I want to be grateful
On my first quiet day at Anahata I woke up early to enjoy the stars still shining in the sky, taking the time to meditate in nature, watching the sun slowly rise out of the sea.
The first sign of sunlight was shaping itself around the hills surrounding the property. I breathed in slowly while my eyes filled with light.
Later in the day, I walked back to this spot to sit on the same pine tree branch, to witness the last light of the day. As the colour of the clouds started to change and the sun began to hide behind the hill, I felt my eyes filling up with tears and heard a subtle voice inside me saying: “thank you”.
As I sat staring at those clouds I suddenly felt so much love inside me, a strong, warm feeling that began to fill up both my body and mind.
I was grateful, so truly grateful to be alive, to feel the cold breeze on my cheeks and to be able to connect with mother nature.
In these small moments of acute awareness, you can almost tap into the connection we have with our life source, this feeling of wholeness.
When we come back to nature we not only see the cycle of life all around us, but also the part that we play within it.
Gratitude is an amazing tool that can help shape our lives and lead us toward a higher state of consciousness. We can use it to acknowledge just how strongly our thoughts impact our reality. It allows for spaciousness and an open mind.
Planting small seeds of gratitude every day encourages us to have a positive attitude towards the challenging situations of our lives. It can help to evoke qualities such as patience and humility, helping us to see and appreciate the goodness already present in our lives that we might not be aware of.
Being grateful for things in your life will help to shift your attention away from toxic emotions and bad thoughts patterns. It will help you to stop dwelling on negative experiences and to break free from your own mind.
It takes time, but gratitude can also improve our wellbeing by encouraging us to adopt healthier habits.
I’d like to share a little ritual that I’ve been practising since I started living here at Anahata. I do this in the mornings by taking myself out for a moment in nature, where I do a “grateful scan”.
- I start by focusing first on what I can hear around me, thanking each sound individually: the birds cheeping, maybe the roar of the ocean’s waves, or the sound of the wind dancing with the trees.
- I give thanks for what I can feel: the grass under my feet, the cold breeze on my cheeks or the loving warm feeling of the sunlight on my skin.
- I give thanks for what I can see: the ocean in front of me, the hills, the forest that surrounds me, the beautiful trees, the animals around me, the clouds and the sky.
- I give thanks for what I can smell, thanking any smell that arises around me and the air I breathe in for travelling through my body.
- I extend this feeling outwards, sending my love and gratitude out to all the nature in the world, the rivers, the deserts, the oceans, all the animals, the people I love, the people I struggle with, all the creatures, the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars.
- I scan my body and I thank it for being healthy and strong, I bring attention to all the parts of my body, giving thanks to each.
- I feel grateful to be able to feel both good and bad emotions. I thank each of them. I thank my mind, accepting all of its thoughts.
- I finish off by focusing on my breath, feeling grateful to be alive and breathing in this present moment, I am thankful I get to experience all of the above.
This practise takes 5 minutes and it will transform your day. When I can’t do this I try to just focus on what I’m grateful for in the morning while I lay in bed. This helps me to lessen any anxiety that often arises about any difficulties that I may be facing.
It is also very helpful to have a notebook where you can keep track of each thing you are grateful for, no matter how big or small. I like to write in this before I go to bed to prepare my mind for a restful, restorative nights sleep. It will help to wind-down from whatever stress you may have faced during the day, soothing you into a more positive and grounded state, seeing the evidence before you on paper that your life is abundant with goodness will help give you the confidence that you are always receiving everything you need in the present moment.
Gratitude will shift you toward a higher frequency thus making it easier to attract what you want in life.
There is always something to be grateful for and if you can’t find anything, your breath is always a good friend to thank from time to time.
I am grateful because I trust that no matter what, I will end up always in the place I am supposed to be.
Because, after all, we are the creator of our own reality.
Thank you for reading with me.
With love and gratitude,
Bianca
