Living in a high state of gratitude

This was the theme of our summer retreat which has just happened.  Here I would like to share, especially for those that were on the retreat but also to benefit anyone else who is reading this, some of the practices and research.

We contemplated the statement;  Your brain takes its shape from what your mind rests upon.

Knowing that where attention goes energy flows we took a few moments to ask the question, where has my mind been resting this week?  Perhaps you might like to write this question in your journal and see what spills out onto your page. A good question to ask at the end of each day.

We talked about the fact that we are energetic beings  and that everything is energy vibrating at different frequencies.  For us to live in a high state of gratitude we need to raise our frequency to match that of the abundant universe we are part of.

How do we cultivate a high state of gratitude?

We must take time to develop our spiritual practice, like any muscle, it needs to be used and exercised to grow.

Gratitude is a state of consciousness and is everywhere all around us in the universe we live in.  It it filled with joy, love, peace, harmony and so much more, what it needs are instruments to come through and we are those instruments so we need to up our wattage to be able to take these higher vibrations, then we can become the expression of gratitude.

“The universe corresponds to the nature of your song.”  Michael Beckwith

Firstly we need to accept, right here right now there is nothing missing.  We don’t need to pray for more love, joy or harmony we need to become it, let it flow through us.  Acceptance also that life offers challenges, they keep us grounded!  It’s the resilience that we build up to deal with the challenges and how we bounce back that is important.

Knowing also that we have choice, we have free will and therefore it is our choice whether we choose to live this way.  What might stop us practising gratitude? usually our emotions will do it, those days when you just don’t feel like it because it is all too hard and really, does it even work?! Feeling into our emotional state of being and choosing if we are going to let our emotions  drive us and therefore lose power to them.  Emotions usually come and go within a few seconds to minutes so if we can recognise that and feel them, take what we need from them and act accordingly we can keep ourselves much clearer.

The express highway to living in a high state of gratitude is to practice mindfulness and meditation and with a Dru meditation course you will learn energy management techniques in the form of the prana kriyas that do this amazingly.  Also knowing the Dru EBR sequences (energy block release) is a fast track process to clearing the emotional blocks we accumulate in everyday living and creating a channel for higher frequencies to come through.

I have a course of Dru meditation for beginners course starting next week, Tuesday evening from 6pm to 7.30pm for eight weeks, see www.highaspirations.com.au for details and to book.

You will also learn how to deeply relax your body and this too is a vital step to creating a clear channel.  We need to anchor these positive emotions of love, joy, harmony, peace into uncluttered fields.  We need to get out of our heads and into our hearts and wow, you will feel such a difference you will wonder why it took you so long to take time out for yourself.  I love this question posed by Rumi;

“Do you make regular visits to yourself?”

I also shared on retreat the work of Dr Barbara Frederickson, distinguished professor at the university of North Carolina who has won many awards for her research work into positive psychology.  Check out her website and access resources at www.positivityresonance.com

Her research reveals how micro moments of love and other forms of positivity deeply nourish our health, wisdom and longevity.  The more we connect the more we are uplifted in our emotions.  So the good news is you don’t have to go and sit in the Himalayas for years to gain the benefits of meditation, you can do it right here and now by connecting to your heart and taking some deep breaths, closing your eyes and being fully present.

The more we practice these moments the more we start to build some resilience and Dr Frederickson’s research shows that:

• practising gratitude and loving kindness helps people feel more connected
• by building this resilience we bounce back quicker when we have to face challenges
• builds cardiac vagal tone –  the hearts plasticity is strengthened
• cardio vasular function in improved
• living tissue of the heart becomes stronger and healthier
• boosts the immune system
• reduces imflamation
• balances glucose levels

So who wouldn’t want more of those benefits?  Let’s get out of our heads and more connected to our hearts and one thing you can do right now is to journal and free up some space.  Here are some questions to get you started, write about:

1. What I enjoyed today
2. What I found nice to hear this week
3. People who helped me recently
4. Family members I am glad to have around
5. The best thing about my festive season was
6. What did you do “just for you” this week
7. A surprise for me this week was
8. This friend sent me a nice message this week
9. Something that is always there that is comforting
10. Touching moments this week
11. I spent a wonderful hour doing ………… this week
12. Reflect on when you felt really connected to others this week
13. How could you build on that feeling of connectedness to others?

Well that will keep you going for a while, building some heart connectedness and next post I will give you a process for embodying gratitude.

Have a wonderful week and please pass this post on if you found it useful.

Namaste

Sarah