walk into any yoga class and you’ve got a 50/50 chance the teacher will talk to you about being thankful (there’s only so many creative themes one can invoke). inviting gratitude into your life, appreciating everything you have and understanding there’s a reason for everything you don’t. this time of year even the mightiest of capitalists sell you gratitude.
you may think one is whacky and the other one greedy, but both yoga instructor and vp of marketing don’t deserve judgement. whether we’re being reminded through a 50 foot billboard or heart opening postures, we should be grateful the world is whispering words of appreciation. by being thankful we’re doing ourselves a favor – studies show (like a zillion of them) how important gratitude is to our personal happiness. if you’re happy with what you have, aren’t you just plain happy? you’re not grasping, seeking, constantly looking around for something better. chances are you’ve started to look in, finding instead of seeking – and there’s quite the difference.
everyone you’ve met has been placed in your life for a reason. perhaps they walked into your life to give you love, or perhaps they came in to teach you some very important lessons. so be grateful to those people. they may have hurt you, they may have caused you indescribable aching and sadness, but it’s the holiday season! try and be thankful for everything they showed you you were capable of – aren’t you that much stronger today?
your spirit also has a powerful effect on everyone who’s life you’ve entered as well. you may have been that lover, you may have been the one to cause pain. don’t feel guilty and don’t feel shame, we all need teachers – but we should strive to be teachers of love, compassion, and empowerment. these lesson-gifts are always much nicer to give and receive 😉
be grateful for pain, for all your scars, and for the beautiful moment in which your physical self was born to be shared with this earth. we need you.
but certainly be grateful to all the tiny little moments where you closed your eyes and felt “this is it. this is existence”. the picture above is extremely powerful for me. it was a moment when i was surrounded by pure and absolute love. there was nothing tainting it, nothing being stolen. that waterfall was gratitude pouring down. a circular rainbow surrounded us moments after that photo was taken. that moment solidified my resolve to ink a circle inside my left ankle. the girls in the picture with me solidified my understanding of what ‘family’ means. many different families from many different moments. family is love, in any combination or permutation.
thank you for sharing your moments reading this, you’re my family too 🙂
arielleyoga 