Appreciating the small moments in life (as well as the big ones)
You’ve probably heard this countless times before – “be grateful for what you have”. And while I totally agree with the sentiment behind this statement, for me at least, it stirs up feelings of guilt for wanting to have more than I have in this current moment. So I think it’s important to state – you have every right to dream and dream big!
To help reconcile the sentiment of appreciating everything you have in life, not always looking for the next best thing, and still leaving room to dream big, I like to use this saying instead – “appreciate the small moments in life”.
An act of mindfulness
Mindfulness is incredibly important to building a life you love. When we are practicing mindfulness, we are living in the present moment, neither in the past, nor the future.
Fear and anxiety arise from living in the future (anticipating what might happen), regret and depression from living in the past (ruminating over what has happened). When living in the present moment, we can allow ourselves to just be, neither looking forward, nor backward, but just experiencing each moment as it comes.
The practice of appreciating the small moments in life will help you regularly bring your focus back to the present moment. It’s easy to walk from the front door to the car without noticing the world around you, focusing instead on the errands you’re heading out to run, or what is on your work calendar for the day.
However, I always try to take a few moments on my way to the car to just notice the world around me. This time of year I walk over to check out the rose bush heavily laden with blooms. Or I might look up in a tree to find the bird singing a song of joy at the sun coming out. Sometimes I just stand, close my eyes, turn my face up, and let the sun shine down on me for a few breaths.
Why is gratitude so important
Countless studies have shown the deep impact gratitude can have on our health and happiness.
Robert Emmons, Ph.D., a professor at UC Davis, has conducted a number of studies on gratitude. His research finds that gratitude journals and other gratitude exercises improve: physical health, optimistic outlook, amount of exercise, personal goal attainment, states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy, support offered to others, and sleep duration and quality.
Simply by finding an appreciation for the moment, for the people in our world, and for things around us, we are able to improve so many different facets of our lives. Often we bring our gratitude to the big moments and things – gratitude for our health, home, steady job, completing a degree, or celebrating an anniversary.
But what if you also brought your attention to gratitude for each heartbeat and breath your body takes, the warm cup of tea or coffee you drink on cold mornings, the sunset you see during your evening commute, the highlighters that help you keep your notes organized while finishing your thesis, or the good night kiss your partner gives you every evening.
The big moments come along occasionally, but the small moments – they’re happening all the time, we just need to change our focus to see them. When we appreciate the small moments, we bring gratitude into our lives on a daily basis. And since this practice has so many positive effects, I encourage you to build a habit of appreciating the small moments each and every day.
Cultivating appreciation for the small moments
But this doesn’t need to take a lot of time. I usually take 30 seconds to a minute when appreciating the small moments, and yet, just that little bit of time is enough to bring my full focus into the present.
Look around you – what’s something you usually look right past but which, if you consciously noticed it, could become a bright spot in your day? Once you identify it, bring the focus of all of your senses to that item or experience for a few seconds. Does it have a scent, what does it feel like on your skin, is there a taste sensation, does it make a sound, and what does it look like? (Learn more about the Mindful Moment Technique.)
Once you’ve mindfully observed your item or experience, take a full deep breath and go back to your daily life – do you notice a shift? What if you took an intentional mindful break for appreciating the small moments every hour of every day? Even if you took a full minute for your mindful break, it would still be less time each day than you would spending watching a single sitcom.
I encourage you to get curious and experiment with this practice to see all the ways bringing intentional gratitude for the small moments in your life can shift the way you see and experience the world around you.
Gratitude and appreciation for yourself
When you ask someone to think of things they’re grateful for, they rarely put themselves on the list (or if they do it is usually one of the last things they add). However, self-gratitude is incredibly important. Without you, your body, and your senses, there would be no moments (big or small) to experience.
This guided meditation is designed to help you cultivate your sense of self-gratitude.
Find a nice quiet space and bring your full attention to your body with this meditation. If you struggle to find room for yourself on your to-do list, this is a great meditation work with. It takes less than six minutes out of your day and helps you appreciate how special you are.
Taking a moment to appreciate just a single deep breath, or the feel of your heart beating is a great way to bring your attention to the small moments in life. In this guided meditation, you bring your mindful awareness to the breath and heartbeat, and cultivate a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for these most basic bodily functions.
Once you’ve practiced this guided meditation a few times, see if you can recreate this feeling of gratitude by yourself. If you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, bring attention and appreciation to your breath as it helps you continue to function despite what you are experiencing. Be fully present in the moment, using all of your senses to observe your breath and invite in a deep sense of gratitude for that breath. With regular practice, you’ll notice this technique helps to decrease your stress and overwhelm.
When you appreciate the small moments by plugging into gratitude and mindfulness, you invite in all the positive benefits associated with both of those practices.
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