Gratitude – the saving grace
Gratitude – the antidote to depression, negativity, sadness… and to life’s many downs, it’s the up. When we look through the lens of gratefulness, life just becomes a bit brighter and we breathe a little easier. It is the crux behind wanting what you have and not wanting what you don’t. It’s the instigator to positive thinking though it goes beyond positivity. It’s much deeper as it’s no longer just a thought. It’s a feeling. A sensation. It’s acknowledgement, acceptance and full embrace of what is present before us.
That may all just be gibberish for many of us. So let me attempt to break it down.
I am breathing.
I am alive.
I am grateful I am alive.
There, it can be as easy as that. Perhaps you’re not feeling so great about being alive. Maybe life even sucks? But guess what? It’ll change. Or perhaps you need to?! Try breaking one of your limbs. See if that makes it any simpler. It wouldn’t, would it? So why not be grateful that you don’t have a broken limb, a debilitating or worse, life-threatening disease? Now wait… what if you do have some serious illness. Will it really help if you continue thinking and feeling that life really is shitty and you’ve been dealt some crappy cards? I’m guessing not.
These are cases I painted in the extreme. While many of us may likely live a few more years we can’t really know. It is often quoted that there are only two guarantees in life, at least here in the United States: taxes and death. The rest of the time, between birth, taxes and dying is largely up to you. Or is it? How many times have we found ourselves in situations that we’d never imagined or planned? Did we really envision ourselves to be where we are today twenty years ago? Yes, we surely have the capability to make decisions in our day-to-day lives and even plan to a certain extent how we want our lives to play out. And how many times have those plans worked out accordingly?
When we can surrender to a higher power, or cosmic force much stronger than we can comprehend, our state of mind does at the end of the day denote what kind of life we’ve just lived. So with this higher being or God or whatever your leaning, you realize that life has a way of turning in particular ways, it can only help us if we adopt a brighter way of seeing life. It just plain makes life so much more bearable. It’s the concept of finding a silver lining in every cloud. Going beyond that, when we can focus on the wonderful things that are happening, life has a way of bringing more of that same likeness into our lives. It’s the secret behind The Secret – like attracts like. Harbor more positive energy than not and more of it comes your way.
Energy flows where attention goes.
I heard that in a yoga class some years ago that struck me like a lightning bolt. It was probably the turning point of shifting my worry wart of a mind to one of trust, hope and surrender. My intention in teaching yoga now is to shed a lightness of being and freedom within for all who don a downward facing dog in my class. I am ever so grateful to have a wonderful studio to teach at. My list of gratitude continues long. Suffice it to say, I am planning to practice gratitude each day as it’s what keeps me going. While I still have my moments, life will continue to serve me many ups and downs and I sure as heck struggle at times trying to tune my monkey mind to swing slowly (nevermind be still) I’m committed to practice gratitude and surrender each moment that I can.
And thank YOU for reading!
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