Gratitude Archives

Here are downloadable Dharma talks, morning affirmations and mindfulness meditations that will help you live life with more gratitude and appreciation.

Gratitude – Meditation

Say "Thank you" to all the people, to all that is around you and part of you. Find and discover that in gratitude, you care about so much more.

Sean Fargo guides us through this gratitude meditation, inviting us to consider a variety of simple objects, events, and people that we are appreciative of today. This mindfulness exercise of tuning into the blessings and abundance we have to be thankful for is a powerful practice that can bring about a greater sense of peace, contentment, and ease in our day.

Giving Thanks

Even when we are aware of all that we have to be grateful for, we might not be saying thanks – silently or outwardly – as often as we can. Beginning to give thanks by mindfully witnessing and expressing your appreciation inwardly for all that you have is a great way to harness the power of gratitude.

You might then also consider sharing this thankfulness outwardly, perhaps letting someone you love how much they mean to you.

Gratitude List

Another simple exercise we can use to enhance our gratitude practice is to formulate a gratitude list. On a sheet of paper, begin to write down all that you have to be thankful for in this moment. Expand your contemplation to consider all that you appreciate about your day as a whole.

Consider the small tools that make your life easier, the people that support you, and the elements of the earth that make this existence possible. Consider also the abundance that lives within you. This is also a powerful mindfulness exercise for kids, helping children to tune their lens to see abundance in life rather than lack.

Experience Gratitude

Has gratitude been unrecognized or forgotten? Your experience with gratitude can help to recognize where it has been present and unrecognized.

Gratitude

Ajahn shares Buddhist wisdom about gratitude. How gratitude is a silent teacher in the Buddhist teachings but quite a persistent one.

Evening Affirmations of Gratitude

Affirmations offer inspiration and support. “I am grateful for the gifts I receive from others” is an example of the evening affirmations of gratitude.

Affirmations of Gratitude Sample

What are the things you are grateful for? Read and download the pdf below.

Also check our article about The Power of Gratitude & 7 Ways To Cultivate It.

Gratitude holds powerful transformative and healing potential – but how? On a spiritual and energetic level, gratitude is a shift in mindset and perception that tunes us in to the abundance, beauty, and love that is at the core of everything. As we begin to challenge conditioned belief systems that have us viewing and interacting with the world from a place of fear or lack, we welcome a new perspective that is rooted in love and acceptance. Making this shift helps us to rise to a new level of witnessing the events in our lives, even challenging ones, creating space for understanding, growth, and healthy evolution.

Scientifically, much research is being done to support the benefits of gratitude that have been expressed throughout ancient traditions for centuries. According to reports referring to work done by UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, it has been found that making a habit out of expressing gratitude impacts the brain’s molecular structure. Gray matter functioning is supported through gratitude, which keeps us happy and healthy on multiple levels. Another study found that through modulating neural activity, gratitude meditation improves emotional regulation and self-motivation.

Embracing Each Moment – Talk

Anam Thubten talks about how embracing each moment ‘as it is’ leads to concentration and worry-free living vis a vis dwelling to past.

We have all heard stories about the power of love. No matter what form it comes in, love has the ability to inspire, heal, uplift, and encourage us, even during the heaviest times. But what is this force of love really? What is it in its truest sense? We often hear loving phrases passed around such as “unconditional love” and “loving-kindness,” but it is not always clear how these universal notions of love can be applied to our everyday lives amidst the challenges, hardships, and emotions we all face.

To help increase your experience of the positive benefits associated with embracing each moment with mindfulness practice, there are a variety of tools and techniques you can consider exploring. When you are establishing your loving-kindness practice or other heart-centered meditation, it can be helpful to use free, guided recordings to keep your mind focused on the practice. Online worksheets can also help to strengthen your practice by guiding your conscious mind to the heart space and mindfully reflecting on whatever rests there.

Embracing Each Moment – Meditation

Anam Thubten leads a guided meditation for embracing each moment. I will abide with a mind imbued with gladness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable.

The Importance of Appreciating our Benefactors

James Baraz tells a story about the importance of appreciating our benefactors. These mentors and inspirations should be considered streams of goodness.

Generosity and Gratitude

Donald Rothberg talks about the relationship between Generosity and Gratitude. It's the spirit of giving is based on the feeling of Gratitude.

The Power of Generosity and Gratitude

Most of us have learned that it’s good to be generous and grateful, and intuitively, we understand this to be true. When we are grateful for the blessings in our lives, we tend to feel happy and content with the world as it is. Aligned with the present moment in these glimpses of true appreciation, our mental health, our relationships, and our experience of life are heightened.

While all of this we sense to be true, we don’t always experience alignment with this understanding. Sometimes, the power of gratitude is hidden beneath the veil of a mind that is caught up in thoughts and beliefs that run contrary to gratitude.

As we deepen our understanding of why gratitude is so powerful, and gain insights into how we can harness gratitude (by listening to a meditation on gratitude, for instance), we enhance our ability to go to that place of appreciation more frequently. As we do this, we enrich, restore, and revitalize our lives in infinite ways.

Opening To Gratitude

Sean Fargo leads the Opening to Gratitude meditation. This meditation teaches to appreciate the gifts, to be thankful while thinking of people close to us.

The Foundation for all Abundance

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. What goodness do you sometimes forget or take for granted?

What is the foundation of all abundance? Contrary to any subconscious beliefs we may hold that it is what exists in the outer world that determines the presence of abundance, it is actually our perception of abundance that determines this. By harnessing gratitude for all that we presently have (both internally and externally) helps us to see that abundance is already with us.

Gratitude Practices for Abundance

We can begin to shift our perception of abundance by practicing gratitude. Gratitude practices can be as simple as giving thanks before each meal or making a list of all that we are grateful for. We can also practice nightly journaling about all the blessings that came our way throughout the course of the day. As we start to expand our awareness of the goodness that exists around and within us, we begin to attract more of it. Recognizing the good that exists in each moment helps to improve our experience of peace and contentment.

One-Minute Gratitude Meditation

Wherever we are, we can practice gratitude by closing our eyes for even just one minute and mentally noting all that we have to be thankful for. Note things both large and small, both inner and outer. The more you practice this, the more natural this mindset of appreciation and abundance will come. Create a daily routine for some form of mindful gratitude practice. Even one mindful minute a day is enough to inspire positive changes in the way we view the world around us.

Gratitude Is Not In The Words

Gratitude is not in the words but in the heart, which expresses it. What meaning do you draw from these words? How does the heart express gratitude?

In this gentle and contemplative guided meditation on gratitude and the heart, Sean Fargo invites us to consider a quote by Lufina Lorderaasch: “Gratitude is not in the words but in the heart, which expresses is.” As we sit with these words, we are called to consider what gratitude means on a deeper level. Is it more than the words we offer? Where in the body does it reside? The answer may seem clear, but tune into how this resonates with the body.

Meditation on Gratitude

There is no right or wrong way to meditate on this topic or on the quote shared here. All we are called to do during this guided meditation on gratitude is to explore the inner world mindfully as the questions are posed to us. Before beginning this meditation, you might take a few moments to bring yourself to a comfortable seated position and tune into your breath.

Allow it to flow into and out of the heart space and then begin your deeper exploration on the words and questions shared in this meditation.

Deepening Heart Awareness

This mindfulness exercise requires us to dive deep into the heart’s knowing. For some, this task may feel abstract or distant, in which case I invite you to explore some beginner meditations to heighten your awareness of the subtler knowings within you.

If this meditation flows effortlessly through you already, feel free to continue your exploration with additional loving kindness and compassion exercises.

Gratitude and Gladness

Open to the sense of gratitude and gladness. Explore what these experiences are like and how it has the power to lift up your mood and your spirit.

In this short guided meditation on gratitude and gladness, Sean Fargo invites us to sense what these experiences feel like on a deeper level. While we might not always be consciously aware of the boost that appreciation and contentment provide us with, these inner experiences send out positive ripples throughout our being – energetic currents that can be cultivated as we honor them with our attention.

The Benefits of Cultivating Gratitude

Whether through this meditation or in our own quiet time, cultivating gratitude has a profound effect on our overall experience of life. As we harness a sense of appreciation for things both big and small, our mood improves, our experience of stress lessens, and we find ourselves able to flow with and trust the universe with greater ease.

The quality of our sleep improves, which in turn, fuels the energy and vitality we experience in our waking lives.

Harnessing Gladness

Gladness arises when we feel pleased, delighted, or joyous. While this sense of joy comes more effortlessly at some times in our lives than others, we can practice harnessing gladness in times when we are feeling neutral.

By mindfully drawing our awareness to moments in life when gladness coursed through us effortlessly, we can gain a sense of what it was like to experience this on a very tangible level. By cultivating this memory, the body experiences it.

The more we practice this, the more effortlessly it comes to us as the waves of life pass by. If you are interested in this work, consider exploring some of the other mindfulness exercises on happiness and contentment.

Day 7 Gratitude

Allow yourself to feel benefited from the gift of gratitude. Allow yourself to feel appreciation. This is Day 7 gratitude.

In this guided meditation on gratitude, Sean Fargo invites us to move into a deeper awareness of all that we have to be thankful for. While we might be aware on some level of all of the blessings that exist in our lives, how often do we take the time to reflect on and appreciate these things, people, and energies? This meditation is the opportunity to do just that.

The Power of Gratitude

Though a simple practice, the effects of gratitude are profound. Gratitude strengthens our relationships, improves our mood, reduces stress, and draws us deeply into the present moment. It helps to shift the lens through which we look at life, and the more that we practice this shift, the more natural it becomes.

In each moment of practice, gratitude increases our sense of peace and contentment with the present moment – exactly as it is – and helps us to find stillness beneath any tendency we may have to grasp at or pull away from something.

Sharing Gratitude

If you have arrived at a place in life where this has become second nature, you might consider taking your ability to witness gratitude a step further by sharing it.

Experienced mindfulness practitioners might like to share their insights and wisdoms surrounding gratitude, loving kindness, or any other mindfulness practices through emerging in the world as a mindfulness teacher. If you are interested in learning more, take a look at this one-on-one, customizable mindfulness teacher training program.

12 Intentions of Gratitude

See if you can take an inventory of the things for which you're grateful. This meditation samples 12 intentions of gratitude.

The things for which we have to be grateful are widespread. From lessons to people to the raw nature of the breath itself, we have much to be grateful for. This guided mindfulness meditation by Sean Fargo is an invitation to set intentions for living a full day with gratitude.

Through this meditation, we are guided to consider all the ways we can feel into our capacity for gratitude and how we might express it.

Setting an Intention of Gratitude

Simply by setting the intention to be grateful, we will likely begin to see shifts in our experience, or at the very least, in our perception of our experience. Gratitude fills us with a sense of lightness and love, aligning us with the heart center at the core of our being.

We can set multiple intentions of gratitude, but we can also begin with something simple:

I will welcome this day with my open and grateful heart.

A Simple Gratitude Exercise

At any moment in the day, we can tune into the heart center to explore our present level of awareness. In each moment, we can ask ourselves: what is within me that I have to be grateful for? What can I appreciate about the natural world around me? What lessons have I learned today that will fuel my growth?

Regardless of whether we perceive the day to be ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ we can expand our field of vision by opening to our experience with a compassionate heart.

For a deeper exploration of gratitude, consider the free Living With Gratitude course offered through Mindfulness Exercises.

Gratitude

Rick Hanson talks about Gratitude. It’s a sort of a catchword for gladness, satisfaction, and fulfillment. These feelings are the core of happiness.

Gratitude

Oren Sofer leads a guided meditation of Gratitude. The secret of gratitude is that it can be cultivated and strengthened as a source of well being and inner happiness.

Gratitude & Generosity

Tara Brach talks about Gratitude & Generosity. Breathing in & out, letting go is one of expressing gratitude to the world.

In this talk, Tara Brach explores how gratitude enhances our sense of happiness, presence, and generosity. In contrast to those moments when we are trying to achieve something, to change what’s present, or to seek out something different, embodying a state of gratitude grounds us in a sense of deep inner peace and contentment.

Happiness, Gratitude and Generosity

Brach explains how gratitude naturally brings about a sense of happiness. When we feel grateful for everything around us, we feel an expansive sense of wonder and contentment in our aliveness. She also explains that gratitude is intricately linked to generosity. When we feel blessed by all that we have, we are more likely to be in a state of being that doesn’t fear the idea of sharing or giving to others.

Loving What’s Here & Remembering What Matters

Being aware of (and loving) whatever is here right now and remembering what truly matters are two different paths into gratitude. First, as we harness our ability to accept the nature of the present moment, we naturally release our tendency to want things to be different. On the second path, as we tune into what is most important in life, we shed some of our expectations that do not help us to embody a deep sense of peace and contentment. Loving kindness practices can also help us to reach this inner sense of contentment and gratitude for the present moment.

Gratitude

Gil Fronsdal is a world-renowned Buddhist teacher and scholar. In this free mindfulness talk, he discusses the importance of Gratitude.

Gil Fronsdal on Gratitude

Born in Norway and residing in San Francisco, Gil Fronsdal is a writer and teacher of Buddhism. His focus has been on both Vipassanā and Sōtō Zen Buddhism. After being ordained as an Sōtō Zen priest in 1982, he traveled to Burma in 1985 to live as a Theravada monk.

Fronsdal received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford University and works as a teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in San Francisco. He has published a number of books, including Insight Meditation in the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations, and A Monastery Within Tales from the Buddhist Path. Fronsdal is well known for teaching mindfulness without the trappings of Asian culture: he has called on teachers of Buddhism in America to engage in teaching meditation without the need to adopt various Eastern cultural practices.

The importance of gratitude

In this free mindfulness video, Gil Fronsdal discusses the notion of gratitude. When aiming to practice mindfulness in our daily lives, it’s easy to simply focus on the nuts and bolts of the practice. We may meditate for a certain amount of time, or engage in a specific number of mindfulness exercises in order feel as though we’re making the progress that we need to make. However, this is only one part of the overall picture of what living mindfully means.

To live with true presence, clarity, and awareness, more is needed: namely, gratitude. When we practice gratitude, we become more aware of the present moment. By looking for things to be grateful for, we can internalize a sense of peace and wholeness. Our minds are always looking to differentiate between things, to dissect our reality, and to split our experience into “good” and “bad.” My practice gratitude, we bring our attention away from these discernments and back to the present moment.