Practicing Gratitude
Gratitude requires relationship. It is the observer valuing the observed. Love arises out of oneness, gratitude arises out of duality. To be grateful for anything one must step outside the experience of the thing and look back in love and appreciation. While gratitude happens in the present moment, it can be activated by an awareness of a past, present or future experience. I can be grateful for arriving home safely on a wintery night. I can be grateful for the love shared by a loved one in the present moment. And I can be grateful for the confidence of a need being met in the future.
Past gratitude is cultivated by setting our intention to make a review of the past looking for positive events or experiences. I can review the last week to bring to mind every experience where my knees did not work like they did 40 years ago, or I can review the last week and bring to mind every experience where my knees served me well, helping me ambulate through life to the places I wanted to go. My consciousness chooses the direction of my energy investment. Choosing the former feeds my concern for the decreased functioning of my knees, for whatever we feed grows. Choosing the latter feeds the continued health and functioning of my knees, continuously rejuvenating and restoring my physical energy body with gratitude and new energy for vitality.
Practicing past gratitude is easy – get a journal and keep it at your bedside. Every morning when you awaken, write down three things you are grateful for and every evening when you go to bed, write down three things you are grateful for. If the entries begin repeating themselves, go deeper and look for more. Look for the things you take for granted. Over time, this practice shifts your whole perception of your life because it trains you to look for the positive in your life.
Practicing present gratitude happens by shifting our minds from directly experiencing positive emotions or pleasure to observing ourselves in the moment while experiencing positive emotions or pleasure. It is becoming conscious of the good things that are happening to us while they are happening. The easiest way to cultivate present gratitude is with experiences we have control over. I like to practice present gratitude with eating. We all have favorite foods we have come to enjoy based on past experiences. I have a particular way of making a salad that I enjoy every time I make it. When I choose to practice present gratitude, I create a space where I can be fully present with the taste sensations created in my mouth with each bite of the salad, experiencing fully the pleasure of the process of bringing the salad-filled fork to my mouth, opening my mouth at the most opportune time, closing my lips over the fork while I pull the fork out of my mouth and experiencing all the different flavors and textures as I chew the food. Present gratitude, experiencing pleasure and my needs being met at the same time feeling grateful for as many aspects of the experience as I can imagine. Not only gratitude for my body and the way it functions seamlessly, but for each of the contents of the bowl, the growers and transporters of the food, the abundance of the earth, the plants that gave their life for mine, etc. The possibilities are endless. For example, I could dive down deep into gratitude for the fork, the process of making that particular fork, metallurgy in general, or the human progress over time of developing the idea and manifestation of forks in general. My present gratitude could take the path of thanking Consciousness for the process of plant growth, photosynthesis, or the combination of soil, water and light that produced the contents of the bowl of salad I am ingesting. Try practicing present gratitude and see if it doesn’t heighten your experience of pleasure for the simple things in life.
Future gratitude is trust in the benevolent presence of Consciousness in the seen world. Practicing future gratitude grows a sense of prosperity, clearing and cleaning the dirt of lack from the lenses through which we see the world. Practicing future gratitude grows a sense of health, clearing and cleaning the fog of disease from the lenses through which we see the world. Practicing future gratitude grows a sense of possibilities, breaking the trance of entropy and decline created by our minds. Future gratitude erases worry, for if we are confident that our Creator has provided for us, then there is nothing to be concerned about. All of the great teachers developed future gratitude and were able to fully embrace the present. As our consciousness rises to meet the Consciousness that created the seen world, our trust in the abundance and nurturing of the energy of Love in the universe creates future gratitude as a by-product of our relationship with our Creator. Gratitude is caffeine for the soul.
This is part 6 of this 6-part series on the senses of the heart. I am so grateful for your presence here and would love your feedback and comments on this series and what it brought up for you. You can either post comments below or email me at tom@thomascapshew.com.
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May your path be filled with health, joy, clarity, and Love! Tom