January 6th, 2023
Hello, hello! Time to wake up!
If you were to list out specific moments or incidents in your life that provided an onramp to spiritual awakening, what might be on there? The death of a loved one? A retreat or a workshop? A trip to a foreign country? How about a sales seminar? Long shot…. But there I was, sitting in a financial sales seminar some ten years ago. I was apprehensive to even attend to begin with since I envisioned some flashy smooth talker in a suit who would be there more for himself than those attending. Moments to wake up are abound though! No flashy salesman. No suit. More along the lines of a small British man in his 40s with a good sense of humor, an accent that was easy on the ears, and a gift for storytelling. One of the concepts that he rolled out concerned how once he began making a gratitude list each morning to start his day, the whole game changed. The list would include ten items, per day. A typical page has the date followed by the open ended phrase ‘I am grateful for…’, followed by ten items.
I can’t tell you about much else I gleaned from that week of sales training, but the grateful list exercise has been with me since I walked out the door that day. I’ve since filled a stack of notebooks with my daily offerings.
Not every wake up method is all-encompassing and works unanimously, or universally. However, I do feel that an attitude of gratitude is one of the secret passages through a challenging life. That more people don’t lean on it surprises me. Perhaps it’s too simple? Too boring? Perhaps it’s too difficult. The reasons are lost on me, but the concept is not. If we are grateful, it somehow cuts through a lot of the melodrama and the thickness we tend to layer on everything. Being grateful almost changes the color of the picture we are painting. It subtly works within the ripples of the day to remind us that we have enough. If you are grateful for all you have than it becomes very difficult to lack. When we start to acknowledge the relationships, the health, the bed, the roof, the food, the cars, and the electricity, we take an objective view of how full our cup actually is. When we internally verify that full cup, we are reminded that we are missing much less than our friend the EGO might have us believe. From there, we are partially released from the dream, maybe. A state of mind that is released from wanting anything is on a fast track to happiness and joy. What’s left when we don’t want anything? It reminds me of a quote:
“Not wanting something is as good as having it.”
Human beings are wired to always want something else, namely the next thought. When we aren’t operating in the present, we are one thought or need away from happiness now. When we’re grateful and mindful of that gracious space, we strip back the layers and ‘enough’ emerges. Abundance emerges. Aahhh…..I have enough! I’m so grateful to have enough of what I actually need. What a blessing indeed.
Peace and love to all beings,
Jesse