Your New Glasses Of Gratitude
When you start putting on the lenses of gratitude — from rose coloured glasses to a magnifying glass to a microscope –, you start noticing things:
maybe your eyes wandered to crises, trouble and troublemakers too much, trying to help, pacify and bring relief, and you didn’t please yourself enough with the pleasant conditions in your life. “Wow, all this time, all this support and magic was right here! Where was my mind?”
Or you detect a different pattern in yourself that needs reevaluating and a transformation.
You begin seeing the chain of goods and contents coming to you that you begin to wonder who was involved in making them come to you, and you humbly thank all of them, one by one.
You become appreciative of all who repair your home, vehicle, commute and night commute instruments and personal possessions. Although society values repairmen, and repairwomen, with an income that may be less than what is appropriate, these people have earned your gratitude. Make their day: appreciate their work. Appreciate it profusely.
Thank the people who removed the snow from your street and from the streets you were on this week, too.
Think of ways you can be more connected with salt-of-the-earth people. These connections have a very restorative effect on your outlook and on your faith in humanity.
When you put your glasses of gratitude on, what you see for sure is what has been supporting you, what is truly good, what helps you function, what keeps you stable, what is opening your heart, what you could spend more time on, what responds to your contribution and what you can build your future on.
You can put on the glasses of gratitude anytime and in any chapter of your life — even and especially when you feel that there is nothing and noone to be grateful for.
In fact, the best time to start the practice of gratitude is when you feel that vital things are missing from your life and that there is nothing and noone to thank for. This is the moment when you will be utterly sincere and name what and who you can be grateful to rather than act like a robot listing things that you watched people be grateful for with whom you have little in common. The practice of gratitude is not another assignment with a deadline that a boss, or The Big Universe out there, expects from you and will reward you for. If you approach it with a business, a servile and a “what’s in it for me?” attitude, you are not connecting to your feelings. For as long as you don’t feel gratitude bubbling up inside of you, the activity of finding things to be grateful for will not make sense.
Start with it when you feel it for real.
Sincerity makes the practice of gratitude intensely moving and yours. In a pretty short time, you can notice your perception opening to the good and the well in your life, to everything that you can accept without reservations, like and love whole-heartedly, and shifting away from hot buttons, burdens and fixations.
30 December 2022
