Amazing, isn’t it, how when we pine for something, we feel a sense of longing and need so deeply.
Feeling the absence of some thing, we imagine what it would be like to have it. We picture all that we would do, and how grateful we would feel, if it came to pass…please!
And then it does.
How long does it take us to flip the switch? Once our mini-prayers are answered, how much time passes before we move on to the next thing? How long before we start taking that desperately-important-thing for granted?
Most of the time we move on too fast, falling into the trap of quickly switching off our gratitude.
Imagine if we stopped—really stopped—to notice.
We would be constantly overwhelmed with gratitude, not just for the new things that we discover are missing for us today, but for the wonder of this next breath, for the chance to see a sky this particular shade of blue, for the sight of a loved one’s smile and bright eyes.
Gratitude is one of our most important, foundational practices.
A simple, powerful meditation you can try is to sit, breathe and contemplate the things for which you feel grateful. Imagine and visualize your heart opening, and it does.
If don’t have a meditation practice, have no fear. Gratitude is there for you at any moment.
All you need to do is stop a bit more often to notice things around you, and then allow yourself to direct your conscious attention to your feelings of gratitude before they slip away.
We certainly don’t need big things to feel grateful.
But when even the big things we so desperately want don’t sustain our sense of gratitude, it’s time to pause, notice and reset.
Gratitude makes all the difference. Something I wrote recently: http://lowtwopair.com/from-a-perspective-of-gratitude/