Day 17 – Making Grace a Way of Life

“All that we have and don’t have is a grace.” ― Mac MacKenzie

In today’s meditation, we go beyond the mere behavior and attitude of gratitude, and let gratitude and grace become our way of being and living in the world. In the past, feelings of grace may have been rare and fleeting moments. To make grace permanent, we need to establish gratitude as a habit, so it becomes your default mode of relating to others.

When gratitude is the natural way you approach life, it is no longer an activity you try to remember to do. Gratitude is simply how you express who you are and how you feel. The practice of gratitude naturally and invisibly becomes a life lived in the state of grace.

My Notes:

Make Grace a way of life.  We are the author of our own story.  All the power of the universe rises up to help you.  We must take gratitude from a fleeting feeling to being a way of being.  So much so that we no longer question it.  However it does seem to be in small doses so you need to make it a habit.  This work happens inside becomes a joy because with each effort it brings more happiness and fulfillment.  Grace stands beside me.  Grace is always there, but there will be times where life is not going well and we will lash out, like a small child who is blaming others for their pain.   We are responsible, no one else.   Take charge of your story.  Do not blame others.   Only you own it.  Everything you want to achieve in life already exists in your own being.    Eventually only love and light will exist in your life.

Day 16 – The Hidden Secret of Being

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh

In today’s meditation, we explore how the practice of gratitude reveals the hidden qualities of our awareness: wonder, joy, and beauty. As grace connects us to the hidden truths of Nature, we are really discovering the essence of our expansive liberated self.

Gratitude awakens these dormant gifts of our unlimited self and makes them powerful forces of positive change in our lives. As our self expands through gratitude, our concerns, anxieties, and insecurities become small and insignificant, while our experience of joy, freedom, beauty, and compassion continues to grow.

My Notes

Love truth and beauty is inside of you.  They come out when your awareness is expanded to gratitude.  Everyone has that experience when something is magnified in beauty.  Such moments happen for the short term.

When you are out in nature, and you appreciate the beauty, you only see awe and wonder when you create it.  The hidden secret is that you already have this.

Day 15 – Seeing the Big Picture, Becoming the Big Picture

“True wisdom is being able to say ‘it is what it is’ with a smile of celebratory wonder on your face.” ― Eric Micha’el Leventhal

Living in grace is for everyone, not just for those who feel called to a secluded life of prayer and devotion. Grace is everywhere all the time. To fully live in the state of grace only requires that we allow our true self to shine forth.

In today’s meditation, we learn that we attain this state by simply being it, which means we naturally and effortless live an open life of gratitude. That is how we become a complete person. We embody a life in grace by acting from a spirit of generosity and wholeness.

My Notes:

We now are becoming the big picture, the more complete we are the more grace resides within us.

Living in a complete state of grace happens when you become a complete person.  First we saw the big picture, now become the big picture.

We now have a wider perspective and see how everything is inter-connected.  Grace exists in every moment.  Truths to live by.  Your attitude is the key.  Show generosity to all about you.  Generosity of spirit is grace itself.  It means that you are open with everyone that you will accept them with kindness.  Show appreciation.    Pay it forward.

Day 14

Gratitude Brings Compassion

CENTERING THOUGHT

When I have no judgment, I see everyone with kindness.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Karuna Hum
I am compassion.

Day 14 – Gratitude Brings Compassion

“We are all of one light on this one Earth, and loving humanity makes all the difference.” ― Michelle Cruz-Rosado

Today’s meditation shows us how expressing gratitude easily leads to compassion. We all know that to be spiritual we are supposed to be compassionate, but with all the negativity and injustice we see around us, it’s easy for our egos to feel justified being judgmental and critical.

However, when you find reasons to feel grateful to someone, you are bridging the gulf of separation between the two of you. You can’t be thankful and resentful at the same time. That connection you feel when you are thankful is your shared humanity – it is the ground of compassion. A compassionate heart is accepting and forgiving not only to others, but to yourself as well.

My Notes:

Compassion can change your perception of the world.   We are more alike than different.  When you judge another human being, you deny the connection between each other.

There is a link between compassion and gratitude.  Compassion sometimes feels impossible, we tend to judge against those who are bad or wrong.   When you are thankful, you cannot be judgmental at the same time.  Work on feeling thankful for each person.    Next to compassion is to forgive.  When you stop judging others, you stop judging yourself.  Eventually you get to a place of grace.

Day 13

Succeeding through Gratitude

CENTERING THOUGHT

I find true success through inner fulfillment.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Om Kleem Shreem
I attract all divine abundance and blessings.

Day 13 – Succeeding through Gratitude

“Having contentment and gratitude in the present moment is the surest way to achieve success.” ― Bryant McGill

When grace guides our thoughts and actions, our success will be fulfilling and meaningful. Today’s meditation shows us how the practice of gratitude can guide our success in an intelligent and compassionate direction. This type of success is different from the ego-driven success which seeks to hold, control, and keep the object of desire as a way to feel better about itself.

However, if your success is driven from gratitude and grace in your heart, then you are connected to your true self and your success always feels complete and fulfilling.

My Notes:

Showing gratitude will be success.  It is not about sacrifice, but about gratitude.  The universe is waiting to provide you all the success you need.

Success is not often associated with grace.  However it is very much linked.  True success comes from internal fulfillment.  Take every gift from humility and gratitude.    What you want to avoid is the ego.  Grace is always the giver of success, and not selfishness.   If you feel gratitude you have grace, if you feel you need to control something or feel a rush over “beating others”, that is the ego.

Day 12

Loving with Gratitude

CENTERING THOUGHT

Love is the truest sign of grace in my life.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Aham Prema
My true essence is divine love.

Day 12 – Loving with Gratitude

“The more grateful we are, the more connected we become to the universe around us.” ― Stephen Richards

Today’s meditation is about divine love, the spiritual grace that supports everyone and everything. This love is always there whether we see it or not. Gratitude, when offered to another person, is really an expression of love. Like all forms of love, gratitude removes the feeling of separation and distance between hearts. It is an affirmation of our common existence.

Gratitude takes us out of our ego self that may be afraid to love because of insecurity, vulnerability, or fear of rejection. When we learn to feel gratitude with a full heart, we are learning to love unconditionally. Living this divine love is living in grace.

My Notes:

When you chose to love everything around you, you send a message to the universe.   Love even those who have hurt me, because they need it the most.

Grace is connected to divine love in all religions.  Divine love does not need to be deserved.  Even bad people are loved by God.  Grace is not a choice; it exists in the infinite feeling of consciousness.  It is the supporting structure in nature.   Love is already part of our awareness, and we can express it or not.   You can give a little or a lot.  If you chose to give a lot, something magical happens.  You become more of who you are.

Day 11

Nature’s Generosity Is Waiting

CENTERING THOUGHT

The more grateful I am, the more my life is supported.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Om Purnam Adah
Universality is wholeness

Day 11 – Nature’s Generosity Is Waiting

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.” ― Abraham Maslow

In today’s meditation, we learn that Nature is always ready to give to us and support us. We only need to open ourselves to that infinite abundance and connect with it. Gratitude is the way we contact Nature’s generosity and bring its support directly into our lives.

This expansive, engaged relationship with Nature reestablishes our mind-body system to its healthy, balanced state. Instead of feeling constricting fear and anxiety, our expansive awareness now blossoms and shares its generosity of spirit. Expanded awareness improves the entire functioning of your body as well, from your cells to your genes.

My Notes:

When you are in a moment of Grace, you feel surrounded by love.  But you are always surrounded by love, nature has abundance.  The love is always there because you are unique.  There is no one else like you in the universe.  You are part of the cosmic scheme.  It takes inner grown to know this and support it.   There is always abundance in nature and the only limitations are from our own minds and beliefs.  The more we appreciate, the more we get.     Take charge of your limitations, work on it.  Eliminate it.    Meditation helps with this process.  Expanded awareness is normal, contracted awareness is not normal although we have all experienced it.

Giving no longer becomes a loss, it become a constant renewing process.   Basically the more you give, the more you get.

Day 10

Gratitude Expands Every Relationship

CENTERING THOUGHT

Gratitude flows in a loving relationship.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Namasté
I recognize my true essence in every soul I meet.

Day 10 – Gratitude Expands Every Relationship

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ― Marcel Proust

In today’s meditation, we explore how gratitude can transform all our relationships. It starts when you express gratitude or appreciation to another person. The transformation begins when you have the thought of gratitude and your brain translates that feeling into beneficial biochemical and neurological changes in your body. The feeling of gratitude also expands the heart, which has the effect of erasing old grievances and soothing resentments and petty differences we may have been holding onto.

Gratitude is wonderful in that it gives these same benefits to the body and heart of the giver as well as the receiver of gratitude. When someone is thanked or appreciated, they generate the same biochemical changes and feel the same expansion and healing of the heart. This back-and-forth flow of grace uplifts and opens every aspect of our relationship with that person.

My Notes:

When we manifest grace in our lives, we cultivate acceptance.  We don’t try to change anything, we accept.   When we cultivate acceptance of people in our lives, we deepen our relationship with that person, we are really saying “I accept you.”

Every relationship needs a touch of grace.  Giving and receiving is critical in a relationship.

Day 9

Changing Your Personal Reality

CENTERING THOUGHT

My personal reality begins inside me.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Om Hreem
I am the reality that unifies diversity.

Day 9 – Changing Your Personal Reality

“The thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.” ― Henry Ward Beecher

Today’s meditation gives us the starting place for transforming reality – our own self. Reality is not an impersonal experience or concept. It is personal, and how we see it and relate to it is a product of our unique history, attitudes, and beliefs. We are unique in who we are, unique in how we see the world, and unique in the reality we experience.

The core of our awareness is the source of our beliefs, feelings, and attitudes, and therefore that is the place from which we can change our personal reality. This inner awareness is an ever-present field of possibilities. We always have the possibility or choice for change at any moment. Gratitude is a practice that empowers us in this choice to see the opportunities in our life with fresh eyes.

My Notes:

Changing your personal reality!  I am the author of my own life story.  I can start a new chapter anytime.   Live my story that no one else can live.

My mood changes how reality looks.   No two people exist in the same reality.  I set the source of the quality of who I am.  No one else.   I am beautiful, caring, creative, smart, loving.     Gratitude connects me to today’s reality, so if the self is constantly changing being attached to old thoughts habits, it is like holding onto an illusion.   Existence, nature, grace, truth and love; these are all parts of the true self.  Repetition makes life stale, it brings boredom and fatigue.   If you keep repeating things you have no interest in, you grow numb.   Live life in the freshness of every moment, this is how grace constantly renews itself.

EXISTENCE

NATURE

GRACE

TRUTH

LOVE

Day 8

Gratitude Benefits Mind and Body

CENTERING THOUGHT

Every thankful moment makes me healthier.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Shara Vana Ya
My awareness is aligned with the creative power of the universe.

Day 8 – Gratitude Benefits Mind and Body

“There is no prescription for finding moments of gratitude in every day; there is simply the choice.” ― Gillian Deacon

This week we will extend our understanding and experience of gratitude to the mind-body connection. Gratitude is much more than an attitude or mood – it is a powerful positive input to our mind-body system that leads to increased physical and psychological wellbeing.

Grateful thoughts and meditative states don’t just stay in your mind. Messenger molecules instantly transmit their effects to the body’s 100 trillion cells, creating new brain cells and new pathways and brain patterns. The practice of gratitude has even been found to change our gene expression in a positive direction.

By directing our awareness toward gratitude, our entire mind-body system is automatically oriented toward greater health and balance.

My Notes:

There is a connection between my meditations, positive thinking and my overall well being.  Oh so true.  How many times has a person gotten physically sick over negative thinking.