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Gratitude and Thanks-Giving

by Kevin F. Murray

‘If the only prayer you ever said in your life was "thank you," that would suffice.’
-Meister Eckhart

Our beliefs about abundance or lack create our experiences of abundance or lack. Similarly, our thoughts, words and actions either attract abundance or reinforce lack. This makes it valuable to pay attention to our current practices of giving, receiving and thanks-giving. Whether or not we are conscious of these practices, we have them. As we observe ourselves in this way, we see old, ingrained habits. Seeing these habitual ways of being sheds light on underlying beliefs. When we become aware of the underlying beliefs, and the distortion in them, we reclaim personal power to make new choices versus repeating old, unconscious patterns. We begin to respond in new ways when the opportunity for gratitude and thanks-giving is in front of us (this chance happens in every moment.) Our new responses come from deeper, more authentic parts of ourselves.

When we speak of abundance or lack, we can experience these across all parts of our lives. We can feel them in finances, health and our most intimate relationships. The same core beliefs can show up in many places, each pointing back to the same source belief.

In this season of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah we have a wonderful opportunity to increase awareness and practice new levels of gratitude. Look at your current practices of giving thanks and being grateful. How do you give thanks? How grateful do you feel? How often, to whom, and for what do you give thanks? In this holiday season, there is an invitation to express our appreciation in action. We are invited to be grateful to be alive. We may also be grateful for things, and stuff and situations, but the root is simply gratitude for life itself.

Please take some time with these questions. Create a Gratitude Journal and recreate your relationship to gratitude and thanks-giving. Please share your answers and thoughts. Imagine a group of us sharing ways that we are grateful; in thought, word and action. Imagine being inspired and challenged by each other to go beyond our current practices to greater levels and experiences of gratitude. A group teleconference program will begin in early 2008 where we will explore and challenge each other in this way. This program will provide tremendous support, accountability and energy for anything that you are truly willing to create, be, have or do in your life. Please email your thoughts to me at kevin@earthandlight.com and let me know if you’d like to hear more about the group teleconference program.

Three levels of Gratitude:

As you continue to work with gratitude, notice the different levels or types of energy associated with different expressions of gratitude. There are an infinite number of ways to be grateful, but here are 3 categories that can give some structure for your personal experimenting with gratitude:

• Specific Gratitude
• Non-Specific Gratitude
• Gratitude in Action

Specific Gratitude
I am grateful for my car.
I am thankful for my wife.
These are usually past-based, based on something we already have, usually in physical form. Often Specific Gratitude is expressed in words out loud.

Non-Specific Gratitude
I am grateful
I am grateful for Life
I am so happy to be alive
I feel grateful
This is more of a feeling, an emotional quality. At another level it is just the feeling without words.

Gratitude in Action
This could be politeness, holding a door for someone
Common Courtesy
A smile, a thank you, a prayer for someone
This could be how we perform our work, as an act of service, as an expression of gratitude for all we receive.

All forms of gratitude will attract more good into our life. Experiment in your life to see the relative attracting power of these different types.

Another great practice for your gratitude journal is to keep track of Good News. When we are grateful and looking for good news, i.e. evidence of abundance, we are likely to find it. Just as people who are convinced of “not enough” will get a parking ticket, or an overdue bill to give them evidence to corroborate their beliefs. Which beliefs do you want active in your life? You do get to decide.

‘A grateful mind is a great mind that eventually attracts to it great things.’- Plato

Kevin F. Murray is a Life Mastery Dreamer and Teacher. Kevin is the founder and President of Sebago Energy Conservation Corp. and principal of EarthLight Consulting. Kevin can be reached at kevin@earthandlight.com

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