This offering of 30 daily gratitude practices ranges from simple actions to reflective meditations to weeklong commitments — all designed to inspire and support your grateful life. Experiment with repeating one practice every day for a week, open yourself to the surprise of trying a new idea each day, and/or use this list of ideas as inspiration for developing your own. Gratefulness practice is unique and meant to be personalized. These daily gratitude practices will help you discover ways to cultivate presence, notice and appreciate the gifts of life, enhance your perspective, and live a more grateful life.
1. Stop.Look.Go
Developed by our founder Br. David Steindl-Rast, Stop.Look.Go is the foundational gratitude practice for a grateful life. It consists of three simple steps:
- Stop: Become present to the moment, regardless of what is happening.
- Look: Expand your awareness of the world around you, and wake up to opportunity.
- Go: Do something! Respond to life with purpose and courage.
You can return to this gratitude practice throughout your day and in every situation.
2. A Grateful Day
Take five minutes to watch Br. David Steindl-Rast‘s short and powerful video meditation A Grateful Day. This video will awakens you to the wonders of our world, reminds you what truly matters, and invites you to notice the everyday gifts of your life. Share it with a friend and pass gratefulness along.
You may also deepen this practice by exploring the video’s accompanying practices and reflection questions.
3. Become Present
The key to living gratefully is becoming present to your life. Try this short, 4-minute guided visualization to settle in and ground yourself in the moment. Return to this practice whenever you are feeling distracted or disconnected.
4. Both/And
Take ten minutes to sit in your favorite chair and simply observe — the light coming through a window, your kids playing, your own heart. In your mind or on paper, name one thing you’re struggling with and one thing you’re grateful for. Practice holding both things simultaneously, with equal tenderness. Give thanks for the daily opportunity for a new beginning.
5. Gratitude Walk
You can try following a specific gratitude walk practice or invent your own. During your walk, be on the lookout for something beautiful or unusual. Bring awareness to the gifts being offered to each of your senses. Name them aloud or in your mind. In what ways might a simple shift of routine create space for possibility?
6. You Are Here: Awakening to the Opportunities of Today
Bring more meaning and joy to your daily life by grounding yourself in gratefulness. Start each morning by completing this sentence: I am here, and today I will remain on the lookout for opportunities to _______________________. At the end of the day, pause and reflect: Looking back on my day, I am grateful for _______________________.
7. Obligation to Opportunity
As you go through your week, take note of how often you say or think the words, “I have to…” Try to catch yourself and substitute “I get to…” What shifts when you start to see — and claim — your responsibilities as privileges and opportunities?
8. Light a Candle
Lighting a candle is a powerful practice for nourishing a sense of presence, perspective, and possibility. To begin, sit quietly and allow a sense of peace to enter your heart. From this place, light a candle in your space (or light one of our virtual candles). Create a grateful intention and settle into the peace of residing in gratefulness for a few, precious moments.
9. Grateful Gaze
Set an alarm or calendar reminder for the same time each day. When it goes off, stop what you are doing and give all of your attention to one person, object, or experience. With a grateful gaze, appreciate what you observe. Try to let go of any assumptions and embrace what you see as it is.
10. Savor Silence
Create 10 minutes of “silence” in your day. Whether in the quiet of the natural world or on a crowded subway, give rest to your work and worries as best you can. What arises?
11. Express Your Gratitude
Choose three people in your life and pause to consider exactly what it is about them that you value. Be as specific with your gratitude as possible. Then express your thanks by writing a note, picking up the phone, sending a text, or speaking face to face. You could also send a free eCard expressing appreciation and acknowledgement.
12. Read a Poem
Choose a poem that speaks to you and read it a few times throughout the day. Notice how no poem is the same poem twice if you read it with true presence, and take note of what awakens within you. Share the poem with someone. Add some delight to your email inbox by signing up for our Poem a Month.
13. Notice Your Hands
Think of all that your hands do for you. Can you imagine what it would be like to not take them so for granted and to offer them your true appreciation throughout the day? Try it. Notice how much your hands help to facilitate what you love in life. Take care of them.
14. Connect Wholeheartedly
Reach out to someone you know is going through a difficult time. You do not have to have the right things to say, just connect in a meaningful way. It can be as simple as offering your presence, a hug, or a listening ear. Even a kind text message, email, or voicemail that lets someone know you’re thinking of them without asking for a response can make a big difference.
15. Awaken to Life’s Gifts
Make a daily a list of three things you’re grateful for using this format: I’m grateful for_________; without it, _________. Continue adding to your list one item at a time. At the end of each day, review your list and reflect on the impact of intentionally noticing and appreciating life’s gifts.
16. Constellation of Belonging
Draw a spiral on a piece of paper. Working from the outside in, list people who made your life possible (ancestors, historical figures, leaders), strangers who impact your daily life (farmers, construction workers, mailpeople), friends and loved ones, and ways you are supported by life (trees, sunshine, the air). You are at the center of this network of interconnectedness. Offer your appreciation and feel your belonging. Listen to a guided version of this practice here.
17. Daily Question
Each day, we offer a Daily Question for grateful reflection. Try using each question as an opportunity to practice deep listening — to yourself, and to others. You could also try asking yourself, “What is the opportunity for gratefulness in this moment?” anytime things are not going as you had planned.
18. Grateful Intention
Start your day with an intention to show up to the many different kinds of things you do and experience today with a grateful orientation. Take a few moments at the end of the day to notice and contemplate if anything changed as a result of this intention.
19. Appreciate the Ordinary
Set a timer for two minutes and list the ordinary things that are essential for your daily life and well-being. For instance: coffee, computer, groceries, medicine, air conditioning, mail, glasses, books. Choose one thing from your list and imagine the people, inventions, time, or transportation that made this “ordinary thing” a possibility. How would your life be different without it?
As a starting point, simply notice the miracle of running water. Each time you turn on the tap, pause to feel grateful that you have access to this gift, unlike so many in the world today.
20. Grateful Meal
The next time you sit down for a meal, take a moment to imagine all of the people, innovations, and aspects of the natural world that played a part in bringing this food to your plate. Express your appreciation, whether in your mind or spoken aloud. Savor the blessing of food on your table.
21. Gratitude Playlist
Make a playlist of music that you find deeply meaningful. Choose songs that evoke grateful memories or invite feelings of joy, hope, belonging, and aliveness. Listen to your playlist often and don’t be afraid to dance and sing along.
22. Breathe
Add a simple pause and three centering breaths to a daily transition, giving thanks to your body for continuing to breathe, for the trees that provide clean air. It can be helpful to have a physical reminder for this small gratefulness ritual, something tangible like placing your key in the front door lock as you arrive home.
23. Take Grateful Action
Identify something in the world that brings you great joy but is currently at risk—perhaps a local natural habitat, healthcare access, quality schools, or world peace. List all the ways you appreciate and value this particular thing. From this place of gratefulness, formulate one action you can take this week to nurture what you care about.
24. Grateful Contentment
Every time a new desire emerges, acknowledge it. Ask: Is this truly my desire or did it come from somewhere else? Discern: Will this desire help me tend my values? If yes, identify a minimum of three ways in which you will actively give thanks for its presence in your life. Repeat each time you notice a desire for something more, better, or different.
25. Habit to Ritual
Identify a daily habit that could provide more nourishment if transformed into a ritual. For example, drinking your tea or coffee, your daily walk, even washing your hands. Try approaching this habit with greater reverence this week.
26. Make a Contribution
Make a financial contribution to a non-profit organization doing work that you value. Accompany that gift with a note of appreciation for why it matters to you to have people working to advance missions with which you are aligned. Tune in to the ways we all depend on one another to bring shared values and vision into being. If you’re unable to contribute financially, write a thoughtful note of thanks.
27. Appointments with Joy
Schedule three, 5-minute “appointments with joy” this week. During each of these short sessions, identify one source of joy in that moment. Write it down and reflect on how it feels to pause and savor it. If possible, photograph your joys and share them with others. How might you adopt some part of this practice for your daily life going forward?
28. Word for the Day
Think of a favorite quote that brings you a sense of perspective. Write it down or type it out, and display it in a place that will allow you to regularly reconnect with its wisdom. For inspiration, we offer a new quote — Word for the Day — daily on our website homepage, by email, and on our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram).
29. Live Your Values
Take a few minutes to list what you love about life. From this list, identify five core values you strive to embody. Are you currently living in alignment with these values? How could focusing on these values help you tune into the gifts of life? Return to your values regularly as a source of guidance.
30. Build a Daily Gratitude Practice
Commit to practicing gratitude for five days and notice what changes. Our collection of 5-Day Grateful Living Pathways includes an overview of Stop.Look.Go, a deeper dive on living gratefully as a spiritual practice, and more. Each Pathway is delivered as a series of emails and includes a rich collection of essays, poetry, music, videos, research, and practices that explore gratefulness principles and themes.
Number 1, about breathing. I have my own flavor, wonder if I should write this but maybe it is helpful to someone… I have a simple exercise that I can do anywhere anytime. For me, breathing is not something I do myself, breath is given. And it is the most basic thing to be grateful for. Breathing in I say to myself ‘precious lord’ (in dutch… but also 3 syllables) and breating out I say to myself ‘thank you lord’. It is that simple. The effect is I feel taken up into the tapestry of what is life.
The challenge is to not forget to do it 🙂
I owe gratefulness.org a great deal of gratitude for being a sort of gratefulness laboratory.
Niels, thank you for sharing your beautiful practice here with us! Also, I just love the sound of our site being a gratefulness laboratory. 🙂
Number 3, saying “I get to … when so many people can’t”, worked well for a couple of days in increasing my gratitude for my daily activities. Bur today it just leaves me feeling guilty. Any suggestions?
Hi Sharon! Thank you so much for bringing this question to light — it’s an important one that I’m sure many (myself included) can relate to. I think the key lies in this question included at the end of the Obligation to Opportunity practice: “How might awareness of your privileges — and the fact that so many people don’t share them — move you to act?” That will be a unique answer for each of us, but in noticing the abundance of our blessings, we can open up a pathway for loving action. I hope this helps with further reflection.
Wow! That certainly opens up a much deeper meditation. Thank you. I guess once I got in the guilt, I got in some powerlessness. Now to see what God would have me do. Certainly prayer jumps to mind. But I’ll let Him add anything He might choose. That was such a helpful reply. Thank you.
My reflection is that when I take the time to look at the photos on my computer and other devices, I’m struck by how many beautiful and awesome experiences I’ve had.
Hi Pam, thank you for sharing this lovely reflection! It’s a great reminder to cherish our experiences and a lovely opportunity to relive meaningful moments all over again.
I like to do #19 before most every meal to appreciate everyone involved in providing this food for us.
Thank you, Wietze for sharing this practice with us. It’s a simple and powerful thing to pause for a few moments before each meal to contemplate the wonder of the food before us and all of the varying elements that made that possible.
I think food, especially vegetables, are so beautiful. When I see them gathered, I always wish I could paint an amazing picture. The colors fill my spirit. Instead I use my cooking as a gratitude practice. I feel the privilege of having beautiful, healthy, fresh food. I try to prepare it with care and little waste. I often add the extra touch to make the dish more beautiful, my work of art. I think of the people I am cooking for, even if it’s only me, and I imagine how the food will take care of us. When I serve, I give the most yummy morsel, beautiful piece, etc the reverence it deserves.
Mair, I love your connection of cooking as a gratitude practice. I appreciate how much intention you bring to each step of the process, and with such love put into every step I can online imagine how delicious the food you prepare tastes. Thank you for sharing with us.