Most of us associate meditation with sitting quietly in a dark room and clearing your mind for 20 minutes in perfect silence. But gratitude meditation is very different.

Gratitude meditation simply means focusing on and acknowledging the things you are thankful for.

What Is Gratitude Meditation?

A gratitude meditation is the conscious act of recognizing and appreciating the things in life for which you are grateful. This can be done in a few ways. You can:

• Set aside a few minutes a day to actively identify things that make you grateful
• Write down a list of what you are grateful for in a gratitude journal
• Acknowledge in real time something you are grateful for as you are experiencing it

There are a plethora of guided gratitude meditations on the internet that you can listen to as a guide. Or, you can design your own approach to gratitude.

The Benefits of Gratitude and Gratitude Meditation

Practicing gratitude can increase your feelings of happiness and well-being. In fact, studies suggest that being mindfully grateful can actually rewire your brain to make you better able to deal with life’s challenges going forward. 

Specifically, gratitude and gratitude meditation have been proven to:

• Improve mood and mental well-being
• Decrease symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression
• Increase feelings of happiness
• Increase feelings of gratitude and compassion for self and others
• Lower levels of depression in people with chronic illnesses
• Support the recovery of those living with alcohol and substance use disorders
• Increase trust in strangers
• Lead to positive outcomes like post-traumatic growth 
• Improve sleep

By focusing on the people, places, things, and experiences that you are grateful for rather than what you don’t have or what you have lost, your day-to-day mood can improve, and your ability to see the good over the bad can be strengthened. This leads to less time worrying—something we could all benefit from.

Practicing gratitude can help you change your perspective on what you might otherwise consider negative or detrimental. This promotes acceptance of the things in your life that you cannot change, determination to change the things in your life that are actually in your control, and, as the old saying goes, the wisdom to know the difference.

How Gratitude Meditation Works

Sometimes, we can have a bit of a bias toward negativity. This keeps us alert to and safe from danger. But often, this instinct ends up being too much of a good thing. We can easily forget the good things in our lives when we focus on what we have to do when things are bad. 

Instead, gratitude meditation works to open our eyes to the larger systems at play in our lives, and to help us recognize our successes while simultaneously acknowledging and respecting our challenges. 

Practicing gratitude meditation can get us “unstuck” from a place of self-absorption or anxiety by encouraging us to look at the bigger picture.

Maybe someone you love is ill. Remembering and appreciating the good times you had with that person can help you through this tougher time. Maybe you were passed over for a promotion at work—recognizing your hard work up to that point can encourage you to speak up for yourself and make goals that will help get you where you want to be. 

Will It Always Work?

It’s important to note that gratitude meditation is not a cure-all. Conditions like depression, for example, can make it difficult at times for someone to feel grateful for anything. If you’re feeling like you are struggling to feel grateful and can’t feel the good in anything, know that there is help.

If you’re dealing with a condition like depression, talk to your doctor about your options. A combination of medication and talk therapy can help you overcome your symptoms and put you in a headspace where meditation may be more effective for you.

How Do I Get Started?

The great thing about gratitude meditation is that you can practice it literally anywhere at any time. While there are guided gratitude meditations out there that can guide you through the process, all you really need to practice gratitude are your own thoughts and feelings. 

An easy way to introduce gratitude meditation into your life is to set up a daily routine. Set aside five minutes of your morning to think about the things you are grateful for. Some ideas might be:

• Your family, your friends, and/or your partner(s)
• Your pet(s)
• Your favorite coworkers
• Your job (or the aspects of your job you like the best)
• Your hobbies and passions, and the ability to pursue them

If it feels difficult to identify specific things to be grateful for at first, you can always think of the larger picture and go from there:

• You are alive
• You have a roof over your head and food to eat 
• You have people in your life who love you

How Do I Maintain a Gratitude Meditation Regimen?

One simple way to establish a more consistent gratitude meditation regimen is to start a gratitude journal. Take a few minutes a day to jot down what you are grateful for.

You can also work gratitude into specific moments in your daily routine. For example, maybe while you wait in line to check out at the grocery store, you make a point of being grateful for having the groceries you need and the ability to buy them. 

Coming up with things to be grateful for can be difficult in itself, especially if you aren’t in the habit of doing so. This is especially true for people who are currently dealing with exceptional adversity. 

This is why gratitude meditation emphasizes the importance of not being judgmental of yourself. Identifying just one thing for which you are grateful is a huge success, and it doesn’t matter what it is.

However you feel as you practice gratitude is okay. It’s important to recognize your emotions and allow yourself to feel them without judgment. Noticing those emotions and remembering them during your next meditation might make it easier to let them go.