Gratitude and mindfulness

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Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and readiness to show appreciation to another. It is not just being thankful to another in return for some kindness or favour. It is a general feeling of thankfulness for being alive and being able to experience life in its totality.

We pray and rush to the temple, mosque, church or the house of god against all odds only to get this promotion or that job, to marry the love of our life, to make more money, to buy a house etc. and forget to be thankful for what we already have. We even forget to go back to the same place to say thank you. By that time another request crops up in our life and this goes on in an endless loop. Only when we see someone who is worse of than us do we feel grateful for our own life.

Now, what are you grateful for? Observe one breath and think of one thing that you are grateful for this week.

It is only when something intense happens that shakes our lives, like an accident or a birth of a child or a death or a new job or loss of a job, only then we remember to be grateful. But when we settle into the routines of life, we forget it all again.

And now, what are you grateful for? Observe one breath and think of one thing that you are grateful for which happened this year. And for the eternal things in life.

Are we grateful for the hands, legs and mouth we have and the brain that we can use to control them? Are we grateful for the people around us who make us what we are? Are we grateful for the sun, rain, air and water on which life depends? Maybe we won’t waste water so much and use resources so mindlessly if we were grateful that we had them, when many are deprived of the very basics.

So, make it a daily practise. Every day when you sit to practise mindfulness, remember to be grateful for all the things you enjoy, the relationships you have and the experiences both good and bad that make you stronger to face each day.

Practising mindfulness by observing your thoughts for a few minutes on a daily basis helps you to be mindful more often.

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