
And we're just going to sit with this feeling for just... 30 seconds or so.
And just feel it grow with each breath in.
And in a moment, we're going to open our eyes and come back to the room and a
sense of what the real world is. But we're going to bring back this confidence and joy and warmth with
us.
So five, four, gently open your eyes. Three, shake out your arms.
Two, one, with a real sense of joy and a smile on your face. How
does that feel? It's
really interesting combining the three, the the small little object that we don't very often give
a sense of joy to. A
person that we fill this equilibrium with and
a sense of balance and wisdom that we equate to them but not between us. And
then finally, us and what we achieve.
Really important to Remember in the morning what we achieve.
Good luck the rest of the day. My links are in the
