Stop Fixating on What’s Missing in Your Life

This 20-minute chair yoga practice with longtime adaptive and accessible yoga teacher Rodrigo Souza helps you slow down and be in the present moment rather than ruminate on the regrets of the past. Instead, you can access the part of you that appreciates what is in your life rather than fixate on what seems lacking.

Yoga offers more than just physical wellness. The practice invites us to pause, breathe, and appreciate the present. Each time we return to our body, we open ourselves to a world of mindfulness where even the smallest joys can be celebrated. In so doing, yoga becomes a practice of inner peace and gratitude.

This philosophy became personal for me after I experienced a traumatic spinal cord injury. Suddenly, my body felt like an unfamiliar, challenging place—one that constantly reminded me of loss and limitation. Through yoga, I learned to rebuild my connection to my body, transforming it from a source of grief into a foundation of healing and strength.

In the rehabilitation center, where I teach yoga and mindfulness to others facing similar challenges, I continue to witness the power of gratitude as I guide students back to themselves, encouraging self-compassion and embracing what remains rather than what was lost.

By focusing on what we still have, gratitude flourishes. We shift our perspective from seeing scarcity to finding a sense of home within ourselves. As we reconnect with our bodies, we discover comfort in the present moment and realize that life is an ally, supporting us at every turn.

Yoga and gratitude together teach us that as long as we breathe, there is more in our favor than against us. Embracing this mindset can transform our life by turning challenges into opportunities for growth.

As you explore your practice, let gratitude be your guide and let yoga become more than a routine. This way of thinking and feeling can be a way of life in which you celebrate every breath and every moment with joy. Let it be a reminder to return to your body, find home there, and shift to that place of abundance and gratefulness, knowing that as long as you are breathing, life is with you, not against you.

Accessible 20-Minute Chair Yoga for Gratitude

This is an adaptive and accessible yoga practice based on gratitude, which I call the thankful heart. As you can see, I am in a wheelchair. I use this practice to help myself and others focus on what we have, not what we don’t have. It’s a perspective shift.

This class is going to be very gentle. I would love for you to adapt to your beautiful body. So this is your practice, okay? You have autonomy. You can move along with me or stay in Mountain Pose and have some introspective time with yourself. It’s more about how you feel.

Centering

I invite you to find a comfortable place in your chair and to sit straight and tall. You can ground yourself from your sitting bones or you can ground yourself from your feet touching the ground. Raise your sternum a tiny bit, soften your shoulders, and if it’s comfortable for you, close your eyes or have a soft gaze in front of you.

Notice the way we’re breathing. Notice how we can breathe life in with each breath. Life is with you. Life is not against you. So let’s breathe life. And let’s be grateful for that.

Neck Stretches

Reposition yourself in the chair if you need. Once you reposition yourself in the chair, come to Mountain Pose (Tadasana), grounding yourself from your sitting bones.

Feel the space between the ears and the shoulders grow taller, and at your own pace, inhale through the nose and gaze toward the ceiling very gently. Try not to drop your head far back.

Exhaling through the mouth, bring your chin toward your chest and gaze toward the floor.

Let’s do that 3 more times, trying to synchronize the breath and the movement if it’s available to you. Exhale back to center. You can raise the corners of your mouth a tiny bit if you’d like.

Now gaze over your right shoulder as you exhale long and soft through the mouth.

Then gaze over your left shoulder as you inhale. Repeat that several times.

Seated Cat-Cow

Bring your body back to center and release. Beautiful. We’re going to work with the spine. We’re going to open the spine in  six directions and the first movement is a variation of Cat-Cow in a chair. I would love for you to place your hands on your knees or on your chair. You choose whatever is comfortable for you. Sit up straight and tall. Notice how you feel here.

Exhale long and soft through the mouth as you arch your back in Cat Pose, bringing the chin toward the chest. Notice how your shoulder blades walk away from each other here.

Now we’re going to pull the femur bones back into the hip sockets and broaden our chest as we inhale and gaze toward the sky in Cow Pose. Notice how your shoulder blades are very close to each other now.

And then we’re going to get into a flow. Exhale back to Cat. Inhale Cow. Continue a few more times.

Centering

Come back to center now. I would love for us to place one hand on your heart center and another hand on your belly. Have another gaze or close your eyes if it’s comfortable, and take time here to notice how you feel. I would love to invite you to do a quick introspective moment here. With each exhalation through the nose, think about something that you are grateful to be, and each time you exhale through the mouth, I would love for you to think about something that you’re grateful to have.

For example, inhale, you think about something that you are grateful you are, which means you can think, “I am a son, I am a daughter, I am a husband, I am a cousin.” Exhale something that you have. “I have a house. I have health. I have a cup of tea.” Anything. Let’s do that three times. Let us see how you feel when you do that. Inhale.

Seated Side Bends

Now we’re going to do lateral flexion. So sit up straight and tall in Mountain Pose one more time. Ground yourself. Inhale as you raise your arms any amount, whatever is comfortable for you. Gaze toward the palms of your hands if it’s available. Exhale and drop your right hand and hold your chair frame to get better balance. Inhale and arch your left arm as far as comfortable overhead and feel this stretch on the left side. Hold it here for a couple of breaths. Exhale back to center. Give your left arm a little shake.

Reposition yourself in the chair, if needed, and repeat on the other side.

Come back to your body and take time here to notice how you feel. Notice your sense of calmness  as well as your sense of gratitude.

Seated Twists

We’re going to twist the spine now, finishing our six directions of the spine. Reposition yourself in the chair to get a better balance. Release your arms. Raise your body as you sit straight and tall. Raise your arms any amount and hold here. As you exhale through the mouth, bring your left hand outside of your right knee. Then bring your right hand to the back of the wheel or the chair and hold it there. Gaze to the right. Let’s take a collective breath here. Inhale. Exhale.

Bring your body back to center. Very gentle, soft, beautiful. Ground yourself one more time. Inhale. Raise your arms any amount, and now twist to the other side.

Anjali Mudra Flow

Bring your body back to center and release as you give your arms a little shake again. Notice how you feel one more time. Raise the corners of your mouth. Maybe think about something that you’re grateful for at this present moment. Doesn’t need to be something big, something grandiose. Something simple is always welcome. Feel the gratitude, feel the thankful heart.

We’re going to get into anjali mudra, which is the universal sign of gratitude. Place your hands in front of your heart center in anjali mudra and we’re going to do an anjali mudra flow or a thankful flow. We’re going to raise our arms from here as far as is comfortable for us and gaze toward the palms of your hands.

Then we’re going to bring our arms down, we’re going to do that with bhramari pranayama, which is bumblebee breath. Deep inhalation through the nose, and as you bring your arms down, you’re going to let the air out through your throat like a bee.

We’re going to do that again for a total of 5 times.

Closing

As you release, I would love for you to find that comfortable place in your chair one more time. Soften your shoulders, unclench your jaw, soften your eyes. If you are comfortable, you can close your eyes. Take your time here to notice your sense of calmness and also gratitude. Gratitude for life. Invite the silence in, and let’s bring to our mind’s eye something that we’re grateful for. Can be anything. Just spend some time here with it.

I would love to ask you a question. Are we here in this life just to get through it? Or are we here to celebrate, to enjoy, and to be grateful?

Open your eyes. Let the light back in. Greet the world with a smile on your face. Release your arms one last time. Get into Anjali Mudra, also the sign of gratitude, one last time and from this place of gratefulness, I close this practice. I hope you enjoyed practicing with me today. I’ll see you next time.