GRATITUDE, THE MOST LIFE TRANSFORMATIONAL ENERGY OF ALL

Get the inside right, and the outside will take care of itself. –Eckharte Tolle-

From the moment of awakening until we close our eyes at night we are interacting with our environment.  Our senses are bombarded with colours, sights and sounds.  Our minds interpret the surroundings automatically and without effort, judgments, analysis and comments have already formed in our minds.

Our first interactions of the day with pets, family, work colleagues most of the time are automatic. Greetings, routine, travel, workspace, surroundings are all familiar and yet most people would not be able to tell you details of their surroundings as the busy mind is very rarely focused on the present moment.

Allow yourself a few minutes of quiet time in your day.  Sit down and focus on your breathing. This will relax and ground you into the present moment.   Look around you at your surroundings as if you are seeing them for the first time, and take in the shapes, colours, structures of all forms around you.  If there is a plant, tree, flower in your surroundings focus on that and allow your senses to perceive the beauty and intricacy of what nature has created.  A plant represents beauty in a place of stillness.  By allowing your consciousness to connect to the plant you start to become aware of your own awareness, the ever present witness to the thoughts.  From this place of inner calm and stillness go through some of the things in your life you are grateful for.  Even if seeming disasters are unfolding around you, there are always things we can be grateful for.

The practice of gratitude is a skill which can be developed over time.  Initially when we are asked to think of what we are grateful for we list things which are material and associated with our earning ability, status and social setting.  However, there are far more things to be grateful for; such as the abundance of air we breathe, falling rain, the body which carries us through life, family, friends, a person who held a door open for you this morning, your working senses with which you perceive the world, your beating heart which relentlessly and tirelessly continues to keep you alive.

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.' Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.  Hāfiz  Persian Poet

Sincere gratitude always come from a deep sense of appreciation.  Feeling good about yourself because someone is worse off that you is however not a form of gratitude.  This is superficial and has evolved from the ego mind rather than a higher state of consciousness.  It is always more effective to be appreciative of something we sense in the present moment.

Blessings

Marie