by Dawn Hopkins, from the Holiday 2024 Gratitude Issue
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Gratitude is an emotion of connectedness, which reminds and binds people together as part of God’s universe, co-existing with all living things.
Gratitude habits and rituals of giving thanks have been passed down through cultures worldwide, and modern science now recognizes what scripture has said for thousands of years…it is good for us to give thanks!
Gratitude studies have demonstrated that gratitude can improve physical health, overall mood, mental health, sleep, and can strengthen relationships.
Regular gratitude practice can help with feelings of inner peace, increase mindfulness, and attract more good into life.
Gratitude opens the heart and activates positive emotion centers in the brain. Regular gratitude practice can change how brain neurons fire into more positive automatic patterns.
Expressing gratitude also encourages people to live in the present moment, cultivates contentment, magnifies positive emotions, blocks negative and toxic emotions, helps individuals to be more stress-resistant, cultivates a giving spirit, shifts perspective from lack to abundance, and improves the “happiness quotient.”
As if these reasons weren’t enough, it also elevates spirituality as people begin to recognize how blessed they are.
Practicing gratitude can be extra challenging when life gets hard. Undoubtedly, individuals are more bent toward complaining than giving thanks when faced with trials, loss, or pain. However, gratitude researcher Robert Emmons discovered, “It is precisely under crisis conditions when we have the most to gain by a grateful perspective on life. In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude can bring hope.”
Below are some simple gratitude practices that are “catalytic converters,” which have helped maintain a positive outlook and can help make the world a better place for others.
• Count your blessings daily.
• Keep a gratitude journal.
• Use reminders to practice gratitude.
• Practice random acts of kindness.
• Serve others or give to those in need.
• Remember the difficult times you have overcome.
• Look for the lessons and blessings when going through hard times.
• Express your gratitude.
• Watch your thoughts and words.
• Avoid complaining and criticizing.
• Practice gratitude even when things are difficult.
• Worship, pray, or meditate on things you are grateful for.
Following is a gratitude meditation script that will help cultivate gratitude and thankfulness moving into the Thanksgiving season and beyond.
Gratitude Meditation
In the following meditation, we will cultivate gratitude and thankfulness.
Come into a seated or reclined position suitable for meditation. Take a moment to make sure you’re comfortable wherever you are, making any adjustments that you need to make before the meditation begins.
Let’s begin…
Take a moment to become aware of your natural breathing pattern, the breath that occurs without any effort whatsoever. Notice the rise and fall of the breath. Follow the inhales and exhales as they come like waves into and out of your body.
Now, allow your breathing to slow and deepen. With every in-breath, feel your body filling up, creating space for gratitude. On the exhale, imagine releasing anything that doesn’t serve you now, such as complaint, criticism, or conflict. Breathe like this for a few more moments, making an exchange with every breath.
Now, bring your awareness to things in your life for which you are thankful. Give gratitude a chance to come up naturally. Just let yourself sink into the feeling and surrender to it when it comes up. Notice how it feels in your body and how your energy feels. And if it doesn’t come up right away, that’s ok. Just continue to breathe and follow my instructions to the extent possible.
Let’s begin to consider aspects of your life that you might be grateful for.
Start by bringing your awareness to your breath. As you inhale and exhale, be grateful for the fact that each of these breaths gives you life.
Become aware of your heart beating and pulsing. Feel your heart filling with love, compassion, and peace and flowing back out.
Bring your awareness to your eyes, allowing you to see the faces of those you love, the beauty of God’s creation, the sunrise and sunset, the rainbow, the moon, and the stars.
Now, notice your ears that hear sound, music, the voices of those you love, laughter, and the beautiful sounds of life.
Bring your awareness now to your nose, that which smells the flowers, the newly cut grass, the ocean breeze, the smell of the air after it rains, the wafting smells that come from the kitchen as your favorite meal is prepared.
Now notice your mouth and lips that taste, savor, whisper, speak, sing, and kiss.
Bring awareness to your hands that touch, caress, open and close, squeeze, and applaud. And what about your arms and shoulders that hold, carry, stretch, lift, and hug?
What about your legs and feet that walk, run, dance, kick, leap, and point? And don’t forget your toes and the gift to wiggle them.
Consider your tears and sorrows and the strength you seem to find to make it through the hard times in your life. What about the times worthy of celebration that bring joy to your heart?
Think about your growth and evolution, perspective shifts, and ability to see growth and potential in every moment.
Drift your awareness to loving and nurturing relationships in your life and your connection to those things that are good, sweet, loving, honorable, and just feel right.
When we no longer take life for granted, we become grateful for everything we have.
Now, just breathe and feel more grace and ease. Bask for a while in the warmth, love, and compassion that gratitude brings into your heart.
Breathe and feel this flow for as long as you like.
Dawn Hopkins
Dawn Hopkins is the Founder and President of Inspiritus Yoga: Wholistic Wellness & Training Centers, an international yoga school and continuing education provider with training centers in Phoenix, Detroit, and Saskatoon, SK. She is also the Co-Founder of The Retreat Ladies: Inspired Wellness Journeys, provider of yoga and wellness retreats with programs designed to help women heal and recover from the stress and demands of daily life in a safe and welcoming community.
Dawn holds an MA degree from UIUC and is a Master Yoga Instructor, Yoga Teacher Trainer, Yoga Therapist, Thai Yoga Massage and Reiki Practitioner, and Licensed Am I Hungry? Mindful Eating Facilitator and Coach.
Dawn has been helping people improve their health and wellness since 2002 as the co-owner/operator of Curves Ahwatukee where she helped over 4,000 women achieve improved health and wellness. Her commitment to excellence earned her the Palo Verde Business Woman of the Year Award in 2007. Dawn began taking yoga classes in 1997 to counter the effects of years of athletics on her body. What she discovered instead was the tremendous healing power of yoga. She completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2006 and began teaching immediately thereafter. She soon discovered she also had a passion for training and equipping instructors and began training instructors in 2008 after receiving her first 500 hour master-level teacher training. In 2009, she founded The Living Well Retreats and began facilitating yoga and wellness retreats. In 2011, she co-founded The Center for Living Well (a 501C3 non-profit ) and launched her first 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training. One year later, she completed her certification in Healing Emphasis Yoga and Yoga Therapy. In 2017, she founded Inspiritus Yoga: Wholistic Wellness and Training Centers. In 2021, she co-founded The Retreat Ladies: Inspired Wellness Journeys.
Dawn currently owns and operates Inspiritus Yoga and co-owns and operates The Retreat Ladies where she helps people find healing, growth, and transformation through yoga and other healing modalities, mindful eating, retreats, yoga education and training programs, and continuing education. She also offers private healing and wellness services and speaks and writes on wellness and yoga topics regularly. Dawn teaches, trains, and ministers to others with passion and purpose born of her own healing and transformation. She feels it is her life’s purpose and calling to help others in this way.