Studies in positive psychology have established that gratitude is a necessary trait for life satisfaction. Heartfulness Meditation, practised by millions of people world over, offers a means to reconnect with one’s higher self through meditation on the heart. We conducted a study to assess whether Heartfulness Meditation promotes dispositional gratitude among its practitioners. The study comparing the gratitude levels of Heartfulness Meditators with non-meditators was conducted by a cross-sectional survey of 1,746 Heartfulness Meditators and 1,159 non-meditators, over 18 years of age. The six-item Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6; McCullough et al., 2002) was used to assess the level of gratitude in the lives of the participants. The means were compared using an Independent sample t test out of the responses gathered from a 7-point Likert scale rated 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The results show significantly higher mean value of gratitude among practitioners of Heartfulness Meditation (M±SD = 22.2566±9.49761) as compared to non-meditators (M±SD = 20.3581±8.66894) (p=0.000); both at an overall level as well as across different socio-demographic groups. These findings indicate that Heartfulness Meditators have higher gratitude than individuals who do not meditate. The core practices of Heartfulness Meditation are meditation on the heart, removal of mind clutter at the subconscious level and introspection to promote an attitude of contemplation We infer that cumulative effect of regular practice of the above could possibly contribute to a disposition of gratitude among Heartfulness Meditators.
