The hardest thing for me to get past is injustice to people around me. I can swallow most anything that happens to me, but I stumble a bit when someone I care for is hurting.
I'm with Brother David, Gratitude can change the world when we understand that it is synonymous with love. I'm sharing that message, one day and one small change at a time.
Gratitude has become more like a conscious choice than a feeling for me over the years. I’ve realized it’s not an emotion like fear or grief, which have physiological roots. It’s a choice to say yes, I accept what’s happened in my life, and I choose to be at peace with it.
The obstacles for me are resistance, which is my basic fear of change, which can then slip into resentment, where I get angry and blaming, wanting someone else to be responsible for what’s happened in my life.
I did a retreat with the great peace activist Joanna Macy. I had thought she would be someone motivated by outrage. But in her opening remarks she said the first thing we will work on is gratitude, which is about coming to terms with everything that has happened in our lives. If we can’t get there, we can’t be fully present in this moment, and in that case, she said, ‘you’re no good to me.’
One?? Dear lord, there are too many to name or to pick just one. Falling prey to any of the obstacles to practicing gratitude is probably my biggest obstacle!
The hardest thing for me to get past is injustice to people around me. I can swallow most anything that happens to me, but I stumble a bit when someone I care for is hurting.
I'm with Brother David, Gratitude can change the world when we understand that it is synonymous with love. I'm sharing that message, one day and one small change at a time.
❤️
Self-pity. It tends to be transmuted simply by being recognized. Called out for what it is.
Ah, yes . . .
For me, when my mind wanders back to being judgmental, gratitude flies out the window. That's why I need to be grounded, so to speak, in The Raft.
Love your happy mixing of metaphors! And I so relate!
Loneliness gets in my way. Making an effort to connect with people helps especially if I can help them in some way.
Practice is a symbiosis between effort and acceptance, isn’t it?
Gratitude has become more like a conscious choice than a feeling for me over the years. I’ve realized it’s not an emotion like fear or grief, which have physiological roots. It’s a choice to say yes, I accept what’s happened in my life, and I choose to be at peace with it.
The obstacles for me are resistance, which is my basic fear of change, which can then slip into resentment, where I get angry and blaming, wanting someone else to be responsible for what’s happened in my life.
I did a retreat with the great peace activist Joanna Macy. I had thought she would be someone motivated by outrage. But in her opening remarks she said the first thing we will work on is gratitude, which is about coming to terms with everything that has happened in our lives. If we can’t get there, we can’t be fully present in this moment, and in that case, she said, ‘you’re no good to me.’
That moment changed my life.
Bill, this comment is dharma. You speak my heart-mind. And I’m engaging in the same practice. Thank you for letting us walk together.
(And I bless Joanna Macy.)
One?? Dear lord, there are too many to name or to pick just one. Falling prey to any of the obstacles to practicing gratitude is probably my biggest obstacle!
Be gentle with yourself, my friend. 😉