the gift of gratitude
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity.”
Melody Beattie’s words are important to keep close to our hearts and in our minds as we navigate another festive season in the midst of a pandemic. We can either let the uncertainty rule us with sadness, anger and frustration, or take this opportunity to focus on the goodness in our lives. A life led with gratitude is a life more fulfilled.
This has been a challenging year for most, with the recent COVID variant wreaking havoc on our shores once again. We all have our own pandemic stories – some of loss, some of loneliness, some of sorrow, family and milestones missed. Once again this year, as we look forward to coming together with loved ones, the timing couldn’t be worse – it’s as if Santa has put coal in all of our stockings, again! It can be hard to keep moral up at what is such an isolating time.
Let yourself feel those feelings, don’t suppress them as they are there for a reason. Through the pain, through the hardship, that is where the growth happens. Life ebbs and flows, it needs balance, the ying and the yang. Without feeling sadness, without experiencing hardship, the happy times wouldn’t be so sweet – opposites attract, we need one to feel the other.
However, whatever your situation is this Christmas, adopting a practice of gratitude will help you to accept, embrace and find peace. Practicing gratitude can be transformative. What we think has the power to change how we experience life. By simply starting the day with positive thoughts and celebrating the simpler joys in life throughout – like your child saying ‘milk’ for the first time, finding shelter just as the clouds open, the stillness of the forest on a morning walk – we create a happier reality for ourselves. We live our lives through our thoughts, and by looking for the goodness in life, instead of noticing the bad, over time we weave a beautiful web that enables us to focus more on the positive, to focus on the joy, and better able to accept and cope in the harder times.
Not only that, research has shown the effects practicing gratitude can have on our mind and body. A daily gratitude practice can improve your feeling of self-worth, the immune system, sleep, ability to feel joy and remain optimistic, reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation and improve relationships.
Living my life with gratitude has changed everything. My practice came off the back of navigating the more challenging situations life can bestow upon us, but for those I am grateful – without them my journey would have looked very different, and much less fulfilling. Life is fragile, and my experiences took me out of my head for long enough to realise how fortunate we are just to be alive. I realised how negatively I’d been living a life that was, in fact, full of joy. It is also at the heart of the yogic practice I so adore, with Edwin Bryant’s translated version of The Yoga Sutras of Patajanli expressing the concept beautifully - “true happiness comes from a deep contentment with whatever one has, not with thinking that one will be happy when one gets all that one desires.”
Every morning now when I wake up, and every evening as I’m going to sleep, I go through all the things I am grateful for in life. They aren’t money, status or things. They are people, connection, love, health. My son, my sunshine. My husband, my rock and my cheerleader. Our warm home that we are so privileged to be building together. My health, and that of my family. They are simple, but the most important things in life always are. That’s not to say I don’t have off days, sad days, the occasional woe-is-me, but they are fewer and further between. The more I practice gratitude, the more they become a thing of the past.
So this Christmas, if the times are getting the better of you, acknowledge what you are grateful for other than gifts. Start your practice by noticing the little luxuries in everyday life – your morning brew being the perfect temperature, the warmth of sitting by a crackling fire, your hot shower or your cosy bed, being with a partner instead of alone - simple things. And if you’re separated from loved ones remember that Christmas is just a day, the decorations are only temporary. The love and magic of family is there every day, and even having that in itself is something to be grateful for.
There is so much happiness and joy in life, but we have to open our eyes to see it, to feel it, to touch it. Gratitude will do that for you.
With love, light and good health through the holidays,
YOGI MA
