5 Minute Guided Gratitude Meditation

To begin this gratitude meditation, sit so the body can actually feel thanks.

When your body feels ready, you may softly close your eyes.

With your eyes closed, take a moment to locate gratitude in sensation, not in a list.

First, simply noticing something honest — a contact, a warmth, a person, a small mercy.

Thanks does not need to be grand. It needs to be true enough to land in the body.

What else do you notice that you did not invent for this exercise?

What is it like to let the first thanks be ordinary, even slightly awkward?

You can name three honest thanks, slowly, and feel where each one sits.

There is nothing to perform. If gratitude is thin today, include that thinness.

Soften the jaw. Soften the chest. Let the first thanks rest behind the sternum.

And letting the first thanks be enough.

Continue now with a second thanks, as well as the breath that carries it.

Let the second one be specific. A texture. A face. A roof. A working hand.

Thoughts may keep moving. You do not have to make the thanks prettier than it is.

Keeping your eyes closed, allow a third thanks — perhaps the breath itself, still arriving.

As if three true things can be a meal, and you do not need a feast.

There is nothing to collect. There are these three, already in the body.

If your mind wanders, that is okay. Return to one of the three, and feel it again.

Being connected to thanks, body, and this short stretch of honest appreciation.

You let gratitude be possible. Including the unspectacular.

Now let your attention travel back. Roll the shoulders. Feel the hands.

Take these three thanks with you, as you slowly open your eyes.