学习资料库
Gratitude is key
5 Pillars of Ashtanga Yoga
Posture chart for the Ashtanga Yoga Second Series
Meditation is Simple
Green Affirmations of the Yamas & Niyamas by Clayton Horton
Posture chart for the Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series
Sankalpa Part 2
Change Your Life with Yoga Nidra
Famous Yoga Invocations 2
Standing Poses
Famous Yoga Invocations
Mind Over Mindfulness
Improve your back-bends
Esoteric asana names
Animal wisdom
The headstand
Sivananda
The Goraksha Samhita
How to classify yoga poses
The Gheranda Samhita
Yoga is not for me
Paschimottananasa adjustment
If nothing matters
Is your practice working?
Push it real good
Yoga for everyone
The path of the student
What is Yoga?
Sankalpa or yogic resolution
The Human Spirit
Your complexion and yoga
Yoga Here and Now...
Ahimsa for Earth
Yoga & Digestive Disorders
Pranayama
The Mysore Style Practice
How yoga helps arthritis
Avoiding injury in yoga practice
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Gratitude is key
I recently watched the movie, Pursuit of Happiness. I was reminded of some earlier experiences in my life, where I was literally brought to my knees. It was in this low that the greatest lesson came to me, to be fully grateful. A song does say "the things we most need to learn are the things we rarely choose". How true! So life puts us into situations; For the only way to truly learn is through direct experience. Since that low I open my day and practices with an offering of thanks, gratitude.
Gratitude is the seed for compassion and humility. To say thanks or repeat it in your head will cut little ground. It must be felt. It must become part of your make-up. Part of your vibration. That is why so often we have to learn this through situations where it is directly experienced and goes right through us, becomes part of us.
When you genuinely feel thanks it means you have fully looked at your life and all you have. You appreciate everything. Just to have this day, to wake up with our health and what we have to do is a gift in itself. What right have we to go outside with a gloomy face, exporting our self-inflicted issues on everyone else. Cleanse yourself immediately of this woe, of this stagnant energy, through genuine heartfelt thanks of all that is in your life. How can we not but feel light and happy. Our heart can't be free until we feel this. This is the source for inspiration to come.
Do we see the thorns or the flowers? Is the glass half empty or half full? How we look at everything in life is indicative of what is going on in our system, energetically speaking. Try to observe your response and actions to all situations in your life. How negative or positive are they? You can cultivate a positive attitude right at the start of your day. The beginning of any activity is crucial and thus this day even more so. Genuinely feel it, make time for it, sit and offer thanks. Let the positive energy start to flow and affect the rest of your day.
If we have really acknowledged all we have and feel genuine appreciation for our lives, we can direct this positive attitude towards others. In other words compassion will more naturally flow from us. To put yourself in another's shoes, to do unto others as you would want done to yourself is a key principle of life and inherent in all yoga. From a real place of gratitude your heart is opening to feel others, offer love to others and to help others. What more is there to life?
Nothing can grow unless there is a base of humility existing within an individual. You don't cultivate humility by trying to be humble, rather by forgetting yourself, doing what has to be done. Your desires come later. A genuine offering of thanks must come from a humble place and in turn will help cultivate more humility.
The latest James Bond film bizarrely offered some sage advice, so much so I had to write it down - "never does arrogance go hand in had with being careful". Of course it came out of the mouth of M. Awareness, the key to all personal development, cannot grow without humility, which is based on a foundation of gratitude. Take it on in your life.
Simply put, gratitude is a great purifier. Without gratitude how can one be ready to receive? Inspiration is something that comes to us; we open up and receive it. We don't develop it from our intelligence or skill set. We simply step aside, let ego take a back seat. Start by being thankful, grow compassion and humility. Your system is ready then to receive those moments of inspiration. Such gifts come to those truly thankful at all moments in life. Everyone is thankful for a big gift but what about each moment? This is where it begins and in time the fruits of inspiration and so on come to the aspirant.
You have to make a concerted effort to put gratitude in your life. You can see the wisdom in this now or wait for a hard knock situation in life to teach it. Either way it is a universal principle that can't be avoided. The great study on water crystals by Masaru Emoto revealed for him the importance of gratitude. The crystal formed from the words 'love and gratitude' was the most perfect, with gratitude being the larger part (two-thirds). The world and humans are predominantly water based. The physical evidence emphatically states this simple message, that gratitude has the power to change us and the world. Why would we not want that?
Start each day with this practice. After rising and cleansing take time to sit still for a few minutes. Steady yourself and your breath. Then, as if there is nothing else so important in the world than this conversation at this moment, start to offer thanks from your heart. Acknowledge all that you have, feel genuine appreciation. Offer thanks. A few minutes of this at the start of everyday will profoundly change your life. Then let it continue throughout the day. When you eat, when you arrive at work, when you get home, when something happens. Just notice that inner dialogue. But feel it. Do not broadcast it. It is a private intimate detail. The power lies in the personal nature of it. Though I spend many hours every morning in yoga and meditative practices without this key of gratitude I know for certain my life would not be what it is today.
Thank you.
Paul Dallaghan
2018-12-22