August 30, 2015 By Admin

Meditation on Gratitude for Helpers

Meditation on Gratitude – Why it is so Important

The daily rapid vibrations from our fast-paced and sometimes dangerous world may impact us in ways that make unhealthy norms of being. The struggle to feel good enough, to have enough, to be somebody, to keep up with the raging ads about what you need NOW and WHY you need it NOW all stimulate our over-active/reactive minds. Limbic dominance is a very real thing in today’s stressed-out and material survival mindset. Such “craziness” and common greed also impact us by diminishing our true self’s position in the world, at home and at work. The promises of HELP via technological advances have failed to make life easier, and – in fact – make our identity and property up for grabs by the next and the next criminal hacker. Technology has if anything simply speeded up what we are expected to do. Often it adds to our daily stress levels. Such insecurity challenges us for much of the working day. Some of us place 100% of our energies into helping others is systems that are also NOT-SO-HEALTHY, thus having little emotional power to engage in positive ways once the work day is over. Daily mindfulness, meditation, walking meditation, and yoga may help you improve emotional status – even making you happier and feeling safer. One form of meditation that may be very helpful is meditation on gratitude.

Meditation on Gratitude for Helpers

Since I cannot possibly know about all of you, I apologize up-front if the norms I note below are things that you DO NOT have. If you over-focus on things I note that you do not have, do your best to remain on task in this meditation. Try NOT to make story-lines and images about noted entries that you do not have. As you practice this meditation, if you experience distractions do your best to return attention without evaluation to the suggested tasks at hand. If you experience serious discomfort, please stop the meditation.

Sit in a chair or lay on the floor. Place yourself into a posture that is comfortable. Close your eyes if ok. Take a few cleansing, long, deep, slow breaths all the way into and out-of the lower belly. (Note polyvagal and limbic cautions.) Simply rest here right now. This in itself is something to have gratitude for.
Now as you relax, loosen muscles, loosen your jaw, and simply pay strong attention to the flowing of your life-breath. As long as you are breathing, you are ALIVE. Give some gratitude for your breath, the breath that keeps you alive during your entire life.
Pay some gentle attention to your heart and lungs, which also keep you alive. Experience some gratitude for these tireless life-supports in your body.
If your vision is ok, be certain to note some inner gratitude for your eyes. The eyes that visually open up the world you inhabit.
If your hearing functions well, give a brief moment of gratitude to the fact that you can hear what is going on all around you. Another opening!
If your physical mobility is ok, listen for the sign of gratitude for the fact that your limbs are functioning. Lately, as I age, I have noticed that physical movements I have had gratitude for over the year are even stronger. I am sure that as I age, movements may not be so easy tho achieve.
You most likely were sleeping in a bed in a house before you came here today. Give some gratitude to that reality.
You know that you can drink water in Vermont; it is cleaner than in some others areas of the country. You also know that you can breathe relatively clean air here; it is cleaner tan in some other areas of the country.
I am sure you ate something today, or could have eaten if you wished to do so. Having food to eat is another important thing to have gratitude for.
You most likely have at least one friend or family relative that you can count on for support when needed. If you have a pet, that pet may be your unconditional support being. If this all fits your reality, take a moment to experience inner gratitude for this experience.
You can know that you are relatively safe here. Safety in today’s world is something that is more and more rare. So take a moment to feel your inner gratitude for the relative safety you feel right now in your body.
Last, if you have been fortunate to experience true love with another person (even if you have lost it now), take a moment to hold yourself in gratitude for this loving experience and what it has done/does for you.

Let today be the day you NO LONGER take for granted the many benefits you do have. Cherish them and keep having personal gratitude for them.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE or any image blow to Order

Supervision and Self-Care in Trauma Therapy Today there is an ever-increasing demand for effective trauma therapy. Our American clinical history on this matter leaves much to be desired. John N. Briere and Cheryl B. Lanktree offer important suggestions on how to use clinical supervision and self-care in your clinical work with clients suffering from serious […]

Advanced Buddhist Practices Abiding in Emptiness The various impediments (enemies) to abiding in emptiness are noted below. We have strong attachment to objects of mind and our sense door pleasures. We experience strong desire and cravings as our norms. We over-attach to forms of affection. We may become stuck in grief related to our experienced […]

Beyond MBSR – Quick Start Skills Self-calming for counselors and other helpers is one of the most important survival practices to master. Self-calming consists a set of basic mindfulness skills, all of which must be practiced regularly to achieve desired emotion-regulation effects. The utility of these skills is well established in clinical research, and not […]

Emptiness – Meditation Practice The Brahma-Viharas (higher abodes) include four powerful meditation practices ( Loving Kindness/Maitri or Metta; Compassion/Karuna; Sympathetic Joy/Mudita; and, Equanimity/Upekkha) that involve boundless radiation outwardly all the way into the infinite universe. These boundless or infinite space meditations, working with deep absorption and projecting kindness outwardly, may lead to positive changes. Experienced […]

Overcoming the Hindrances of Ill-Will and Aversion Although regular daily practice and sincerely following of The Eight-Fold Path in one’s life may be the best ways to overcome various hindrances, there may be some additional practical suggestions to consider on the path. We will begin our discussion with common human pain and suffering; we will […]

Self-Help in Mind-Body Medicine In this brief post we will review several specific ways that may improve your psychological and physical health. The post will be short, sweet, and simple to encourage participation. Here it is. Affirmation – “I am learning to love myself just the way I am.” Repeat this mantra sub vocally over […]

Forms of Happiness from Buddhist Psychology Given the season “to be jolly” I plan to write several posts on the topic of happiness. The following information notes five stages or levels of happiness. Read them over and see what stage/level may be appropriate for you at this time in your practice. Note that some meditation […]

Inner Workings of Self-Medication Process To continue our discussion about the self-medication process we will first turn to the human brain. The human brain is the most complex system known to science. Here, my comments will be basic. Self-medication often has roots in the quality of our earliest childhood experiences (attachment and object relations with […]

Mindfulness Practices for Expanding Acceptance Mindfulness and contemplation can be great allies in our struggle to better understand each other. This is especially true when it comes to matters of interpersonal relationships and highly significant relationships. It is also important in diversity, or as some now refer to it – variation in human beings. Variation may […]

College Students – Mental Health in The US R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC The Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors has released data on the mental health status of American college students. Two survey between 2016 and 2018 yielded results from as far back as 2014. Here are some selected statistics (rounded): Anxiety 47-61%; […]

PTSD – The How and Why of Mindfulness and Meditation Many recent research studies have been published on the benefits of mindfulness skills and meditation practice for various clinical conditions. Common interventions with these practices are used to improve anxiety, chronic pain, depression, depression relapse, addictions, addictions relapse, eating problems, and trauma. Since the year […]

Treating Depression – A Mindful Approach The following approach does not represent a complete intervention sequence in clinical depression; however, the steps noted may be helpful if/when clinicians find their typical interventions are not working. The approach noted here assumes that formal assessment of depression has taken place (objective measure), and that the clinician has a way […]

Our Brains React to Worry According to research by The American Psychological Association in 2015, some of the core sources of severe stress reaction for Americans are: financial problems, job-related problems, family problems, and health problems. Our lives are complete only with joy/happiness, suffering and boredom – sometimes referred to as pleasant, unpleasant and neutral […]

Vipassana Meditation – Emptiness One of the great insights from regular, long-term vipassana practice is the experience of emptiness. The actual knowing of it by the experience of it. This is not your typical conceptual emptiness of the West; it is not total void, negative beings, or nihilistic pit, or suffering in endlessness. It is […]

Mindfulness Can Activate More Grace in Our Lives Today we all need to be cultivating more and deeper grace. Grace needs to be activated. Given so many of our cultural problems (murders and mass murders by gunfire, rampant personal and corporate greed, ego-entitlement, chronic stress, feelings of insecurity, technological advances that do not ADVANCE us, […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way to Consciousness: Background A core teachings is that there are three ways of being: the fakir (master of the physical body); the monk (master of faith and feeling); and, the yogi (master of mind development). A key goal is to KNOW yourself at the deepest levels. To KNOW is to be, […]

Mindfulness: A More Technical View of A more technical understanding of mindfulness, an understanding necessary for effective educational and clinical applications of such skills and practices, has been presented by S. A. Alper (2016). This view uses a pyramid as a symbolic metaphor for mindfulness applications. The details of this pyramid (the foundation, four sides, […]

Making the Best of the Holidays Thanks to Sounds True, we have many good suggestions for making the most of the holidays. It is a norm for the holidays to be happy and joyous, and it is a norm for many people for the holidays to be filled with emotional and behavioral challenges. To reduce […]

Building Healthy Intimate Relationships: Intimate relationships are often the source of many years of happiness and satisfaction, and sometimes the cause of great pain and suffering. It depends! I will list various realities of initiating and maintaining a positive intimate relationship. After reading these, ask yourself: Where is my relationship? If you are unhappy, do […]

Anahata – Heart Chakra Meditation Practice Rumi noted that to reach the sky we must use our hearts. The Heart Chakra is a very popular focus of meditation practice. Here we will simply review some characteristics and then move on to a meditation practice. Specific characteristics: Green color, YAM sound (say at least three times […]