Research shows that mindfulness practice is linked to increased gratitude and life satisfaction (Cheung & Lau, 2021; Ivtzan et al., 2016; Strohmaier & Cane, 2021). But how does it work? How do we cultivate gratitude as we are sitting here breathing in and breathing out?
When we practice mindfulness, when we practice nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment, what we are doing is repeatedly coming back to each moment and willingly residing in it. What does that have to do with gratitude? Well, if we are not willing to accept and stay with this moment as it is, what we are saying is that this moment is not enough. It means this moment is not good enough, not interesting enough, not comfortable enough, not fill-in-the-blank enough.
If this moment is not enough, that means we have no gratitude for this moment. And if you have practiced mindfulness meditation for a period of time, you will know that how we relate to each moment is a microcosm of how we relate to life. If we can’t allow this moment to be enough, if we can’t have some gratitude for this moment, then our life is also not enough. Ask yourself, have you ever been at a place where you felt that life is not good enough, yet was able to feel gratitude in spite of that? Most likely, the answer is no. We simply cannot experience gratitude when we feel we don’t have enough.
So when we practice coming back to the present moment and completely reside in this moment, without wanting things to be different than they are, we begin to say, “this moment is enough.” Only when we have this “enough mind” are we able to truly slow down and appreciate each moment and all that it has to offer, even when it’s not what we expect it to be. As we cultivate this “enough mind,” our gratitude starts to grow. When we feel that we have enough, when we feel that we have all that we need and more, a sense of gratitude naturally ensues.
And yet, we don’t have to do a special kind of practice to make this happen. We just have to be willing to let go of our thinking (judgment, expectations, opinions) and return to what’s right in front of us in this moment. When we do this, we are acknowledging that this moment is enough, that we are enough.
REFERENCES:
Cheung, R.Y. & Lau, E.N. (2021). Is Mindfulness Linked to Life Satisfaction? Testing Savoring Positive Experiences and Gratitude as Mediators. Front. Psychol. 12:591103. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.591103
Ivtzan, I., Young, T., Martman, J., Jeffrey, A., Lomas, T., Hart, R., et al. (2016). Integrating mindfulness into positive psychology: a randomised controlled trial of an online positive mindfulness program. Mindfulness 7, 1396–1407. doi: 10.1007/s12671-016-0581-1
Strohmaier, S., Jones, F.W. & Cane, J.E. (2021). One-Session Mindfulness of the Breath Meditation Practice: a Randomized Controlled Study of the Effects on State Hope and State Gratitude in the General Population. Mindfulness 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01780-9
Mindfulness FAQ 