Mindfulness Day 16 of 21: What Are You Grateful For?

Today, we’d like to share words and a practice from our friend Roshi Joan Halifax on gratitude, something many of you have expressed a desire to cultivate.

“I have come to realize that our capacity to feel grateful does not necessarily depend on our life circumstances. In my work with materially impoverished communities and with dying people, I have seen that gratitude is a state of mind and heart that is fundamentally generous and open and that is not weighed down (at least in the moment) with wishing things were different.

Sometimes, our ability to give or receive gratitude is blocked by “the mind of poverty,” a state of mind and heart that has nothing to do with material poverty. When we are caught in the mind of poverty, we focus on what we are lacking; we feel we don’t deserve love, and we ignore all that we have been given. The conscious practice of gratitude is the way out of the poverty mentality that erodes our gratitude and with it, our integrity.”

Today’s Practice*

Before you go to bed tonight, take ten minutes to reflect on three things about today for which you are grateful.

If you’d like, you can start a “gratitude journal”, and write down what you are grateful for every night.

Take time to reflect afterwards; how do you feel now?

Thanks so much for your practice, and have a great weekend!

Peace and cheers,
Kelly

*From Roshi Joan Halifax's new book: Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet. Due out May 1!