“As events present themselves in your experience, train your consciousness to be in
gratitude independent of judging them as desirable or undesirable. Remain non-
attached. Then, at night, train your last thought before sleep to be one of thanksgiving
for the miracle of knowing Spirit, whose pleasure it is to give you the kingdom”.
Michael Bernard Beckwith
This was an e-mail a friend sent to me today………just in the nick of time:)
This year one of my “practices” is a “practice of gratitude”. Feeling gratitude brings us into a high vibration…….which translates for me into feeling joyful, open, trusting, ‘filled up’ by life. It puts in front of me ALL of the many, many blessings that I enjoy each and every day. Feeling grateful helps me feel aligned with who I am and what I desire. It helps me to focus on all of the good of life that I have right now.
I had a client this week that came in very upset about how messed up her life was feeling. She poured out about 5 or 6 things that were upsetting her. When she completed this “list” I then asked her to take a breath and come up with 5 or 6 things that she felt deeply grateful for. She took her time and with her eyes closed she mindfully came up with this “list”. After each thing that she named, I asked her to take a breath and try to feel the gratitude for this person or event as deeply as she could in that moment. When we are upset, it can be difficult to feel past the pain, but I asked her to do what she could. As we continued on, her face visibly softened, her breathing became deeper and calmer, she began to feel better.
My purpose in this exercise with her was not to diminish or push away those things that were upsetting to her but to help her remember the “wholeness” of her world. For some reason the mind loves to focus on those things that are upsetting to us when we can also AT THE SAME time have MANY more things that are delighting us.
The other thing that our minds love to do, as Michael Beckwith pointed out, is to LABEL….”this thing is desireable, this thing is not.” But honestly, in the moment we can not truly know if something is ‘good or bad’. You often hear people say that a most difficult time in their life turned out to be the “best thing that happened to them” as they WOKE up to the deeper blessings of their lives. They would have not “labeled” it that at the moment but over time came to see that that which they thought was a catrastrophe become a rich blessing.
Somedays I get amnesia. I forget to be grateful for all that shows up on my path knowing that everything has something to offer me if I can stay open and soft. When this happens I feel afraid, vulnerable, out of sync with all the goodness of my life.
And so I offer this reminder to you as my friend offered this reminder to me.
“As events present themselves in your experience, train your consciousness to be in
gratitude independent of judging them as desirable or undesirable. Remain non-
attached. Then, at night, train your last thought before sleep to be one of thanksgiving
for the miracle of knowing Spirit, whose pleasure it is to give you the kingdom”.
Michael Bernard Beckwith
My love and gratitude to each of you this beautiful August day:) Melanie
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