‘You are Enough’ Gratitude Meditation

I am recording this meditation very early on Thanksgiving morning 2022. If asked what you are thankful for, you might have a list that comes to mind of things outside of you—your family, job, friends, nature, art, your babies and grandbabies. And what a wonderful list and yet, there are times when we feel burnt out, tired, overwhelmed or overworked and giving gratitude feels like another chore. Yes, you are grateful for the Thanksgiving meal you will eat today but can’t stop thinking about how much work it is to prepare and clean up or get the kids fed. Or perhaps this year you are home alone because of loss or choice and your gratitude feels obscured like the clouds covering the sky.

What if we could rekindle our gratitude by offering it to ourselves? Poet David Whyte opens us up to this possibility with his reflection on gratitude from his work Consolations that invites us to explore turning inwards. He says, “gratitude is more than saying thank you for whatever someone gives you. It arises from paying attention—from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within, without, and besides.”

So, whenever you come across this meditation, consider this moment to be an invitation to be awake to the presence of everything that lives inside of you. And as you experience being present to yourself, you are cultivating a gratitude that requires no work or needs no outcome. Your gentle attention to your moment-to-moment experience is enough. You are enough. with gratitude. xoxo