Opening Your Heart and Mind to Gratitude
With very few exceptions, many of us tend to take the things in our lives for granted. It’s easy to do, of course. As humans, we quickly become accustomed to our circumstances and forget what life is like without them. The notion that “we don’t know what we have until it’s gone” holds true much of the time.
When we practice mindfulness, there are a number of techniques available to us. Whether we’re sitting in meditation, taking a mindful walk, or even simply doing the dishes mindfully, our goal is generally more or less the same: to improve our everyday state of mind, and bring a greater sense of peace, compassion, and fulfillment to our daily lives.
In addition to some of the more traditional approaches to meditation and mindfulness outlined above, incorporating a gratitude practice into your daily routine can result in dramatic changes to your consciousness. It’s quite remarkable how fundamentally different our worldview becomes as we begin to focus more and more of our energy on being grateful for things, rather than taking things for granted — or, even worse, complaining about the things that we don’t have (but which we wish we did).
Mindfulness Meditation On Gratitude
In this free mindfulness exercise, you’ll focus on developing gratitude for some of the simple everyday aspects of your life. First, you’ll examine opportunities in your life to be grateful. Then, you’ll start to look for the people in your life you provide for you each and every day — sometimes in ways that are so commonplace, it’s easy to overlook them. You’ll also learn to look at some of the things that life provides you without asking for anything in return. This includes clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, and even things as simple as a bright sunny day or a cool overcast afternoon. As you continue to develop your ability to be grateful, you’ll begin to see changes in your state of mind.
