Time of reflection. Time for contemplation. Time of stillness among the busyness of live. Time to just sit and sip in the #gratitude.
The gratitude of this breath.
The gratitude of this #smile upon the face for no specific reason.
The gratitude for #togetherness,
The gratitude for #connection,
The gratitude for #love,
The gratitude for just being regardless of what is, what has been and what is yet to come.
This is the energy of #Christmas 2020. Gratitude despite. Gratitude because. Gratitude for no other reason but the sake of gratitude.
Gratitude is a funny action, word, way of being.
It can be so intellectualised. How many of us have filled in our gratitude #journals diligently, like ticking off the things to do list; than to sit back and wait for some magical shift to occur within our internal relays?
These practices are potent stepping stones to create shifts within our neural pathways, of course only when done repetitively.
Laying in bed at night going back through the blessings of the day whilst smiling as you drift to sleep, it does work ... well for some. Personally usually fall asleep by the stage of recalling late afternoon and that is with starting from the evening and working back to the morning #LOL.
On top of this gratitude is thrown here and there in conversations, “I am so #grateful for .....”; “I have deep gratitude for...”
But for a longish while now have felt that there is more to the art of gratitude then these practice that use the power of the word to re-frame the mental thoughts onto positivity.
For some people well these practices of gratitude are easy and comes natural, but for those with
dominating conditioning,
with overactive negative minds or
untrained connection to the power of the mind,
well these practices can become tiresome, draining, burdening and another thing that depletes one’s energy.
Yet the real #magic of gratitude is so transformative and beneficial there just has to be more too it than that.
After feeling the falseness, the flakiness of the practice of gratitude from within and through observation of those around, decided to stepped away from the conventional approach and allowed real raw #emotions to surface.
No categorising of whether an emotion, a thought pattern, an action was negative or positive.
No longer looking through the Pollyanna glasses almost searching for something to focus on where there was a positive tone too it.
Then a layer of realisation arose.
Honestly how many of us have ever written in our gratitude journals;
“I am grateful for feeling sick as hell.”
“I am grateful for losing the job that I loved.”
“I am grateful for another intense fight I had with my teenager.”
After an intense day, where all we have for an entry into the gratitude journal is something like, “I am grateful for the sun” even though on that day you may not of even noticed the sun but it was the only thing light in your day.
This is the real shift.
When gratitude shifts from a mental activity and becomes an internal warmth that gently embraces you, creating an inner smile regardless of the weather forecast within your daily life.
This shift occurs when the judgement stops.
When the categorising between something that you “should be” grateful for or something you no longer want in your life ceases.
When there is no longer segregation between something being good or bad; #positive or negative.
It is just sitting in the rawness of emotion and listening to what action is needed to subside the intensity.
Too listen deeply within, deeper and deeper until gratitude just is.
Remember years ago reading some powerful wisdom from #OSHO.
That once something that creates internal bliss is expressed through the word it loses its transformative magic.
Hence why there always seems to be so much silence when people are watching the sunset.
Maybe just maybe, that is the gift of this year.
To feel the rawness of the journey whilst listening deeply with no judgement or categorising or attempting to look ahead.
Just to sit with all that has happened and allow a soft warm internal embrace to hold you and ease the tension whilst melting the face into a gentle smile.
Just maybe that is the Christmas magic of 2020.
Be the light that you are and shine brightly
Merry Christmas beautiful soul.
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