The Power of Everyday Gratitude
Practicing gratitude can help us notice the things in our lives that make us happy, so we can stay in a place of positivity and well-being.
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I personally feel it's super important to have certain mindfulness tools handy to help stay in a space of positivity and wellbeing. One such tool or practice I always keep at the ready is what I call shifting into an attitude of gratitude. I've kept a gratitude journal in the past, but it started out as a meditation practice. So let's try that practice today. And so dropping right into practice now, adopting a comfortable and dignified posture of awareness and just taking three gentle, deep breaths. And with the third exhalation, allowing your attention and presence to gently drop into this moment right here and now. Noticing your body settled into the space beneath you and bringing your attention to your breathing. Breathing naturally, breathing normally, not forcing or trying to control anything. And with your next breath, if it's comfortable for you, allow your eyes to gently close. And what I'm going to ask you to do in this next moment is gently shift into a space of gratitude and bring to mind three things that you are grateful for. And they can actually be a person place or thing. The gentle invitation is to bring it to mind in a phrase or a sentence. So it may sound like I'm so grateful for the breakfast I was able to have this morning or I'm so grateful for the good health my children are in. So knowing that there is a plethora of possibilities to use, you can go as big as you want or as small. There isn't a right or wrong here. So taking the next few moments to do this right now. And bringing the attention now back to your breath, perhaps taking a gentle deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, allowing the eyes to open if they were closed, and bringing your attention to your body and your surroundings. And knowing that this gratitude practice is something you can incorporate into your everyday life. I invite you to perhaps start a gratitude journal where, on a daily basis, you jot down two to three things you are grateful for, just like we did today in practice. You can do it in the morning or the evening or even both. Being gentle with yourself, so no pressure. And please come back to this practice whenever you feel it necessary to embrace an attitude of gratitude. I look forward to seeing you next time. Have a happy and healthy day....
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About your teachers
- More about Andy
A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
- More about Eve
Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
- More about Dora
As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
- More about Kessonga
Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
- More about Rosie
Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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Frequently asked questions
When we practice gratitude, we are essentially training in appreciation for life itself. In addition to our Everyday Gratitude meditation, the Headspace app offers a choice of gratitude meditations, including Showing Gratitude or a Gratitude Body Scan. In a gratitude meditation, you are encouraged to “shift into the attitude of gratitude”. You first place your attention on your natural rhythm of breathing, and then the teacher will invite you to bring to mind, say, three things you are grateful for — a person, a place, a pet, or a thing. You can even feel gratitude for something about you — an act, an achievement, a quality. In reflecting on who or what you appreciate, you observe the feelings and thoughts that arise; your only role is to notice what arises, not get wrapped up in any of it. So acknowledge the thought or feeling, let it go, and place your attention back on the breath.
A gratitude meditation is simply the practice of reflecting on the people or things in life that you are genuinely grateful to know or have. The entire point of this meditation is to experience the feeling of appreciation, for a loved one, for a friend, for a favorite thing, or a place. It can be appreciation for the big or the small, the tangible or intangible, the long-term or the fleeting. It could even be for a lesson learned. A gratitude meditation is a good way to invite personal reflection that asks us to understand the meaning and value of someone, somewhere, or something.
It’s common for people to get wrapped up with the busyness of everyday life, without taking the time to pause and reflect on the day, an event, a conversation, or a place, or a certain person. A gratitude meditation changes all that because you take deliberate time out of your day to stop, sit, and reflect on who or what truly matters. It is the resulting reflection that helps to shift perspective on any number of events/happenings in life. It is a perfect way to give thanks, within the counsel of your own mind.
There is an undoubted feel-good factor to practicing gratitude meditation. This is not about becoming familiar with the intellectual idea of gratitude; it’s about becoming familiar with the feeling of appreciation. When basking in genuine appreciation for somewhere, someone, or something, you often feel the resulting happiness and positivity. That’s why a gratitude meditation is the perfect antidote to stress, worry, and negative thoughts. The more you become familiar with gratitude, the more you want to spend time in that space, and feeling, of appreciation.
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