From an email I received………………..
It’s a beautiful new day!
Let’s kick this day off by practicing feeling gratitude.
Gratitude has many meanings, but the one that resonates the most with me is “show appreciation for something and to be kind to it.”
That’s all it is.
Appreciating something and wishing it well…
What do you appreciate this morning? What opens that feeling of love and joy in your chest? What do you feel grateful for?
Now… where in your body do you feel that gratitude? I feel it in my chest around my heart… What does it feel like to you? Do you enjoy this feeling?
Wherever you feel it, breathe in and feel it deeply. Let it expand throughout your chest and over your whole body. Let the feeling encompass everything you sense, feel, and perceive.
As you start your morning, you can begin to feel grateful for:
Your cozy bed…
Your soft sheets…
The water you’ll drink today…
The food you’ll eat that helps you continue to live in this beautiful world…
Your health… even if you think you’re in poor health, you’re still breathing… your lungs are still bringing oxygen into your heart… your heart is beating and spreading that oxygen throughout your body… what a miracle!
Your friends that you love…
The family that raised and cared for you, in the best way they could…
Your pets…
You can keep going from there. Focus on what has meaning for you. On what you really feel grateful for – not what you think you should feel grateful for.
There’s always something to be grateful for.
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Gautama Buddha
I consider this gratitude practice to be foundational in overcoming anxiety. It’s an incredibly rapid way to change the subconscious patterns embedded in your nervous system that feed your anxiety.
When we change those patterns, we begin to feel more peace, more joy, and start to have more fun!