Suddenly the calendar indicates we are close to Thanksgiving again! It is a time when we celebrate with family and friends with large amounts of food, beverage and a football game or two. But how often do we stop during this holiday season to truly reflect on our lives and for which we are grateful.
Our elder brother and way-shower, Jesus the Christ taught us to always begin our prayers with gratitude. He showed us how to pray standing in the knowing that our Source of all has already heard and answered our needs, to be thankful for that experience in our lives.
As the day of giving thanks draws closer, perhaps it is time we begin the daily practice that will continue well beyond the season, of reflecting on all that is in our lives and be thankful.
Starting and maintaining a gratitude journal is a wonderful way to stay centered in a place of acknowledging the blessings you experience in life. The journal does not have to be anything fancy, a simply notebook will do fine, in fact if you can get a small one you can carry it with you and jot things down throughout the day. You might be moved to have something that appeals to you as well, a bound journaling book that has some lovely design or picture on it may be more your style. The bottom line is, find what works for you!
Each morning, after prayer and meditation and perhaps while waking up over your morning coffee, take time to write down five things in your life for which you are grateful. This could be material positions, people you know, a check that arrived in the mail, children, animals or even that the morning news that day didn’t have one story of murder. You might prefer to do this in the evening before going to bed, or perhaps at both times of day!
It is important to try not to repeat items on the list. This encourages you to really think about things in your life, besides the obvious considerations that you are grateful for having shown up in your world. As you do this, you begin to watch throughout your day for blessings.
When you begin to watch the events and people in your life to determine what blessing is brought to you, you begin also to refocus your attention off of the negative and see even something you might once have called a “bad” event, as actually something from which you are able to benefit. Changing your attitude in this manner is key to shifting the way you pray, meditate and manifest change in your world. You are able to see that even in the small events, there is a blessing. More importantly, you are able to recognize a blessing even in the hardest of times.
If you do not see a blessing right away in an “awful” situation, ask to be shown what good is within what has happened. A wonderful affirmation/prayer that can be said about what is being perceived as a negative event is: “This too is God, This too is Good, This too is for me and I DEMAND to know the blessing!” It is more than ok to insist that the good be revealed in all. If you are unable to see what possible good exists, demand to know what it is: Then write in your gratitude Journal!
