Everyone is talking about gratitude these days as if it is some kind of magical elixir.
Well, it kind of is.
Gratitude - as a state of being - supports us in digesting the turbulence of unexpected life events and has a curious way of rolling out a magic carpet for more goodness to find its way into our hearts. Research even shows that gratitude practices actually improve key health indicators and reduce stress.
It’s typical for most of us to look back on our lives and first take inventory of what has not worked, or how we’ve been hurt, disappointed and frustrated. But when we look back with a different lens - a gratitude lens - all of those awful things can suddenly seem like a series of gifts that have been alchemized into an elixir of compassion, empathy, and enhanced spiritual wisdom.
Such a delightful cocktail - one you can concoct any time, any place, with nothing more than your own presence -:)
When you can create a new context for the past - shifting from one of hardship to enrichment - you will discover yourself anew and release what used to make you feel victimized by people and situations. The past can now become something to propel you forward, and the transformation found on the other side of your pain can be extraordinary.
My Thanksgiving Gratitude Challenge:
1. Identify three disappointments from your past.
2. Take each disappointment separately. Feel the emotions that arise with each memory, and notice where you feel it in your body. Then, consciously bring breath into the body sensation and speak out loud the thoughts, feelings or emotions that come up for you - until the charge dissipates.
3. Ask yourself what gifts came from the experience, and who have you become because of it? Notice how your inner state shifts.
4. Make a list of the three events and reframe these experiences, identifying how they can now propel you forward.
This way of feeling into the painful past without judgment is a foundational part of the CORE Repatterning Technique, which allows for haunting pains to transform into simple memories. The release process usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes, no matter how intense the painful event happens to be.
What's incredible about releasing these past hurts, is that afterward, most people think of the past event and feel like they are simply observing it instead of being completely wrapped up in the struggle.
They feel free to be themselves, and without the emotional charges of the past, it's easy to reframe the experience - grateful that what they moved through actually made them kinder, gentler human beings, which in itself has already made the world a better place. -:)
#gratitude #gratitudechallenge #yesyoucanspeak #corerepatterning