Abundance through Gratitude

As we move into deep summer with the bright sunlight of July, our theme this month is Abundance. Our gardens are plentiful with vegetables, our trees are bearing fruits or greenery and our flowers blossoming. Indeed, this is in many ways the season of abundance! Each week this month we will focus on a different aspect of abundance. This first week, our focus is on gratitude as an aspect of abundance.In a sense it feels a bit odd to pair gratitude with anything, as it is certainly a stand — alone topic, a powerful topic in its own right. Gratitude is a Spiritual energy: it opens doors. As the old saying goes, "If you’re only going to say one prayer a day, let it be Thank you". This is the power of gratitude, It shifts us energetically from a lower energy to a higher one. How many times have you been in a funk, and had the experience of consciously shifting your focus onto something you felt grateful for (the flowers, the sunshine, your faithful dog), and that was the shift that got you loosened from your stuck spot? Gratitude carries an expansive energy, it lifts us up, lightens our load, reminds us that there is something more than whatever the difficulty is we are currently experiencing. Through this act of remembering, gratitude is a bridge between the places we get stuck within ourselves to the expansive energy of connecting with our higher power. Gratitude is a gentle reminder that we are not alone. And it is this very aspect of gratitude, it’s energetic lift through spiritual connection, that makes it the first step of abundance.Who among us does not want to live a life of abundance? That’s right, who would rather struggle than have our dreams come to us almost effortlessly? We want that, but how do we access it? Abundance begins with gratitude, that’s the first step. It’s an energetic shift to move away from focusing on what we want that’s out of our reach - I want that job, I need a new car mine’s falling apart, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, etc. And instead of this wanting, open our energy (mind and heart) to see, sense and feel more clearly what we already have (no matter our circumstances) that we are grateful for. This is the shift of gratitude. This changes EVERYTHING! It’s not easy at first, especially when we live in a society of consumerism. There are always more things to want, more goals to achieve, commercials and bill-boards enticing us to want even more than we thought we did. But take a minute and notice something, what is the energy of wanting that which is just out of reach? Close your eyes and breathe into it, that latest thing you’ve been lusting after, that new set of golf clubs, bike, car, style of dress, house, job, even medical care (it could be a need, not just a want). What do you notice in your body when you focus on that want? Where do you feel it? What does it feel like? … A tension, tightness, pain, churning? What emotion is connected to this sensation? … Fear, anger, frustration, shame? Wanting carries its own energy: a very different energy than gratitude.Now take a minute and experience the energy of gratitude. Stay with the energy of wanting, and let’s see what happens to it as we shift into gratitude. So there you are, in that very same situation in which there is this thing or circumstance that you want. Life hasn’t changed, other’s have more, and sometimes things are unfair. Perhaps you even have a need, something big and serious. It’s easy to get worked up and have negative thoughts, which create negative emotions and unpleasant energetic and / or physical sensations in our bodies, even illness. Yet right there, in the midst of all this unpleasantness, find one thing to focus on which you genuinely feel grateful for … the love of your spouse or your children, your connection with nature, that one kind person at work that brightens your day, the fact that you have food to eat, the roof over your head, your talents, whatever that thing is, begin now to focus on it. Close your eyes and bring up the image of this person place or thing in your mind’s eye, gently breathing in and out, feeling the energy of the gratitude that you are experiencing. Do this for a few minutes until you are really feeling the energy of gratitude? Notice where you are experiencing this energy in your body. What does it feel like … expansion, lightness, tingling, a softening? Or perhaps you see a color or more light rather than a sensation. Whatever that is for you, just notice it, and notice also what happens to that other energy of wanting as the expansive energy of gratitude fills you up.What you just experienced here in this brief little meditative exercise is the energetic shift of moving from a state of wanting what is out of reach to gratitude for what you have. What most people experience in this process is some form of tension created by the wanting, followed by a diminishment of that tension as the energy of expansion fills them with a sense of lightness or some other good feeling and emotion. The experience speaks for itself, and if you just practiced it, you need read no further. But for those of you who prefer concepts to experiences, or both, I will provide the concept.When we are in the state of neediness, focused on wanting what is out of reach, this creates a tension in our energy field and bodies, as well as projecting our thoughts that we can’t have what we want (because it is out of reach). In the world of energy, we are always working in the present moment: there is only now. Therefore, the consequences of focusing on what is out of reach, keeps those things always out of reach. Conversely, when we focus on the experience of being grateful for what we have, this creates an energetic opening, we relax energetically, physically and mentally. This relaxation in and of itself is healing. However, the gift goes on, because this practice of gratefulness opens the doorway to abundance in that the universe / God / Spirit responds to the opening we have created by flowing in and filling us with a higher vibration, the vibrational match to gratitude. Energetically, like attracts like, and we have just lifted our vibration by moving from want to gratitude. We are in a constant dialogue with the universe, everything around us is reading our energy and we are reading its energy (whether or not we are aware): there is a natural harmony to the universe. Therefore, when we shift to the open, expansive state of gratefulness, it is an open, expansive state that returns to us, fills us, surrounds us, and enfolds us. Now we are in the doorway of abundance, the door is open, we are in the flow.How we maintain that flow and build our consistency with abundance will be revealed in the coming weeks here at Sacred Healing Journey as we continue to explore the facets of abundance this month. Practice this week with abundance … notice daily, as often as you remember, the things which you are grateful for. You are welcome to practice with our meditation on abundance at sacredhealingjourney.com/meditation-workshops/ listen as often as you like, it’s free! Also pay attention to your energy, the cues from your body, shift out of tension and negative thought patterns effortlessly by using the gratitude exercise written above, keep a journal on gratefulness as well as noting shifts in yourself as you continue practicing and expanding your own energetic connection with gratitude.Lynn Bos, LCSWsacredhealingjourney.comfacebook.com/SacredHealingJourney/