During my trip to India I visited many temples and watched with ever widening eyes their sacred pujas (ceremonies). Bells, chanting, incense, candles, milk offerings, and 100‘s of bodies pressed together like sardines just to catch a fleeting glimpse of the puja. To watch the Indian people at these pujas was incredible. The depth of their presence, their offerings they gave and the physical prostrations astounded me. They did not just bow their head, they lay belly down, in full surrender on the cold stone floors in front of altars, shrines and murtis to prostrate at the feet of the Gods. The humility and gratefulness was so alive in their being that they would spend their own food money to buy a coconut and banana basket and give it as an offering to Spirit. Their devotion and love is something I will always remember when I come to my altar with gratitude in my heart.
The Gratitude Project~
Six years ago I was suffering from a deep loss. A friend and life coach of mine suggested that I start a gratitude journal. I did so reluctantly. I began writing down my blessings sometimes in the midst of a gut wrenching sob I could feel a fiery and willful place inside me would help me to push the pen across the page. I sat for 5 minutes a day for the next 6 months and recorded all the things i was grateful for. I recall one of my earliest entries, “I am grateful for this breath...” because that is all the light I could find. Turns out that breathing is one of the most profound gifts I have ever received.
After two months I had many pages filled with events, people and situations that appeared in my life for which I was grateful for. Even challenges in my life began to show up in my entries as counted blessings. I remember at about 3 months I read through my journal and was astonished that I had actually forgotten that half of it had ever happened. How often have I not only forgot to acknowledge the blessings but even forgot that they even happened?! Well, the proof was right there! And, to see it all in writing, the pages of support in the numerous ways I was gifted completely shocked me. Not only that, but i noticed a pattern. The things that I was grateful for over time began to increase and magnify in my life. The act of channeling my thoughts, speech and actions toward the blessings not only eased my suffering but opened the flood gates of creative energy so much that a new venture emerged that would support me and my family.
The gratitude project had a profound impact in my life and it has stayed with me. In difficult times I acknowledge the simple blessings present here and now, and align my heart with my deepest truth. That the light inside of us is bright, unwavering and indestructible and always shows me the way out of the dark cave of my mind and into the light of my heart.
Namaste on this Thanksgiving Day,
Sienna
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