The Core of Gratitude
By Carl Studna
We are closing the month of January and fully into a new year with new energy. It’s all about integrating the lessons from our past and beginning anew. Like the refresh button on your computer – what will you be seeing and experiencing as you rewrite or redirect your intentions? Let’s reflect for a moment.
Normally, as the holiday season launches in November, we as a culture typically place our attention on giving thanks for the various gifts and blessings in our lives. I find this season to serve as a reminder of these gifts, but if we don’t maintain a daily consciousness of gratitude, that holiday sense of appreciation can simply be a fleeting experience; like a ship that docks for a while, then floats back out to sea. I am suggesting that we remember gratitude moving forward, to incorporate it in every dimension of our life expression.
I see gratitude as a state of mind, rather than a “thing” to place our attention on.
Recently, I’ve been witnessing many successes in my life and I’ve been observing how my old, conditioned pattern of striving for the next “win” or “victory” can cancel out the ability to feel truly grateful for all of the love, support and accomplishment that’s always all ever-present. Letting go of this familiar pattern requires the willingness to give up control, releasing the Ego’s checklist of what it needs to feel whole, satisfied or accomplished. My daily meditations, inspired readings and walks in nature serve as strong tools for bringing me back to a clear and centered way of seeing and experiencing true inner peace.
Gratitude is simply the resting (like the out-breath) in a state of peace and grace, in the perfection that is the source of our innate being. When we’re truly at peace, there are no conflicts tearing us in different directions and gratitude is simply present as a natural way of seeing and feeling everything around us.
When I place my attention on the pure miracle of being alive, in this most complex and amazing operating system that we call a body, I’m reminded that it’s really not the outer accomplishments that bring me back to a state of peace and thanksgiving. These triumphs are certainly quite wonderful and they reflect my unique gifts bringing a contribution to others, but these are not the source of my gratitude.
I am grateful for being birthed with the consciousness and the freedom to choose my thoughts in every moment.
Being aware of every moment’s choice point on where we place our attention is truly one of the greatest gifts that every human being has been blessed with, no matter the circumstance or condition. Viewing role models such as Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela serve as shining examples of this truth. They are not the exceptions, they simply chose to trust in this Spiritual principle, to listen, and act from inner faith and guidance.
The more grateful that we feel, the more naturally we open to the love expressing itself all around us as the essence of our lives.
Are you taking the necessary time each day to rest in the “let go,” offering the time and devotion needed to truly listen? Are you feeling and allowing that innate wave of perfect love to wash through every part of you, leaving you clear, clean and inspired?
This is the priority… this is the core of gratitude.
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