Did you sign up for Oprah and Deepak's 21-day meditation experience Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude, this past month? If you did, I'm guessing you enjoyed an awesome treat! If not, I want to share with you some of the pearls of wisdom that I took away from a few of the meditations. What they shared with the world was such a gift, so magical, so inspiring and life altering. As I mentioned in my very first blog post, I believe that gratitude and grace are foundational to any spiritual practice and that gratitude is truly the key to not only grace, but to leading a happy and satisfied life. I love that Oprah and Deepak combined the two together in their latest meditation series.
Gratitude
I have touched on the topic of gratitude throughout several of my posts. It is truly a game changer. Life rapidly changes when your heart, mind and spirit are focused on gratitude. Gratitude changes the lens by which you see the world. It's been proven as one of the key factors to leading a contented and happy life and it's one of the quickest and easiest ways to increase your vibration.
Deepak describes gratitude as the secret key that shifts your awareness. He believes that gratitude changes your relationship with life from an attitude of rejecting and defending to one of acceptance and appreciation. Gratitude is an engine for holistic change. When you are grateful for what you have, you make energetic space for more abundance to flow into your life.
When feeling grateful you feel more open, generous, connected, aware and alive. As Oprah so eloquently states, "A closed heart cannot feel gratitude. Your heart should only hold two things...love and gratitude. If you have anger you need to forgive. Gratitude changes something within you and changes everything around you and that is what is called grace."
Grace
Deepak defines grace as an expression of divine love. He states that, "Grace can be how you carry yourself with inner dignity and inner beauty. Gratitude helps to change grace from a noun into a verb." A verb describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. I love that Deepak shared with us how gratitude helps to change grace from a noun to a state of being. Through gratitude we activate grace and grow our presence within it. Through gratitude we actually become grace personified.
Oprah discussed how gratitude awakens the grace within us. That gratitude opens up the light, the space, the path for grace within us. Her words conjure up such a nice visual image for me. It helps me to really grasp how through gratitude, grace is manifested. Pope Francis says that, "Grace is the amount of light in our souls." If gratitude opens us up to the light and then to grace, it makes sense that grace is the amount of light in our souls.
They also shared that when you give gratitude you in turn receive from source. They then suggested an exercise that I love. They said to imagine three things you are grateful for right now. Then focus on the first one and feel the gratitude, express your thanks for it. Now imagine it receiving your gratitude and it shimmering as it receives your thanks. You have opened the flow to grace. Repeat the exercise with the two remaining things you are grateful for. I've used a similar exercise many times before in my meditation practice and have taught it in meditation class. I love the visual of it shimmering as it receives your thanks, such a great visual!
Happiness
Through my research and studying of happiness, I've learned that our brains are programmed for negativity bias. It's called "caveman brain". It's part of what helped our ancestors survive in more primitive times. Research has proven that positive thoughts need to remain in our short-term memory for several seconds, several times, in order to move into our long-term memory, whereas negative thoughts go straight to long-term memory. The brain is like velcro for negative experiences and like teflon for positive ones. We need to savor the good facts and experiences for 10 seconds or more and to make it as intense as possible, in order for it to reach our long-term memory. This exercise is a great way to help us to identify, savor and ultimately move a good experience/memory that we are grateful for to our long-term memory. It is one of the tools that we can use to help us to lead a happier life.
The most powerful way to achieve grace is through gratitude because gratitude makes a deep connection with the source of grace inside you. I recommend starting and ending each day with gratitude. I like to express my gratitude either out loud or in my gratitude journal. Oprah and Deepak recommend expressing gratitude at the end of your interactions. I love this suggestion, what an awesome why to increase your vibration and the vibration of the person you are interacting with. It creates a positive ripple and I'm all about creating positive, magical ripples!
Gratitude is a powerful, easy, magical tool. Through it grace is manifested. Happiness is the experience of living each moment with gratitude and grace. I would love to hear your feedback on this post. Leave me a comment or send me an email.
Oprah and Deepak's 21-day meditation experience, Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude, can be purchased at https://chopracentermeditation.com.
Gratitude
I have touched on the topic of gratitude throughout several of my posts. It is truly a game changer. Life rapidly changes when your heart, mind and spirit are focused on gratitude. Gratitude changes the lens by which you see the world. It's been proven as one of the key factors to leading a contented and happy life and it's one of the quickest and easiest ways to increase your vibration.
Deepak describes gratitude as the secret key that shifts your awareness. He believes that gratitude changes your relationship with life from an attitude of rejecting and defending to one of acceptance and appreciation. Gratitude is an engine for holistic change. When you are grateful for what you have, you make energetic space for more abundance to flow into your life.
When feeling grateful you feel more open, generous, connected, aware and alive. As Oprah so eloquently states, "A closed heart cannot feel gratitude. Your heart should only hold two things...love and gratitude. If you have anger you need to forgive. Gratitude changes something within you and changes everything around you and that is what is called grace."
Grace
Deepak defines grace as an expression of divine love. He states that, "Grace can be how you carry yourself with inner dignity and inner beauty. Gratitude helps to change grace from a noun into a verb." A verb describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. I love that Deepak shared with us how gratitude helps to change grace from a noun to a state of being. Through gratitude we activate grace and grow our presence within it. Through gratitude we actually become grace personified.
Oprah discussed how gratitude awakens the grace within us. That gratitude opens up the light, the space, the path for grace within us. Her words conjure up such a nice visual image for me. It helps me to really grasp how through gratitude, grace is manifested. Pope Francis says that, "Grace is the amount of light in our souls." If gratitude opens us up to the light and then to grace, it makes sense that grace is the amount of light in our souls.
They also shared that when you give gratitude you in turn receive from source. They then suggested an exercise that I love. They said to imagine three things you are grateful for right now. Then focus on the first one and feel the gratitude, express your thanks for it. Now imagine it receiving your gratitude and it shimmering as it receives your thanks. You have opened the flow to grace. Repeat the exercise with the two remaining things you are grateful for. I've used a similar exercise many times before in my meditation practice and have taught it in meditation class. I love the visual of it shimmering as it receives your thanks, such a great visual!
Happiness
Through my research and studying of happiness, I've learned that our brains are programmed for negativity bias. It's called "caveman brain". It's part of what helped our ancestors survive in more primitive times. Research has proven that positive thoughts need to remain in our short-term memory for several seconds, several times, in order to move into our long-term memory, whereas negative thoughts go straight to long-term memory. The brain is like velcro for negative experiences and like teflon for positive ones. We need to savor the good facts and experiences for 10 seconds or more and to make it as intense as possible, in order for it to reach our long-term memory. This exercise is a great way to help us to identify, savor and ultimately move a good experience/memory that we are grateful for to our long-term memory. It is one of the tools that we can use to help us to lead a happier life.
The most powerful way to achieve grace is through gratitude because gratitude makes a deep connection with the source of grace inside you. I recommend starting and ending each day with gratitude. I like to express my gratitude either out loud or in my gratitude journal. Oprah and Deepak recommend expressing gratitude at the end of your interactions. I love this suggestion, what an awesome why to increase your vibration and the vibration of the person you are interacting with. It creates a positive ripple and I'm all about creating positive, magical ripples!
Gratitude is a powerful, easy, magical tool. Through it grace is manifested. Happiness is the experience of living each moment with gratitude and grace. I would love to hear your feedback on this post. Leave me a comment or send me an email.
Oprah and Deepak's 21-day meditation experience, Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude, can be purchased at https://chopracentermeditation.com.
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