I just figured out (again!) how to dive into Gratitude:
1) Caring about the suffering of others.
Like me, all of you can be increasingly moved by the increasing number of people in our country who are struggling. It seems to hit closer and closer to home each day. Foolish as I am, it took me a while, but one morning I found myself waking up, looking around the room, taking in the room and my bed in a very direct and vivid way.
2) Let your mind settle down and look at your gifts.
The prospect of losing everything had finally hit home (no pun intended) and slowed my distracted mind enough to stop me in the present moment. I could feel how important the safety and comfort of my home was to me and what it would mean to lose it. This realization stopped me repeatedly in concrete and tangible ways.
3) Relate specific elements acknowledging their support and value.
Walking through a door I stopped and, putting my hand on the door frame, said, “Thank you” to the door frame. I took the time to feel it, to contemplate its importance and what it gave me. I related to him with respect and with the attitude that he was aware of and capable of receiving my attention. I kept doing this with the door frames, with the rug, with the bed, with the utensils, etc. Each time, I genuinely stopped and directed my honest attention to the object of the moment and spent a moment feeling how important each one was to my sense of safety and well-being.
4) Stay with this appreciation activity for several days.
Day after day I remembered, not as a task based on “I should do this”, but because a feeling of appreciation kept rising in my heart at important moments… like walking through a door. So he would stop me and put my hand there and say, “Thank you.”
After several days of remembering in this way several times a day, I was having breakfast with my wife, Ceci, and as I looked around the kitchen from the tablecloth to the walls to Ceci’s flowers, I felt my eyes seeing the value. , by themselves, in every object that came into view. Suddenly I felt immersed in Gratitude. Everything was tenderly alive and nourishing for me.
5) Turn fear into compassion, come out of yourself.
I don’t think this would have happened without the very real and imminent prospect of losing my home, which lit a fire in my conscience. I think I might have panicked and stressed if I hadn’t constantly thought of the suffering of others with compassion, imagining them present and watching me. The sense of the real presence of his suffering allowed me to stop and open up, to come out of myself.
May you also find yourself immersed in Gratitude and remain there!
May we all prosper with greater compassion and wisdom! Let’s make a difference together. Good luck.
© Jack Elias, November 2009