 This week in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Although we collectively set aside one day a year to give thanks, we can choose to give thanks every day, and cultivate gratitude as a spiritual practice. ---------------------- I first came across Jack Kornfield through his book A Path with Heart. His writings taught me about the Buddhist practice of Loving-Kindness. Years later, I sat with him and deepened my practice in days-long meditation at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California. As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year in the United States, I would like to share with you one of his meditations on gratitude and joy. In the midst of the hustle and bustle activity that many of us often find ourselves in the holiday season, my intention is that this meditation offer you a space for reflection, restoration and renewal. Gratitude provides an opening for you to connect with your interior space. When you expand into a greater state of gratitude, you begin to realize the infinite ways that you are loved and supported. My suggestion is that you read each sentence, either quietly or out loud, and then allow some moments of silence to let the words sink in. If you’d like, you can repeat the sentence. Let the words expand your awareness of the interconnections of all of life. And when you are finished, simply breathe and be open to receive. Whether or not you realize it, life continues to bestow its blessings, and all you need do is open to receive. Abundant Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving. ---------------------- A Meditation on Gratitude and Joy by Jack Kornfield Let yourself sit quietly and at ease. Allow your body to be relaxed and open, your breath natural, your heart easy. Begin the practice of gratitude by feeling how year after year you have cared for your own life. Now let yourself begin to acknowledge all that has supported you in this care: With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day. With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me. I offer my gratitude for the safety and well-being I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the blessing of this earth I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the measure of health I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the community I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given. Continue to breathe gently. Bring to mind someone you care about, someone it is easy to rejoice for. Picture them and feel the natural joy you have for their well-being, for their happiness and success. With each breath, offer them your grateful, heartfelt wishes: May you be joyful. May your happiness increase. May you not be separated from great happiness. May your good fortune and the causes for your joy and happiness increase. Sense the sympathetic joy and caring in each phrase. When you feel some degree of natural gratitude for the happiness of this loved one, extend this practice to another person you care about. Recite the same simple phrases that express your heart’s intention. Then gradually open the meditation to include neutral people, difficult people, and even enemies until you extend sympathetic joy to all beings everywhere, young and old, near and far. Practice dwelling in joy until the deliberate effort of practice drops away and the intentions of joy blend into the natural joy of your own wise heart. Source: https://jackkornfield.com/meditation-gratitude-joy/  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Decorations of ghosts and vampires pop up on windows and doors. Chocolate and all things sweet and delicious tease you as you walk through the store aisles. And scary movies on tv lure you to the couch to curl up with a big bowl of popcorn. But there's one thing about Halloween that makes it extra fun: COSTUMES! On Halloween, you get to dress up however you want. In the past, I've been a devil, a marathon runner, and even a sexy witch! Halloween is a time where you get to revel in your creativity, and you witness the creativity of others in their choices of costumes. Looking at it this way, you can look at Halloween as a spiritual practice, or maybe an annual spiritual ritual. You have an infinite number of choices for what you want to look like for Halloween. Do you want to be a ghost? A vampire? Or do you want to put some cat ears on your head? Maybe this year you don't want to dress up. The only thing that can limit you is your own imagination and your saying yes to the creative spark within you. You see, Halloween may be only once a year, but it gives you a lesson that you can apply every day for the rest of the year. Every day, you get to choose who you want to be, and how you want to show up.
The spiritual lesson in all of this is that you are always at choice. There's a lot of energy that goes into what you want to be for Halloween. What if you can use some of that energy and channel it into what kind of life you want to live, and what kind of world you want to create? And here's the key to having a great Halloween and a spiritually fulfilling life. Do you want to know what it is? Lean in because this is the secret of the Universe right here... HAVE FUN! Yes, have fun! Having fun, living in joy and from a place of fulfillment are all part of a daily spiritual practice I encourage you to embrace. For your coaching assignment for this week, the task is simple. Have fun! And if you do decide to dress up for Halloween, be a little audacious and try on something outrageous that you may have never considered wearing before. Halloween is special in that it's a day where you have permission to step out of the box, and people love you all the more when you express your boldness. Abundant Blessings and Happy Halloween! ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. A little about me... My unique ability is helping people figure out what’s really holding them back and to fully support them in a safe and sacred space, with the result of people feeling excited about life and believing they can claim the driver’s seat of their lives. I've been called the "Aha Whisperer." If you’re feeling the need for support in creating a life filled with more spaciousness, purpose and joy, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation that may provide you with the insight and resources you need in this moment. To learn more about this, click here.  Have you ever decided to make a change in your life and then, for whatever reason, found it really hard to make the change long-lasting? If your answer is yes, you're not alone. When I work with my clients who want to create a new habit, one of the metaphors I often use is a rocket ship blasting off from planet earth into outer space. In the language of metaphor, imagine you are the rocket, and outer space represents the destination of your new habit. In order for the rocket to make it to outer space, it needs enough fuel and energy to get it going. At what stage do you think the rocket uses most of its fuel? If you guessed at the very beginning, you are absolutely correct. In the very first few seconds and in that first minute, the rocket needs to expend enough fuel to counter the force of gravity that keeps it on planet earth. Gravity is strong, and so a lot of fuel and energy are needed. Sometimes it seems like the rocket might not even be moving at all, even though all the work of fiery power and billowing smoke is present. But then, at some point, the rocket moves an inch. Then it moves a foot. And then it moves a few yards. Soon enough, the rocket gains momentum and moves with more seeming ease into the sky. The rocket blasting into outer space is an apt analogy for when you move to create a new habit for yourself. When you decide you want to create a new habit in your life, you’re charting a new destination (outer space) for yourself. The new habit could be meditating for 10 minutes every morning, or eating more vegetables in every meal, or cleaning out your email inbox at the start and end of each day, or going to one networking event each week to meet new people, or whatever you choose. After you decide on your new habit, your next step is to start taking action. This is where the energy and fuel are needed. Say you decide to meditate for 10 minutes every morning. The action could be you setting your alarm to wake up 10 minutes earlier and you sitting down somewhere comfortably where you won’t fall back asleep. As you sit in meditation, monkey mind can show up and attempt to distract you. “Go back to your comfy bed,” it says. “Why don’t you just start tomorrow?” Yet, you persevere and stay committed to finish the whole 10 minutes. Your perseverance and your staying committed are your initial fuel being expended, keeping you focused and on track to the destination of a new habit of meditation. As you continue this new activity of getting up and meditating each morning, there are moments it might feel extra challenging as other distractions show up. “I already meditated for the last 3 days. I deserve a break for this one day!” you might tell yourself. Or, “I have an early morning meeting to get to, and I won’t have time for the morning meditation,” could be another thought that pops into your head. You might have a co-worker that you told about your new pursuit, and they say to you, “Gosh, that sounds so hard. I can never do that!” And what your co-worker said makes you wonder whether your morning meditation is worth it in the first place. All of these distractions, whether they’re your own thoughts or what other people tell you, are a symbol of the gravity wanting to keep you from rising, to remain on planet earth so that you stay within the boundaries of the person you’ve always been. Your ego wants you to be the safe and secure person who doesn’t change up your routine. The ego thinks going into outer space is scary and unknown. In its own way, the ego is trying to protect you. The people in your life who question why you’re making any changes also like you for who they think you are. When you start to make changes to your life for the better, your efforts nudge others to look at their own lives and wonder why they aren’t making any changes themselves. Comfortability and playing it safe are like gravity, exerting its own force to keep you in place. That’s why you need to keep exerting energy in the direction of your vision, despite any distractions, even if it looks like you’re not going anywhere. Eventually, like the rocket, you’ll move an inch. The meditation becomes easier and ten minutes seem to fly by. Then you’ll move a foot. You start looking forward to your meditation and starting off your day this way. You’ll move a few yards. You can’t imagine not doing your meditation. You might even think about making it fifteen minutes instead of ten. And soon enough, you’ll have created enough momentum so that you’re soaring into outer space, on to your destination. With all this being said, I’m not making the argument that creating a new habit means it will be challenging and difficult for you. Creating a new habit could actually be fun, easy and effortless. What I am saying is, if you do happen to encounter those rough spots where it might seem easier to turn back to your old way of being, know that there’s a payoff when you keep on going. And the payoff isn’t just creating a new habit that now serves you. The payoff is also you expanding your own sense of what’s possible for you, because your sphere of what you believe you are equal to (known as your comfort zone) is now expanded. When you expand your sense of who you are, you create room in your consciousness for more good to show up. Your sphere of possibility has grown. Just as the rocket ship eventually moves with greater ease in space, you too get to experience a greater sense of spaciousness. So my coaching question for you today is this: what new habit are you open to creating in your life? Then, like the rocket, chart your course and blast away! Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. A little about me... My unique ability is helping people figure out what’s really holding them back and to fully support them in a safe and sacred space, with the result of people feeling excited about life and believing they can claim the driver’s seat of their lives. I've been called the "Aha Whisperer." If you’re feeling the need for support in creating a life filled with more spaciousness, purpose and joy, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation that may provide you with the insight and resources you need in this moment. To learn more about this, click here. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Popular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. Archives
September 2019
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