A Gratitude Meditation to Relieve Anxiety

Introduction

When anxious, the mind is preoccupied with the future, wondering what might happen next. Intentionally returning to the present can help ease anxiety. In this gratitude meditation for anxiety, we return to the present by focusing on all we have to appreciate.

There’s always something to be grateful for, in each and every moment. This gratitude meditation script invites us to appreciatively observe our breath, our beating heart, and the feeling of gratitude itself.

The more we can practice opening to gratitude in meditation, the more likely we are to notice gratitude arising outside of formal practice. By imbuing each day, and each moment, with gratitude, we become present with all that’s going well, and anxiety melts away.    

Here’s a Sample of the “A Gratitude Meditation to Relieve Anxiety” Guided Meditation Script:

Find a comfortable position in which you can be still and quiet in your body
Close your eyes, or keep them open and softening your focus
Breathe slowly and patiently in and out through your nose

Intentionally place your attention on your breath
Take three deep cycles of breath
And let yourself be fully present with each one

Stay with breath as it moves in and out through the nose
Or feel the sensation of breath is it moves the body
Or notice how the body is breathing itself

Three full in breaths, and three full out breaths

(pause for 3 breaths)

And now as you notice your breath,
As you look upon your breath with wonder and awe
Notice also a warm sensation of gratitude arising in your heart

Continue to watch the breath
As you let this warmth or this light of gratitude
Grow and expand

(pause for 2 breaths)

And as this gratitude grows,
Feel it embracing or enveloping the heart itself
And intentionally draw awareness to your heart and your heartbeat
Feel or hear your heartbeat
Or just visualize, imagine, trust that it’s there

How to Use this Gratitude Meditation for Anxiety Script

You can use this gratitude meditation script to inform an intention for your personal practice, or you can use it to help guide others in mindfulness meditation.

In either case, familiarize yourself with the script and its intention before your meditation. Then, you might use the script in any of the following ways. 

Cultivating gratitude benefits us all. Even if we’re not experiencing anxiety, the human brain has a negativity bias that can keep us from accepting the present moment. The practice of gratitude lets us see the good that is always with us.

Conclusion

Gratitude meditation is just one means of countering anxiety. It works by grounding us in the present and directing us to place our awareness on all that’s going well. We can always be grateful for our own body and breath. Cultivating gratitude on a regular basis also has benefits that go far beyond just feeling more calm.