More Important Than Breathing?
And A Simple Practice For You
Of course the breath is important. Without which our body would cease to exist. But looking beyond that and based on my life experiences….
I would argue that GRATITUDE is the most important.
And it is not just focusing on gratitude.
It needs to PERMEATE every level of your being. It is not an easy thing to do.
At the end of this note I will give you a SIMPLE GRATITUDE PRACTICE.
Or you can just skip right there….
Of course you can start by listing your gratitudes. Great for adults and kids!
But it needs to go beyond that. It needs to become automatic and it needs to be present in ALL circumstances.
The “positive” things that show up in your life.
The “negative” things that show up in your life.
The people you like.
The people you don’t like.
When things are easy.
When things are hard.
When things go your way.
When things don’t go your way.
When you are not grateful for your life, there is usually anger and resentment.
btw, this is the EGO’s favorite game. It usually plays out like this.
Things should be different.
Things should look different.
I should look different.
I should be somewhere else.
I don’t have this or that.
Note that if your anger and resentment about your life situation go deep enough, you will become sick, possibly very sick.
I would argue that this is the root cause of most illness.
Of course I am not saying don’t take action to improve your life. I am saying be grateful and take action.
Ideally your actions are guided by spirit and not the ego, but for those that feel stuck, action of some kind is usually better than none and gratitude is a great place to start.
And very often you will move quite quickly from being stuck to being unstuck. Life will start flowing again. Not always how you expected, but there will be movement.
Below you will find my favorite gratitude practice.
The more you do this practice, the more automatic gratitude will become. This is what we are after.
You might find yourself complaining less, being more present, enjoying life more, getting less triggered by people and circumstances.
Wouldn’t this be a great state of being! I rarely use exclamation points so it must be good.
Simple Gratitude Practice
If you prefer watching me explain in video format I have a video HERE. Although I think I explain it better below. Also, in the video I am wearing a denim jacket and I could use a haircut, which seems to turn some people off :)
Create a gratitude item. For me, I grabbed a wooden dowel rod which I use for one of my prop-based Qigong practices. I then went a little primal and carved small notches into the wooden dowel. You can use a bracelet or necklace with some beads or stones. Rosary and Mala beads work well and are partially linked to what I am talking about albeit with more specific prayers. You can also just pick an item that you hold when doing this although I find it works better with something to slide your fingers over.
Grab this item and slide your fingers over the notches or beads and with each movement start expressing gratitude for something that you see. Go through everything in the room. Nothing is trivial. These are simple statements that you say in your mind - I am grateful for my desk, I am grateful for my cat, etc. With time it will be more of a feeling and less of a mental statement.
Then start being grateful for your physical appearance. It can be helpful to do this in a mirror. Often whilst touching the various parts of your body.
Then start looking out the window and express gratitude for everything you see outside. Note that you can add smell and the other senses to any part of this process.
Then start expressing gratitude for any thought that comes through your mind. All of the thoughts, not just the pleasant ones. Really be grateful for that person you don’t like.
Then start being grateful for all of the things that have happened to you in your life. Both the good and the bad.
Start being grateful for any emotions that you feel or anything else that you may feel - pain in the body, tension, etc.
Then start being grateful for all of your invisible helpers - angels, guides, spirits, etc.
Then express gratefulness for the DIVINE. And possibly what is beyond the divine, a.k.a. the nameless.
The order doesn’t matter, this is just a template designed to bring gratefulness to all levels of your being. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.
Take care everyone. Wild times right now. But we all came here for it. With a few tools we can stay on our path and fulfill our various and unique missions.
healwithin → HEALWITHOUT
Steve ~