HOW PRACTICING GRATITUDE EVERY DAY IS LEADING ME TO EVER GROWING LOVE and FREEDOM
I am learning several deeper truths about the transforming power of a grateful, positive and loving attitude in daily life
THE DAWNING LIGHT,Volume 8, #732 Thursday, January 25, 2024
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN # 116 Stories by Chinmayan about the challenges and rewards of living your spiritual path in daily life
All images in this story by the kind and loving courtesy of Pixabay
HOW CONSCIOUSLY PRACTICING GRATITUDE IS LEADING ME TO EVER GREATER LOVE AND FREEDOM
I am learning several deeper truths about gratitude and coming to understand the true transforming power of living daily life with a grateful, positive and loving attitude
The Joys Of Another Atmospheric River
Another storm is blessing us with heavy rain and high winds that is dropping so much water from the sky that small lakes are forming in every low spot on Still Mountain.
I admit that the roiling dark clouds that block out even a hint of sunlight are affecting my own usually sunny mood. It is hard to be cheerful when it is so cold and the outer world is unrelentingly grey.
But I am still grateful for all the good that is flowing into our lives.
Celebrating all my good, grace and blessings in the Temple of Gratitude
The Valuable Things I am Learning About Gratitude
One of the most valuable things I have learned over the past couple of years is that…no matter what challenges and hard places that arise on my daily journey, there are always good and wonderful things to be grateful for, if I will only take the time and make the effort to look for them.
I have also learned that my choosing to practice finding things to be grateful for is a kind of shield or protection against the dark attitudes and thoughts that still try to sneak in and take over my consciousness.
I have learned that feeling grateful, loving and positive always makes me feel really good, often blessing me with high states of joy and bliss!
I have learned that it is literally impossible to fall in to fear or feeling anxious or in despair if I am focusing on being grateful.
That is a truly wonderful thing, for expressing gratitude always leads to a profound feeling of well being.
I see my constantly giving thanks as a way of actually saying “I love you”— as a kind of love expression to the universe which opens my heart and mind to ever greater blessings.
Gratitude sets up a positive feed back loop that keeps going round and round from my heart to the divine and from the divine back to me that gets more and more powerful as I practice being grateful every day.
At this stage of my life, I rely upon this feedback loop to keep my own mind and heart firmly focused in feeling loved, appreciated and cared for.
The Power Of Consciously Created Positive Habits
I have also learned the power of consciously creating positive habits that I know are taking me in the good directions I want to be going in.
I understand very well that I have developed both positive, empowering habits and negative disempowering habits.
Part of consciously treading the spiritual path is being able to discern and discriminate about which habits to foster and grow and which habits to work to gradually curtail and dissolve as soon as possible.
A habit is nothing more than an ingrained groove of automatic behavior that I have accepted as a natural part of how I operate.
But most habits were not consciously created or even chosen by me…they grew in my subconscious mind without my being aware of it until their groove is so deep that I automatically accept and act from them without thinking about it.
Being Grateful Is A Way Of Expressing My Love To The Universe
One of the beautiful things about practicing gratitude is that the loving energy of being truly grateful opens my heart and mind to experiencing the full power of my positive side…
The more I practice gratitude the more these old negative habits get eroded and washed away…without the hard hard work of battling with my dark side to defeat and overcome them.
The power of love is what does the work, more or less behind the scenes, as I give thanks for all my good.
This gratefulness frees me from all attachment to those old habits, beliefs and ways of being that I once believed to be the real me.
Fortunately I understand the truth and see these unconscious attachments as a diversion from and obstacle to everything I hold dear.
The beautiful and amazing benefits from practicing gratitude daily actually dissolve not just my negative and hurtful thoughts and emotions but also the negative habits and my attachment to them.
The Power Of Gratitude Is Multiplied When It Becomes My Habitual Response To Life
The more I practice being grateful, the more gratitude becomes a deeply ingrained habitual response to the flow of life.
I am grateful for this practice of gratitude that has done and is doing so much good for me.
Now, whenever I am facing anything tough or scary or hurtful I give thanks for it immediately…and then I am instantly blessed with freedom from being affected by it.
All this is why I do my gratitude practice every morning during the first golden hour after I wake up so that through being thankful, everyday can be a great day.
Here is a recent story about how to use your first Golden Hour…
“How To Use the First Golden Hour Of Your Morning To Create A Great Day
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE WITH US TODAY!
If you loved this issue of the free version of “The Dawning Light” we ask that you consider supporting us on our mission to help save the world….
…By sharing any of our stories with your circle of beloveds, friends or anyone else in your life would would love and be helped by this newsletter and letting EVERYONE in your world know that we are giving FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS to the daily version of “The Dawning Light” to anyone who wants and needs it.
…By clicking on the little heart at the top and bottom of this story to show all of us that you loved it…and make my day!
…By leaving us a comment so we can all hear your thoughts and ideas…
Besides all the goodies we are offering to you, your subscription directly helps us maintain our simple life on Still Mountain so we can keep the lights on, food on the table and stay focused on writing and publishing this labor of Love!
Chinmayan teaching the Meditation Training Intensive Course
STILL MOUNTAIN DHARMA CENTER
INNER RESOURCE INSTITUTE
Authentic Meditation Training and Practical Spirituality
Stay Tuned for free upcoming programs and trainings for our subscribers and supporters of “The Dawning Light”
We are planning to launch our next “Meditation Training Intensive” course in the first months of 2024. When we set the dates and open this course for registration, we will announce the details in this newsletter first so that all of our “Dawning Light” friends will get first choice.
LEARN TO MEDITATE and DEVELOP YOUR OWN INNER SANCTUARY OF EVER GROWING AWARENESS, MINDFULNESS, PEACE and JOY!
Join with us in this very special course that will enthrall and inspire you while giving you absolutely everything you need to develop your own effective and soul satisfying personal meditation practice that you will love and want to do every day because of its blissful benefits….This course was created and is taught by Chinmayan, who was trained by some of the greatest meditation masters of our time…and who has taught authentic meditation and practical spiritual principles for forty years.
“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
—Wayne Dyer
“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” —Ram Das