Gratitude Meditation

This gratitude meditation helps shift attention from what’s missing to what’s already here, nourishing a sense of contentment and joy. By pausing to recognize the people, moments, and simple blessings that sustain you, the heart naturally softens and opens. With regular practice, gratitude becomes a steady companion, deepening your appreciation for life as it is.

Transcript

Let's begin by taking our good meditation posture and as we scan the body we can deepen our breath here and with each out breath beginning to relax various areas so as we breathe in we bring an awareness to our seat and our legs breathing out we relax that area breathing in we bring an awareness to our back and our shoulders breathing out we relax them breathing in we bring an awareness to the muscles in our face and our jaw breathing in we relax that area to continue to remain grounded in the present moment let's focus on the breath just noticing the natural cycle of the in-breath and out-breath as it moves through you noticing when we get pulled away by thoughts stories ideas what could happen we just gently acknowledge them come back to the breath come back to the present moment at this point we'll move into our contemplating gratitude by asking ourselves a simple question what am i grateful for today so we ask this question in our own mind we pause long enough for answers to arise from within us this isn't engaging our intellectual brain to come up with a long list it's just noticing what naturally comes up in response to asking the question what am i grateful for today are there people in your life that you're grateful for people showing you kindness or support what am i grateful for today maybe when we hold these people in our minds it might be something about them that they're healthy or that they're safe and we're grateful for that what am i grateful for today another thing that might come to mind are activities or elements about our day-to-day life i'm grateful that i get to go on long walks or i'm grateful for the company of my animals or any number of things we just acknowledge whatever arises take a beat to be with it and then we ask the question again the same answer might arise or something new might come up either is fine what am i grateful for today it might even be elements about yourself you're grateful for your resilience you're grateful for your ability to hear or see what am i grateful for today at this point we can drop the question and just notice how you're feeling is there any resonance of gratitude or appreciation present in you right now can you just rest with that experience you can close with a few more deep breaths by way of transitioning out of the practice so breathing in perhaps through the nose and then we can breathe out through the mouth in do one more in and out and we can enter the day with a little bit more gratitude for what's happening right here and now