The Art of Gratitude
This time of the year we are enveloped by gratitude and encouraged to be grateful. The art of gratitude is simply being open to seeing the blessings in all of life, all around us all the time. The conscious shift away from consumption, worry, and fear and a greater focus on gratitude can offer a host of health benefits that may just transcend circumstances, increasing the quality and quantity of your life.
Leverage the power of discipline to grow in gratitude and peace. The word discipline originates from Latin, discipulus, meaning “to learn”. One key to living well is to be open to learning for life. There are many wonderful and inspiring things to learn. When we decide to move in the direction of growth we are always given more than we expected.
In the inspiring book Flow, Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggests that people who regularly challenge themselves with tasks that require significant skill and mental engagement are happier than those who choose to go with the path of least resistance. You can experiment with this hypothesis and do your own research in a variety of ways. How do you feel after completing a newly learned skill-based project on your own? Think of a time when you overcame obstacles and were successful with a task you set for yourself. Chances are that when you embrace your creative inner student and let her fly you will feel more possible and inspired to create on multiple levels in your life.
Gratitude can help you to make good on your intentions. Research that appeared recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology confirmed that those individuals who kept a weekly gratitude journal were more optimistic about life, more likely to exercise regularly, and felt better physically compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. So you see when you embrace gratitude as your state of being and mindset you are more likely to take better care of yourself. Behaviors like eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise and getting regular health check ups are readily engaged in more often and consistently than those who are “less than grateful”. If you are looking for the “spark” to ignite greater self care think about starting your own gratitude journal and see where it leads you on your path to wellness.
Whether you are giving thanks to others, thanks to God, Spirit, or the Universe, the mere act of feeling grateful tends to lead to greater vitality and optimism, less stress, and lower incidences of depression. This isn’t just hearsay, this has actually been confirmed by research and holds true regardless of age, health, or income.
In Zen Buddhism, there is a teaching and concept of Shoshin, which means “Beginner’s Mind.” This concept implies being open, willing, excited and lacking bias when it comes to learning or studying anything. When we step into and truly live our role as student, without ego or judgment, the teaching of what really matters can and will serve us in ways we dream about. As Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki’s encourages: “In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, in the experts mind there are few.”
A powerful practice to keep you gratefully absorbed in the moment and one that is also helpful in keeping you mindful of your consumption is what Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh describes as mindful eating and being; simply put a smile on your face before you put a bite of food in your mouth. As you chew, be aware of the specific food you are chewing. He encourages to “not put anything else in our mouths like projects to be done, worries, regrets, fear..only put in your food and chew…no chewing on anything else. If you want to be more about the season of thanksgiving and gratitude-then get with and be more present with it and enjoy its many blessings.
Spiritual community and service are also wellsprings for gratitude to flourish in your life. Attending church, being a part of a community with a spiritual focus and foundation can support the growth of gratitude in your life and enhance the feeling of interconnectedness of all things and a positive responsibility to serve. The action of giving and volunteering has been shown to grow the feeling of gratitude and the years of ones life. Here again, giving is also receiving.
Six years ago around the Thanksgiving holiday, I was on a climbing trip in the Himalayas. I had the honor of meeting with a Buddhist Lama who shared with me his thoughts on how to bring gratitude into your life: “live with your heart out loud”. Gratitude is active and dynamic. It is a courageous choice to live each moment with your heart out loud. Today, choose to become of a student of gratitude-learn to both express and enjoy your many blessings.
November 14, 2011
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