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Thursday, November 27, 2014

Mindful Acceptance and Gratitude


Love asks for no return, no gratitude. Everyone is God in the process of evolution. Identify yourself with everything that lives. In love lies the salvation of all beings and the world. – Swami Sivananda

 

Everyone has a complaint sometimes.  The ideal of gratitude can be misused sometimes as well.  Have you ever been told “You should be grateful?”  Some people have very hard lives, feel powerless and victimized.  In some ways they may be right.  We need to complain sometimes and make sure that our complaints are heard and attended to. 

Then again, there are those of us who complain all the time.  It seems that nothing is ever right and we can never be satisfied.  The mindful approach is to accept everything, everyone including yourself exactly as it is at this moment.  Even if you are experiencing some feelings of dissatisfaction.  Let everything be just as it is.  This open awareness and acceptance actually transforms everything.

Gratitude is powerful.  It can help relieve depression, heal our bodies and open our hearts.  Realize that everything in your life right now is precisely what you need for your spiritual evolution.  It doesn’t necessarily make sense on a rational level but it does on a deeper soul level.  It’s not so much about “learning to love yourself” as realizing that “yourself” is a fictional character.  All that really exists is love. 

Allow each moment to be as it is and let your actions arise from the state of Loving Awareness. 

Or not.  It’s up to you and me.