We live in such strange times that we are surrounded by negativity everywhere. I mean human tragedies, accidents, diseases, pandemics, broken relationships, animal suffering, and so on. Television and other media play a large role here, but even if we stop using them completely, we will likely receive a decent dose of sadness, grief and anger from friends or family. We cannot shut ourselves off from absolutely everything, life in a Buddhist monastery is rather impractical for most of us. 😉 However, there are ways in which we can balance these energies and thus take care of our well-being and health, which depend so much on our environment (both what is happening around us and inside of us).
One such simple way is, as you can guess from the title, gratitude. Cultivating it in everyday life brings really great results and, what is important, we can, or even should, reach for it even in the biggest life crises.
If you don't know what to be grateful for, look around or imagine what you really love. Maybe it's the smell of spring after winter, maybe the feeling of freshly laundered sheets on the skin, or the purring of a cat. Maybe you love cool showers in the heat or hot baths in the winter. Perhaps you will look at your everyday life and realise that you are grateful that you have functional legs and arms, or a nose that allows you to smell the apple pie being baked in the oven. The only limit is your imagination.
The more you practice gratitude, the easier it will be for you to return to it in very difficult life situations. There is a good chance that you will notice the opportunities and lessons dormant in these situations, deeper insights into things previously not understood.
Keeping a gratitude journal is truly a great habit. Thoughts escape us rather easily, and sometimes we do feel grateful, but very briefly. Considering that there are usually a lot of things that pull us down and we can easily get tangled up in them, we should take care of finding at least as many of those that lift us up. Part of this might be various practices of taking care of yourself, but also regularly spending time thinking and writing about what we consider a gift in our lives. Maybe today a nice, smiling delivery person delivered a package to us? Worth saving! Written down doubles its power and we can come back to it in moments when we're struggling for ideas.
So go ahead – feel into your gratitude and see what happens. ❤