Gratitude
I am sitting in bed writing this, condensation on my windows as an early morning car passes by in the darkness. It's 4 am and I am eating spoonfuls of Nutella, grateful that I stopped fooling myself into thinking I could just get one more taste in the kitchen and go back to sleep. Nutella, I am committed to you 100 percent right now! I first ate Nutella in France when I was thirteen years old. I still remember how it felt in my mouth, all creamy and delicious! It's easy to be grateful for something like Nutella, even today, after all this time has passed. I only purchase it a couple times a year, so it always remains a special treat.
Feeling grateful is a wonderful feeling, so it makes sense that gratitude is given a lot of air time these days. Gratitude comes easily when you only get to have something you enjoy once and a while. It's easy to feel grateful at the end of the year, looking back at beautiful memories and accomplishments that stand out over all else, or grateful that the year ended when it was more challenging than desired and hopeful for a new year to come.
What I find more difficult is being grateful for the things that are happening all the time. The parts of life that are magical in their own way, but happen so often they start to feel mundane. Like making breakfast, or riding my bike, or smiling at the same people in my neighborhood every day. The first snow is magical, and by the end of winter it's a drag. Waking up for morning sunrise at the ocean used to be one of my favorite things to do, and now I find myself enjoying the sun rise from bed. I get lazy with my gratitude for all the things I love and desire.
When I was going through a rough bit this summer, a friend of mine suggested gratitude. So I started to play this game with myself. I started thanking everything in my head. And I noticed that my body would start buzzing. I really started to understand the energy of gratitude. When we are grateful and give thanks, life, our bodies, the people around us, our careers want to give us more! When we are grateful, we raise ourselves and each other up! We raise up our own vibration and the vibration of everything we are grateful for. We give our lives value when we are in appreciation. We are putting out there what we want more of, even if we are grateful for things and people that challenge us in difficult ways to love ourselves more.
I wanted to share with you a little gratitude meditation. It's an out loud version of some of the things I say in my head all the time now. I infused it with some healing energy just for you, whoever chooses to listen and participate. I hope you enjoy it!
Gratitude Meditation
