Gratitude

Gratitude for me is the most important aspect of love.

It is the sum total of appreciation, respect, joy, excitement and wonder, mixed with humility.

It is not arrogant and does not takes things for granted. It is not clever or conceited but rather gracious and spellbound by the wonder of life and the web we weave.

To be grateful to the people we love, the environment we live in and to the life that we have, is to say ‘yes’ to the Universe, to acknowledge that the Universe has not got it wrong and that everything in our world is just perfect for where we are on our journey.

In rather the same way that someone’s body weight is to a large degree dependent on the level of toxins they are holding in their bodies (the holding bays for toxins are fat cells – more toxins, more fat retention)…..so in the same way if your life is full of fears (toxins) you will experience more difficult situations and ‘unlucky’happenings. Once we release the fears, the toxic thoughts, we can transform the situations we find ourselves in, we can become ‘lighter’, lose the ‘weight’ of fearful baggage that makes us sluggish, insecure and robs us of vitality and zest for life.

Rewrite your scripts, change your beliefs…..

If you don’t like what your life is presenting to you, then have gratitude for the experience, ask what changes can you make, where are you being asked to grow and make those changes, OR move on. For things that seem fixed or impossible to change for the present moment, change your attitude towards them, trust and know there is a reason why you are experiencing this set of conditions right now.

Gratitude creates an acceptance within you, a peace and an energy field that magnetises in more of the same….more joy, more love, more peace, more excitement.

To truly feel gratitude is a sacred state, it’s beyond words.

The best way to cultivate gratitude is to watch, observe, listen, smell and feel, to observe life, to wonder at it, to see the bigger picture, to know your part amongst what you see. Having humility for the immense complexities of our humanness and everything in creation fosters gratitude. Our lives can be snuffed out in an instant by things way above our control, each day is a gift, a new beginning, a blessing.

Nature is a good place to start with developing gratitude – study a rose, smell its fragrance, think about its journey to get to the point of you enjoying it in that moment. Then move on to the people around you, start with the ones you love, think about their wonderful qualities and how blessed you are have them in your life, watch them, listen to them, really listen, know their story, their pain, their journey through life. Some people live with people and never know them…they only see and hear and feel them through their own lens of conditioning, their own fears, as they hear the others view point, they are only agreeing with it if it’s in line with theirs, if it’s not in line with their beliefs more often than not they will say “I hear what you are saying but……” they have heard the other but not actually ‘listened’.

When you can appreciate the diverse nature of different people and appreciate all their different stories then your life gets richer, your view point has increased, you may not want to change yours but you have still taken on an expanded reality.

Without gratitude your life lacks colour and depth, it is functional and soulless, it has no poetry and your body doesn’t dance with joy.

If you want a rich life, embrace and appreciate everything in its totality. That includes yourself – which may mean personally nurturing your body with nutritious whole foods. Sometimes it may mean giving your time to someone and not passing an opinion, just being there for them.

Choose an attitude of gratitude…. for some it comes naturally …..for others it is a learnt skill.

Appreciation of the life you have. The warmth of the sun on your skin, amazement at the colours on a butterfly’s wings, the kindness of a friend, the taste of a fresh mango.

You will experience a very different sort of life with gratitude as your companion.

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