One of the ways to increase your gratitude and overall happiness is to meditate, particularly through guided meditation. Guided meditation is simple and doesn’t require much time or experience for you to start seeing the full benefits. It’s an option to consider if you’re looking to relieve stress, become more mindful and increase your calmness. It also helps you to realize the full significance of areas of your life you might be failing to appreciate.
Guided meditation makes it much simpler for you to focus on gratitude. You are guided through steps that make it easy to reach a state of mind in which your mind is more receptive to uplifting thoughts. Read on to learn about guided meditation for gratitude and the benefits you can experience from practicing it. We’ll also share a quick and easy 10 minute guided practice you can follow to generate feelings of gratitude.
What is meditation for gratitude?
Guided meditation for gratitude can be defined based on two aspects. The guided part refers, quite simply, to meditation with the help of a guide. This can be with the aid of an instructor, an app, a podcast or any kind of sound guide. Most of them follow the format that you begin by sitting or lying comfortably. After that, you listen as you are guided through relaxing visualizations. Gradually, you get deeper into the relaxation and your mind becomes more and more still. As this happens, your mind becomes clearer.
In this deep relaxation, your subconscious becomes open to positive suggestions. Your guide will use this state to walk you through an inner journey that allows you to focus on the positive areas of life while learning to become more thankful for them.
Guided meditation for gratitude can be an experience that benefits you through making it easier for you to relax and empowering you to appreciate various parts of your life more.
Why gratitude is important
Gratitude is important for helping you to ward off negative thoughts while focusing more on the positive aspects of life. This can help you to feel a greater sense of contentment, increasing your mental well being. Additionally, gratitude also helps you to be more satisfied with your life. When you focus more on the areas of life that you can be thankful for, it makes it easier for you to appreciate what you have.
Research shows that giving thanks helps make you happier.
This can counter the negative thoughts that arise from continually desiring more possessions and relationships without focusing on the ones you already have.
Gratitude is also important for helping you to face situations that would have otherwise overwhelmed you.
Recognizing what you already have and being thankful for it can allow you to be less affected by situations that may arise in your life. Professionally, gratitude is important because it makes you less prone to burnout, allowing you to be more effective. Setbacks and things that may have bothered you in the workplace will become much easier to handle as your mind becomes more and appreciative of what you possess in life.
Being grateful also comes with some benefits to your health, such as better sleep, experiencing less exhaustion and increased overall physical health. Many of the health benefits of guided meditation for gratitude come from the reduced stress you experience from releasing tension and refocusing on the good parts of your life.
Finally, gratitude can be a tool used during rough periods in our lives. Gratitude encourages us to find the silver-lining in tragedies and difficult periods. Looking to the positive can help us move forward and turn something ugly into something beautiful.
How meditation helps with gratitude
Meditation helps with gratitude by making it easier for you to clear your mind. One of the things that can get in the way of being thankful is having a mind that is clogged with negative thoughts. When you meditate, your mind can become clearer and more open to thinking positively.
Meditation also makes it easier to appreciate things that you would have otherwise dismissed. These include seemingly small but significant aspects of life such as the breath of life and having woken up in the morning. Something else you may appreciate more with the help of meditation is simply taking or the beauty of nature.
Meditation also allows gratitude for the loving relationships you have with those around you. Relationships you might have come to take for granted are easier to be thankful for once your mind is clear.
With a relaxed and clear mind, you can also start to rediscover things you had been previously been thankful for. Among these are heard-earned accomplishments you might have once been excited about and grateful for.
How to meditate for gratitude
Gratitude meditation
Take 10 minutes of your day to practice gratitude with this guided meditation.
Find more practices like this one in our free guided meditation app Declutter The Mind.
Guided meditation for gratitude involves watching a video or listening to an audio that instructs and walks you through the gratitude session. The first step, which is one of the most important to make the process more effective, is to find a quiet place where you feel relaxed, calm and secure. It’s also vital that you choose a posture that is comfortable and one that you can maintain for prolonged periods of time. The posture you choose must also allow you to be attentive.
You can decide to close your eyes or have them half-open, depending on what allows you to be more immersed in the meditation practice. Another important element of how you sit is tilting your head slightly downward. After you have made sure that you’re in a comfortable posture, take several deep breaths to allow yourself to be anchored in the present moment. This is the time and space for you to set aside your concerns while freeing yourself to feel peaceful and centered.
After this, the process is simple and straightforward. Simply listen to the audio and follow the steps, keeping your mind clear and visualizing as you are instructed. When you first start this guided meditation for gratitude, it’s common for your mind to stray or for negative thoughts that detract from the gratitude to enter your mind. Don’t feel bad about this, as that only causes more negative thoughts and. Simply take some deep breaths and try to be attentive again.
Guided meditation for gratitude has numerous benefits that you can increasingly experience as you do it more and more. These benefits fall under different classes, including mental and emotional wellbeing increased health, personal improvement, and character growth.
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