Grateful

Grateful...easily my word and thought for the week. It all began late Sunday after I had finished running a 3-day Restorative Intensive workshop. At the end of the workshop, we all sat in a circle as I asked the participants what they were taking away from the weekend and what, if any, they may have had. As people shared so openly and from the heart, my own heart space seemed to expand. I couldn't help but absorb the feelings of thankfulness that were pouring forth. And it wasn't from them thanking me, they were thanking each other for being supportive, understanding and caring. They were thanking the community that came together and how they loved being a part of it. You could see on their faces, that after three days of shifting out of the busyness of the everyday and into a relaxed and restoring state, that life seemed a bit more compassionate, bright and easy.

And it kept unfolding...as I awoke Monday morning, I began the 21-day mantra meditation offered by Oprah and Deepak Chopra. The theme: finding grace through gratitude. There it was again-Gratitude! It seemed too easy to choose that as the theme for the week, so as I drove to begin my teaching for the day, I waited to see if another stroke of inspiration would hit. Nothing. So, I put up the word "Grateful" and as a student walked into the studio and saw the word of the week, she exclaimed, "Grateful! That's SO perfect!". And so it went throughout the week, noticing moment after moment of things for which I could be grateful.

As I explored the idea further, another emotion arose...that of fear. I began to realize that a profound connection exists between fear and gratitude. In recent events we have heard the rhetoric of fear...the Iran nuclear deal; the Greek financial crisis; gas prices on the rise. Fear is heard in the voices of those debating the issues and not only is fear present, but anger can be heard as well. When fear arises, the heart shuts down. It's near impossible to hold love and fear in the same moment and if we begin to attach ourselves to the fear, if we begin to become identified with the story, our ability to feel love diminishes. 

This is when the practice of gratitude arrives. When we find ourselves stuck in the mud of negativity and realize the abundance that exists in our lives, we begin to shift the focus away from the fear. Instead of being fixated, we begin to understand that we have an opportunity to make a different choice of where we place our energy. Research has shown that a daily practice of gratitude can shift our emotional state in a positive way. I did this publicly a couple of years back on Facebook where at the end of every day, I would post five things I was grateful for. Some days it was challenging, but over 21 days, I could still find something to acknowledge. The interesting thing that happened through this social experiment, was that other people began posting things that they were grateful for...a rippling out of gratitude was an unexpected result. It felt good to be part of that wave.

One more thought around gratitude is that our true self is always grateful. That's a quote from the Oprah/Chopra meditation. As I sat with that, I realized they were referring to us connecting to the seat of our soul, that eternal, never changing part of our selves that sits in the truth of who we really are...not the roles we take on, not the persona we project, but at the core of us all is the essence of love. If we have the consciousness and tools to dive below the outer, often turbulent noise that pulls us away from our inner selves, we can move deeply into the well of inner silence and knowing. This is where we "trust our gut" and "feel it in our bones". We just know from a place of inner wisdom what is true.

Once again, connecting to gratitude helps us to dive deep and touch our essence. So in this moment, I am grateful to all of you who commit time in reading this and perhaps reflect on what it means to you.  What are you grateful for today?