Soul-hacking part 2: The Gratitude Attitude

I don’t know about you but I have, until recently, found it incredibly hard to tune into gratitude on a regular basis. I mean, I do feel it, but starting every day with gratitude requires you to really feel it, not just say it.  This was difficult until I found prose from someone with a deep understanding of it and it’s relationship to loss. And now I finally understand. Gratitude and loss are inextricably linked. The power of fear of loss, can be turned into gratitude if you know how not to let fear overwhelm you. Have a read of this by Jeff Foster and see what you think (and omg he’s a physicist too!):

You Will Lose Everything, by Jeff Foster

But right now, we stand on sacred and holy ground, for that which will be lost has not yet been lost, and realising this is the key to unspeakable joy. Whoever or whatever is in your life right now has not yet been taken away from you. This may sound trivial, obvious, like nothing, but really it is the key to everything, the why and how and wherefore of existence. Impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heartbreaking gratitude.Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar.

Practicalities

It gives me shivers reading that, every time. But how, I hear you ask, can you use this? Funnily enough I asked the same question and the universe gave me two practical examples.  The first was somewhat extreme. I lost my sanity for three days. It wasn’t a madness/funny farm sort of loss – more a feeling that my bottom of my universe had fallen away and I was in freefall. I didn’t feel safe to drive, I didn’t feel able to keep my children safe (even though in reality I was keeping them safe). I got myself to the doctor, got blood tests, tried everything. If it was menopause or my thyroid it didn’t show up in the tests, and if it was a breakdown then it was incredibly brief because within three days it was gone.

But the revelation afterwards was mindblowing. Because the joy I felt for being able to function and do everything I used to do again was overwhelming.  I had lost, and then I found what I had lost.   And there it was. Gratitude.

My second encounter was physical – I lost the use of my right arm. It was most likely inflammation of the brachial nerve, but I literally couldn’t lift my right arm up to drive or write.  I could type but only if I lifted my right arm to the table with my left, and it HURT. Again, five days of this and it vanished. My fear of losing my right arm permanently was as strong as the relief and yes gratitude that I felt at getting it back.

So, if you’ve lost something that you’ve regained, try to remember that feeling.

Ok, the second tip is for feeling grateful for what you have when you can’t imagine what it would be like to lose it. The secret lies in music, for me at least. There’s a song about everything out there somewhere. Losing a loved one, dying, nearly dying, being dumped, getting out of a toxic relationship.. Whatever it is you want to feel gratitude for, find the song and play it until you feel it. Music can override your logic and get straight to your heart strings. I have a whole playlist for gratitude and a whole other list for positivity (positivity follows from gratitude – being grateful for what you have opens the door for you to be grateful for things to come).

Anyway, forgive the quickie post. I currently have two of my little gratefuls playing behind me and I kinda need to be present with them.

Namaste :).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *