An Attitude of Gratitude

God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament.

- Evelyn Underhill


I’ll be honest. Gratitude has been a hard one for me. Growing up in a family beset with alcohol abuse and domestic violence, I developed a habit of holding onto bitterness and resentment. I am regularly depressed around the holidays and Christmas carols make me cringe. I learned at an early age to regard the world with cynicism and suspicion. When I became a teenager this attitude crystallized into an attitude of rebellion against all that was conventional, superficial and fake. I found my way to the bitter rebellious joy of getting high and drunk. Love and gratitude seemed to be concepts that were contaminated beyond recognition. Still there was a spiritual longing within me and a deep faith buried under multiple layers of defenses.

Eventually I found my way to India and the practice of yoga; not the commercialized yoga of glossy magazines but the deep spiritual yoga of the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras as taught by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Yoga helped open my heart to the spiritual dimension of life but I was still conflicted inside. Now as a yoga teacher and a psychotherapist I see so many people with similar conflicts and defenses. It is hard sometimes to open to love and gratitude when you are going through or have lived through a personal hell. How do we find our way back to God and the Kingdom?

Research shows that an attitude of gratitude is beneficial for health and healing on both physical and psychological levels. Robert Emmons summarizes this research in Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton Mifflin, 2007). Various studies showed that patients who use a daily gratitude journal "reap emotional, physical and interpersonal benefits." It seems to be an antidote for the stressful thoughts that can so disastrously affect our health and wellbeing. It is a form of writing meditation.

The practice of witnessing or observing thoughts in meditation is very helpful in this regard. Through meditation we can uncover and release some of the negative cognitive structures and emotional energy which have taken roost in the subconscious mind. By further focusing on feelings of love, gratitude and compassion we open up dormant functions of our brain/minds which help us to grow and evolve as spiritual beings. Of course we need to take this practice out into the world as well. The Buddhist teacher Atisha suggested we take up and practice the slogan: Be grateful to everyone. Now that might be a challenge!

However, we can learn to be open to the blessing of each moment in our lives. Each breath is a blessing, each sip of coffee, each encounter with another soul. When one’s heart is open the world is full of opportunities to feel grateful and compassionate. From a spiritual perspective, even the most horrible things that happen have meaning and can lead to the soul’s evolution. If we are just grateful for the good things in life, then what happens when they go away? How do we feel when “stuff happens?” Spiritual teachings tell us that this world of our experience is really a projection of the unconscious karma within us. It is a setting through which we can work out all the stuff that obscures our inherent divinity; an opportunity to go beyond the ego and to realize the Self. Practicing gratitude is a great way to make progress.