Thanksgiving Day 2022
I asked if she would mind to share her meditation experience with me. She was from Germany, but since it was the week of Thanksgiving for my home culture I decided to guide a gratitude meditation in that Tuesday’s class. I asked if she was always able to come up with something to have gratitude for on each breath for the full length of the meditation. And she said yes, and for her she found it was mostly moments from the past that came up. Memories. Experiences.
Moments that she was thankful to have had and to hold on to.
This was beautiful to me. For myself, any time I had practiced this meditation I was finding more tangible objects that I was grateful for, or ideas. I was grateful for sun, moon, earth, gravity, sand, mountains, hiking boots, bare feet, volcanoes that erupted to fertilize the earth, ants, anteaters, the idea that maybe after the ants had fed the anteaters those hard woking ants could pass on to a more “desired” life… And for me, that list could go on for 15 minutes worth of breaths and I would never run out of ideas.
But after hearing about my student’s experience, I wondered why I had never thought of using this meditation for reflection; to look back at the TIME I was grateful for. To the time I AM grateful for.
And so I did. This Thanksgiving morning I arose from bed and sat still for 11 minutes to just reflect upon moments and memories with gratitude in each breath. The company I felt with me, even as I sat alone in my small apartment thousands of miles away from my closest family and friends, filled my heart. I beamed with gratitude. All the love I’d ever felt came right back to me in those very breaths. Memories, reflections, moments, and even the bad ones turn to good with this opportunity to view hard times as lessons and growth. Experiences.
And the gratitude I have for having students who teach me. For moments. For memories. For experience.
In Gratitude.
For the full gratitude meditation click here.
