Recently, I was reading an article that highlights what Science suggests us about gratitude, and this is that "expressing true gratitude boosts our health and spreads happiness”. By examining this plain and affirmative statement, in United States of America, we have set a day that is dedicated to be thankful. In this sense, as I participate of this Holiday, I want to use this opportunity to reflect with you about the "power of gratitude".
What are you grateful for? How do you open the door of your heart to express the love and the gratitude for all the gifts that life is giving you every day? How can you express the love that you feel for who you are and for all what you are and what you have achieved in your life? Those are great personal inquiries to hold in our minds and hearts, and sit to journal and reflect individually and in community.
In different countries, at different occasions during the year, we dedicate a day called in Spanish: “El día de la acción de gracias.” In English, is simply called “Thanksgiving,” and we can understand it as a holiday of the year to celebrate and be thankful for. Collectively, it represents an archetypal day (a day that is a representation of this ritual or celebration, a day that it is a template or an example for the rest of the days) that invites us to review our life and our blessings.
As life unfolds, this celebration day can be a unique opportunity to count our blessings (the individual and the collective ones as we said) and as we grow young and old. Whatever you are grateful for, becomes a positive affirmation that expresses the appreciation for all that is. This means that when you bring the affirmation into consciousness your heart warms up and your happiness and joy can present itself in your energetic field (body, mind and soul).
As you know, we can be grateful everyday of our lives for many different reasons and this helps us to minimize symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety. This is how powerful gratitude is. It’s good for you as it increases your mood and it can be like a "booster shot" of love. It is also good for everyone around you, as everyone can feel your loving vibes when you feel them. For this simple reason, interactions with others can flow more easily, and it is then, when kindness and generosity can arise more often and spontaneous.
It turns out that there are great benefits ingrained from truly feeling grateful and express it in different forms. Research in positive Psychology has proved for many years that gratitude is linked with a wide range of benefits, including: experiencing more joy and pleasure, strengthening your immune system, improving sleep patterns, being more optimistic, helpful and generous, and feeling less lonely and isolated.
Despite many times a day in which we say “thanks”, with various degrees of tone, intention and feeling, and yet as easy as it is to engage in the quotidian exchange in our daily routines by saying “thanks – no problem, sounds good.” But in moments of larger generosity, we are often left, feeling unworthy or embarrassed by thinking that who we are or what we have is not enough.
In those moments, it can become a problem when we don’t find worth and value in ourselves, and in those around us and life itself. I might say that this is a distortion of the truth, and a distortion of who we truly are in essence in our most highest nature. In this regard, we could interpret that a negative pattern is holding us back and make us unable to recognize this truth.
A veil of self-neglect is blocking our sight, inwards and outwards, meaning that we cannot count our blessings because we cannot really see them. Then, some inner-work can be done for the veil of negativity be lifted and for us to recognize our truth and our highest nature.
In this sense, the Bach Flower Remedies can really help us to work internally with blocks and patterns that hold us back to really see and embrace our gifts and of life itself. By working internally we will be ready then to open the door of our hearts to feel the gratitude. This is really a very powerful experience that connects us with the love and the unconditional acceptance of life itself.
The gratitude you feel, does not need to be shared with anyone else, as it is a very personal experience. This can be enjoyed in solitude, but it is even more powerful and especial when you can sit in a table and share your gratitude with your equal others. The blessings then multiply when these are shared in a table with food, eating and spending time with friends and family.
Over the years, in my personal growth, I realized that I tend to associate gratitude with a state of loving-kindness – maitri - , a term that comes from the Buddhism. Pema Chödron once wrote an article about “awakening the heart,” one of my favorite topics that I researched for many years while practicing meditation, and in this article, Pema teaches us that loving-kindness towards ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything - like most people think - that meditation is to get rid of our Egos and to get away from our mind or our thoughts. As you may know, mindfulness is the key and is mostly the contrary of getting rid of anything.
The word Maitri means that we can still be “crazy” after all the years of doing the inner-work and practicing meditation, and we still can be full of jealousy or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. The point is is to be grateful for who we are and all the gifts we have.
Pema emphasizes that the ground of the Buddhist practice is You, is Us, is who we are in the present moment. It is accepting unconditionally what it is what recognizes the treasure of the present moment and we just can simply recognize it and be grateful and happy about it. That’s the ground, that’s the study, that’s the recognition of all things, and I believe that gratitude is at basis of the result of the daily practice.
When you find this gratitude in your heart, you find a source of infinite love and abundance that is truly who you are. And, as I am writing this Blog, another question comes up for me to reflect with you today: Can we do a Thanksgiving practice every day by becoming conscious of the gifts that are given to us?
Life keeps giving us many chances every day, every moment! Let’s then celebrate love and the abundant harvest, today and everyday of our lives. We all have so much to offer and be thankful for. With this last statement, I will leave the question for you to pass on and share with others some of your reflections.
With much gratitude and thanks for sharing the path with me.
Roser
Image used from Free Images at https://pixabay.com
What are you grateful for? How do you open the door of your heart to express the love and the gratitude for all the gifts that life is giving you every day? How can you express the love that you feel for who you are and for all what you are and what you have achieved in your life? Those are great personal inquiries to hold in our minds and hearts, and sit to journal and reflect individually and in community.
In different countries, at different occasions during the year, we dedicate a day called in Spanish: “El día de la acción de gracias.” In English, is simply called “Thanksgiving,” and we can understand it as a holiday of the year to celebrate and be thankful for. Collectively, it represents an archetypal day (a day that is a representation of this ritual or celebration, a day that it is a template or an example for the rest of the days) that invites us to review our life and our blessings.
As life unfolds, this celebration day can be a unique opportunity to count our blessings (the individual and the collective ones as we said) and as we grow young and old. Whatever you are grateful for, becomes a positive affirmation that expresses the appreciation for all that is. This means that when you bring the affirmation into consciousness your heart warms up and your happiness and joy can present itself in your energetic field (body, mind and soul).
As you know, we can be grateful everyday of our lives for many different reasons and this helps us to minimize symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety. This is how powerful gratitude is. It’s good for you as it increases your mood and it can be like a "booster shot" of love. It is also good for everyone around you, as everyone can feel your loving vibes when you feel them. For this simple reason, interactions with others can flow more easily, and it is then, when kindness and generosity can arise more often and spontaneous.
It turns out that there are great benefits ingrained from truly feeling grateful and express it in different forms. Research in positive Psychology has proved for many years that gratitude is linked with a wide range of benefits, including: experiencing more joy and pleasure, strengthening your immune system, improving sleep patterns, being more optimistic, helpful and generous, and feeling less lonely and isolated.
Despite many times a day in which we say “thanks”, with various degrees of tone, intention and feeling, and yet as easy as it is to engage in the quotidian exchange in our daily routines by saying “thanks – no problem, sounds good.” But in moments of larger generosity, we are often left, feeling unworthy or embarrassed by thinking that who we are or what we have is not enough.
In those moments, it can become a problem when we don’t find worth and value in ourselves, and in those around us and life itself. I might say that this is a distortion of the truth, and a distortion of who we truly are in essence in our most highest nature. In this regard, we could interpret that a negative pattern is holding us back and make us unable to recognize this truth.
A veil of self-neglect is blocking our sight, inwards and outwards, meaning that we cannot count our blessings because we cannot really see them. Then, some inner-work can be done for the veil of negativity be lifted and for us to recognize our truth and our highest nature.
In this sense, the Bach Flower Remedies can really help us to work internally with blocks and patterns that hold us back to really see and embrace our gifts and of life itself. By working internally we will be ready then to open the door of our hearts to feel the gratitude. This is really a very powerful experience that connects us with the love and the unconditional acceptance of life itself.
The gratitude you feel, does not need to be shared with anyone else, as it is a very personal experience. This can be enjoyed in solitude, but it is even more powerful and especial when you can sit in a table and share your gratitude with your equal others. The blessings then multiply when these are shared in a table with food, eating and spending time with friends and family.
Over the years, in my personal growth, I realized that I tend to associate gratitude with a state of loving-kindness – maitri - , a term that comes from the Buddhism. Pema Chödron once wrote an article about “awakening the heart,” one of my favorite topics that I researched for many years while practicing meditation, and in this article, Pema teaches us that loving-kindness towards ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything - like most people think - that meditation is to get rid of our Egos and to get away from our mind or our thoughts. As you may know, mindfulness is the key and is mostly the contrary of getting rid of anything.
The word Maitri means that we can still be “crazy” after all the years of doing the inner-work and practicing meditation, and we still can be full of jealousy or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. The point is is to be grateful for who we are and all the gifts we have.
Pema emphasizes that the ground of the Buddhist practice is You, is Us, is who we are in the present moment. It is accepting unconditionally what it is what recognizes the treasure of the present moment and we just can simply recognize it and be grateful and happy about it. That’s the ground, that’s the study, that’s the recognition of all things, and I believe that gratitude is at basis of the result of the daily practice.
When you find this gratitude in your heart, you find a source of infinite love and abundance that is truly who you are. And, as I am writing this Blog, another question comes up for me to reflect with you today: Can we do a Thanksgiving practice every day by becoming conscious of the gifts that are given to us?
Life keeps giving us many chances every day, every moment! Let’s then celebrate love and the abundant harvest, today and everyday of our lives. We all have so much to offer and be thankful for. With this last statement, I will leave the question for you to pass on and share with others some of your reflections.
With much gratitude and thanks for sharing the path with me.
Roser
Image used from Free Images at https://pixabay.com
