Present Moment Attitude of Gratitude

My life is filled with sublime experiences...

even the everyday occurrences...

That is from the Daily Word for August 23: Present Moment.

The present moment for me lately has been:

• the moment I walk out of my house and see the flowers in our pots
• the moment I return home and am greeted with those same flowers in our pots
• the moment each morning when I see the beautiful blue morning glories
• the moment at Unity when I accomplish a new skill in the Constant Contact applications
  (thanks to Rebecca's training)
• the moment when I look across the living room and see my two doggies asleep on their pillows

Like most of us, I can list a lot of things I am grateful for. However, I also understand this concept:

Each of us has absolute dominion over our own thoughts and feelings. You can teach yourself to feel gratitude no matter what circumstance you find yourself in. You can choose gratitude. You don't have to feel grateful for anything. Just be grateful.

That is from Unity's Gratitude and Grace booklet I was referring to last week. There is a three-step process outlined in the essay "Grateful for Nothing" that shows us how to become grateful for nothing.

• First, list in your journal whatever you're grateful for.
• Second, notice how gratitude feels in your mind and body as you journal. Do this for several days.
• Third, invest some time generating the feeling of gratitude without the need for a reason. This gratitude is unconditional gratitude. It is not subject to outer things, events or people.

This "is a useful tool whenever you feel yourself sliding into undesirable states of unconsciousness such as fear, anger and guilt."

So in addition to the moments I list above, I am choosing to adopt an attitude of gratitude all the time. Like when I was driving to a doctor's appointment last week and got caught up in traffic, I had the opportunity to be grateful - not for something - but just to be grateful. When the summer heat gets to me, I take the opportunity to feel grateful - not for something - but just to be grateful.

This is how I want to show up in the world.

~ JEAN

Gratitude Walk

Gratitude and Grace is the most recent booklet I received from Unity. Even if I'm not sure I resonate with the booklets that Unity offers, I always send away for them.

This booklet arrived at about the time I was grousing a lot about the heat and humidity and everything else in my life - If you've read much by me you know that summer is my fourth favorite season.

Slouching around in my house, in the air conditioning and fans, it dawned on me that I needed an attitude adjustment. I turned to Gratitude and Grace and began to read. I read it cover to cover. There's quite a lot in the booklet but during this read through I was especially struck by the article almost at the end called "The Many Ways to Practice Gratitude." I was especially taken with the paragraph that read:

"Taking gratitude walks on the beach or in a park with my prayer partner expands my consciousness and elevates my spirit to new heights, in ever-expanding love. We take turns speaking out loud what we are grateful for without much thought - just playful, joyous gratitude."

Although I don't have a prayer partner, I am re-energized by nature and having someone to share this idea with would be great. The name of a friend came to mind. I photocopied those two pages and when I saw her next I showed her the pages and especially the paragraph that had grabbed me. I said "Just think about it." A day or two later, I had a text from her. "Let's do it." And so we did this last week. I can't describe how special it was walking along a river path with her, chatting about gratitude and about a lot of other things in our lives. We walked 40 minutes, felt great, and decided we'd like to do this again in a month or so.

Give the Gratitude Walk a try.

~ JEAN

P.S. Be sure to get on the Unity mailing list so you too can get all their booklets.

Doing What is Mine to Do Today

Yesterday's Daily Word was Energized. The affirmation was: I am energized by the power of zeal within me.

I know Zeal is one of our 12 powers. I find myself somewhat uncomfortable with zeal. I see zeal and think zealous and zealot which have some negative connotations. So I "Googled" their definitions.

Zeal is "great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective, often extreme or fanatical in nature." A zealot is "a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political or other ideals. One who tries to make other people have them too." There are more positive synonyms like fervent, ardent and committed which don't bother me so much.

When I read the affirmation yesterday, my first reaction was nope, not for me today. We in New Jersey are experiencing extremely hot and humid days (90+ for both) - it's been four or maybe five days in a row. I feel like a limp rag all the time unless I'm at home sitting in front of our window air conditioner. Ahhhh! Cool!

Then I remembered the quote from Charles Fillmore:  

“I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me!”

Almost immediately, I re-thought my reaction. This is one of my powers and I need to exercise it at least as well as I can today. I had several errands to do - I could have put them off but zeal got under my skin and off I went. Post office, shoe repairman, library, groceries. When I got home, I was hot and sticky ... but I had a bunch of items to cross off my to-do list. That felt great!

If you are like me, you may be struggling with productivity during these hot days. Here is some of the meditation from yesterday:

"Zeal is an awesome power! As I attune myself to this divine power, I discover new energy to do whatever is mine to do, whether I am completing a project or caring for my family or myself."

I wish you the energy to what is yours to do while staying safe in the heat and humidity of the summer.

~ JEAN