A Meditation on Gratitude

Waking Times

The following meditation is a powerful tool for resetting your day to day priorities and is best done on a regular basis.  It is an opportunity to dig deeply into all the areas of life where gratitude can be found, acknowledging and savoring each one in order to bring your heart and your entire body into harmonious resonance with the cosmos.

It is done at your own pace, and in your own words, loosely following this simple script.

Simply find a comfortable chair somewhere where you can be free of distraction and interruption for at least 10 minutes.  Relax in the chair, straightening your back if possible, or in whatever manner puts you most at ease.  Take a moment to calm your mind and set the intention of gaining the most possible benefit from this short mental exercise.

Close your eyes and relax, at first focusing on developing a smooth and calming rhythm to your breath.

Now.

Allow yourself to feel thankful for your life and the unfathomable expanse of the universe that supports all life and makes all experience possible.

Feel gratitude for your body and your health, acknowledging your weaknesses, relishing your strengths, being grateful that you have the presence of mind to explore the powerful emotion of gratitude.

Give thanks that this body supports the mind, which in turn gives meaning to the experiences we have and the emotions we produce.  Feel thankful that this physical structure, the human body, is both a processor of logic and an instrument of spirit, allowing you to appreciate being who you are, where you are, at such a transformational time on planet earth, acting as a bridge between the material world and the infinite realms of spirit and possibility.


  • Now, allow yourself to physically connect with the earth below your feet, feeling its mass, acknowledging that the ground you rest on brings forth all life unto this planet.

    Take note and express joy that you have the faculties to manipulate this earth in order to coax additional life into fruition at will with seed and purpose.

    Take note of the relationship between the earth and the stars above.  Be thankful that you are here, in between the tangible and the wonderful, capable of experiencing and appreciating both.

    Now move your thoughts to the abundance of life found in nature.  Say a peaceful ‘thank you’ to the plant kingdom, then to all the wild and wooly creatures of the animal kingdom who inspire awe and support us in our journeys.

    Allow yourself to sense a deep gratefulness for the inter-dependence of all life, where everything has a role and a purpose which supports the endeavors of something else. Be thankful for the wisdom to appreciate this connection.

    Now move your gratitude towards the people in your life and the roles that they play in helping you to express yourself.

    Feel thankful for your family, the two beings who came together to create you, and for the timeless lineage of your ancestry, which has since the beginning labored and conspired to create you, so that you would be here in this moment, exactly right now to fulfill your destiny.  Your simple destiny of enjoying life and contributing to the human experience, and then passing the gift of life on to another.

    Be grateful for the creativity interwoven into life, for sacred cosmic order and for everyday human creativity.  For music, and art, sound, breath and shared experience.

    Be thankful that you’ve been given the power of personal will, and for being a creature of intention who can manifest all of which can be conceived of in thought.

    Allow yourself to also be thankful for the darkness in our world, for the strife, the fear, the anger, and the sickest aspects of our human nature. Acknowledge how the darkness in the human spirit creates, through contrast, the shattering moments of joy and love that so mark this human journey.

    Be thankful that this current of light and dark runs through all cosmic things as the dance of life that brings our universe into being.

    And be thankful that your life is charged with this current, and that when your time here is complete you may rest easy in the cosmos for having learned that the meaning of life is, indeed, gratitude.

    Now relax for a moment and let this revelation sink into your mind and permeate your physical body.  Store the memory of this peaceful vibration away within our physical tissue, so that it may be recalled in times of doubt.

    Now, smile softly to yourself and slowly open your eyes.

    Thank you!

    Waking Times is thankful for our readers and supporters who share ideas and truth with us and participate in the great conscious awakening we see worldwide today.

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