An effective gratitude practice can reduce activation of the fear and anxiety circuits in our brain.
It can also improve mood,
Focus and sleep and reduce the biomarkers of inflammation in the body.
It has been found that even practicing gratitude once or twice a week can have a long-lasting positive impact on our subjective wellbeing.
In studies,
People have reported feeling happier,
Having more meaning,
Joy and even awe for their life experience after adding a gratitude practice.
The key is in using the right type of gratitude practice.
Counting our blessings and being grateful for what we have is always useful.
But it has been found that there are wonderfully positive effects of a gratitude practice when we receive,
Not when we give,
Gratitude.
The genuine intention of the gratitude giver has a direct impact on the degrees of positive effect felt by the person receiving the gratitude.
So when you do give thanks,
Do so with complete honesty.
Gratitude truly matters.
Even observing or hearing the stories of others receiving help or thanks also improves our mood and other health metrics.
So having a story that you can recall in which you or someone else received genuine gratitude is beneficial for this meditation.
An additional benefit can be to do some journaling after this practice so that you can write down the key elements of your story and come back to it until you can easily recreate this feeling of gratitude without it.
So if you haven't done so already,
Close your eyes.
Make sure you're sitting or lying down comfortably.
Take a gentle deep breath in and out.
And start to release any tension held within the body.
Starting with the muscles of the forehead.
Moving into the eyes when the little muscles are round and behind the eyes.
Into the cheeks and the mouth and the tongue and the jaw.
Releasing and softening.
Into your neck now.
Into the shoulders.
Imagining and allowing the shoulders to release and relax.
Move your awareness down through the arms,
Through the elbows,
Down through the wrists,
Down into the hands and fingers and thumbs.
Letting go.
Noticing any areas of heaviness that slowly start to appear.
Bring your awareness into your upper back and down the muscles and the side of the spine.
Down into your lower back.
Up and round into the chest and down into the stomach.
Stopping here just for a moment to become aware of the flow of your breath.
Moving down into the hips.
Into the thighs.
Into the knees,
Releasing and relaxing.
Into the calves,
The ankles.
Into the heels and the feet and the toes.
Releasing and relaxing.
Noticing any areas of heaviness starting to appear in the legs and in the feet.
And just drifting a little deeper.
Letting go.
Letting go.
Letting go.
Try to recall a time when someone showed you genuine gratitude.
Think about the state that you were in before you received the gratitude.
And now think of the changes that happened to you as you received the gratitude.
See it and feel it.
Hear it.
Where do you notice that feeling of accepting gratitude in your body?
Where do you feel the energy,
The emotion?
Now if a memory doesn't immediately come to mind of you receiving gratitude from someone else.
Remember a time where someone else received gratitude.
This may have been in a story you read or a movie you watched or an event in real life.
Notice the changes within them as they received gratitude from someone.
Notice the feelings.
The joy.
The surprise.
The delight.
The gratefulness.
The happiness.
Really feel it within you.
This is a true gratitude practice.
Now after we end this gratitude meditation I want you to take some time to write down the story,
All of it or as bullet points with the key elements.
The more that you revisit this meditation with a carefully formed memory of you receiving gratitude or a story of someone else receiving gratitude the more beneficial the effects within you.
And so taking some time now.
Taking a gentle little stretch in the feet and the legs and the fingers and the hands and the arms.
Taking a slightly deeper breath to wake the body.
And when you are ready and coming back with a sense of change you can open your eyes and return to the day.
