Thanksgiving Meditation

Gratitude is a state of being--not only a response to abundance but the fertile ground from which abundance grows. Thanksgiving Meditation begins with a short story of personal experience and moves into a guided meditation of thanksgiving practice. Thank you for joining me in the giving of thanks.

Transcript

If I had only one day to live,

The one I would choose is this one,

Thanksgiving Day.

When I awaken in the mornings,

My first words are the words,

Thank you.

As streams of light pour through my windows,

My spirit reconnects with my body.

And I begin to feel the fresh cotton sheets warm against my skin.

There's something sweet in those moments between sleep and wakefulness.

And my first conscious thought is gratitude.

It feels good to be here.

I need to go to the bathroom so I slide out of bed.

When my feet touch the floor and I feel myself standing upright,

I again whisper the words,

Thank you.

It feels good to be inside my own body.

It feels good to be alive.

And I have a lot to be thankful for.

I've not always lived with such an awareness of gratitude,

But I've been gifted with many teachers.

One of my teachers was a homeless old man I used to see sitting in the park while I walked to and from work.

One day the old man wasn't there anymore,

And I imagined he had moved on or had simply tired of the same old park.

He was just plain gone.

A year or so later I received a letter in the mail.

The writer of that letter wrote that she was a nurse in a veteran's hospital in a city somewhere across the state.

And one of her patients requested she write the letter to me on his behalf.

She explained that her patient Bill had been the old man in the park,

That Bill had just had his legs amputated and would probably never again leave that hospital.

The letter continued to let me know that Bill wanted to say thank you for my friendship in that park,

That he appreciated that I had given him apples and homemade cookies,

That I had so often taken the time to stop and say hello and chat with him for a minute or two before I went on my way.

And now when he knew he would never see me again,

And in fact knew he wouldn't even live much longer,

The one thing Bill wanted was to say thank you to someone who had made a difference in his life.

Bill didn't have much,

But he gave thanks for what he had.

Gratitude is more than simply saying the words thank you.

True gratitude is fully enjoying a thing,

Thoroughly experiencing it.

If I am truly grateful for a thing,

I cannot at the same time ignore or neglect it.

If you have only one gift,

That one gift is deserving of a lifetime of appreciation.

We in the Western world,

However,

Have more than one gift.

We have incredibly much of everything,

Even on an ordinary day,

Not a special day such as this holiday.

We have such abundance that we sometimes have a hard time deciding what it is.

We want to eat,

What we want to wear,

What we want to do for entertainment.

We live in abundance,

Abundance of possessions,

Abundance of opportunities.

And with so much abundance,

It can be difficult to feel how much we have.

I don't want to make that mistake.

I don't want to miss my own bounty.

I want to drink deeply.

I want to taste completely.

And for being given such an abundance of gifts,

I want to live a life of gratitude.

What could be better than a day set aside for the giving of thanks?

Close your eyes now.

Bring your awareness to your breath.

Bring your awareness back into your body and feel your breath.

Notice your breath as it enters your nostrils.

Notice your breath as it leaves your nostrils.

Just notice if there's a difference in the temperature of the breath coming in and the breath going out.

Notice the movement of your belly as you breathe.

Your body completely still except for the movement of the breath.

Notice the movement of your chest as you breathe.

Feel the stillness of your body,

Knowing you are able to move but you are sitting in stillness or lying in stillness.

And as we begin the practice of thanksgiving,

Just begin with today and consider one thing so far in your day today that you can feel thankful for.

If this is the beginning of your day,

Perhaps you can feel a sense of gratitude for the sun shining through your window.

Maybe for the cup of tea or coffee that you had to start your day.

Maybe a hot shower.

For something that you've experienced so far today,

Just feel a sense of thankfulness.

And now considering the past several days or the past week,

Just pause and consider one thing over the past week that you can feel grateful for.

It might be an experience,

It might be a moment of beauty,

Seeing a sunset,

A flower,

A painting.

And now considering the things in your life that support you.

Choosing one of those things,

Something that makes your life easier.

Could be an appliance in your kitchen,

Could be a favorite chair,

Could be your car.

Just choose one thing in your life that makes life easier,

Something that supports you and feel a sense of appreciation for that thing in your life.

And now considering a challenge in your life that you have overcome,

Something that you have come through or something you've conquered,

Any kind of challenge that you've overcome.

Feel a sense of appreciation for coming through that.

And now bringing to mind an accomplishment in your life,

Something that you've achieved,

Something that you are proud of,

Something that you've completed.

Just pause and bring to mind an accomplishment in your life and feel a sense of thanksgiving.

Just breathe in thanksgiving,

Breathe out thanksgiving.

And now of all the things in your life that you have given to the world around you,

Choose one thing that you have given,

Could be something recently,

Could be in your past,

Something that you have given to the world,

To a person,

Could be a compliment,

Could be a helping hand,

Could be a gift.

Just choose one thing that you have given and feel a sense of gratitude for the ability to give as well as the opportunity to give.

Just breathe in thanksgiving,

Breathe out thanksgiving.

And remembering the people in your life and bringing to mind the experience of friendship or love.

And just choose one experience with friendship or love.

Just feel a sense of gratitude.

Could be someone who has already passed on,

Could be someone in your past,

Could be someone current.

Just feel a sense of thankfulness for friendship and love.

Life brings us many,

Many lessons.

So consider now a lesson that you have learned in your life.

And just pause on this day and feel a sense of appreciation for one of the lessons you have learned in life.

And thinking about your own self,

I'd like you to choose one quality about your own self that you're grateful for.

What is one thing about yourself that you are thankful for?

And just pause and breathe in gratitude for that one aspect of yourself.

Breathe out that same thankfulness.

And finally,

Life itself.

Just feel a sense of appreciation for life,

The experience of life,

For the breath of life.

Breathing into you,

Breathing through you in this moment.

On this special holiday of Thanksgiving,

I wish you much joy in the treasures in your life.

I wish you to be deeply aware of your own abundance.

And I wish you to be happy in the giving of thanks.

After all,

We really do have a lot to be thankful for.

Reviews

Excellent

Very touching and important message. Thank you so much 🌸⚘️✨️🙏🏽🌄💖

✨Much love and gratitude for this practice✨

Perfect meditation to begin this Thanksgiving. 🙏💛🦃

It’s a year later and I stumbled upon this meditation again while seeking a thanksgiving specific practice. I am so moved by your story and unexplainably grateful for the copious amount of abundance in my life. Thank you so much for this gift. 🙏🦋🥲🤎🍁🦃

This meditation covered all and more of our opportunity to experience gratitude! Thank You!

That was a beautiful way of reminding myself how much I have in the way of spiritual blessings this year. Thank you very much for taking me on this journey of mindfulness and Thanksgiving this morning. Thankful for this meditation. Love and Light!

Thank you for opening up my awareness to the abundance in my life 🙏 ❤

The value of a gift can never truly be known. It is never small. Thank you for this gift of your time and attention to remind us that the value of gifts we may forget or think small may make unforeseen differences to another. Thank you for reminding me that dignity and grace is offered to us in those moments. Thank you for guiding me to dormant memories. Thank you for reminding me that only in accepting a gift wholeheartedly and without reservation can it be truly appreciated with gratitude. I am proud of you and love you dearly. I am grateful for you and for the space you create that I call home. 🙏🏼☀️😊
Thank you for that 😉.

Thank you for this thoughtful meditation that truly embodies and inspires the spirit of thanksgiving🙏💕🌝

Thank you, I appreciate the strength of your focus on this.

A great reminder of all we have to be thankful for now and always.

Beautiful.. this was different than any other guided meditation I’ve done. Thank you for bringing your story to it. This was real and true! I am so very blessed but forget so often. Love to you ❤️

Exceptional. Thank you for your story.

We really do have much to be thankful for...thank you for this!