Yoga and the Art of Practicing Gratitude

My favorite tree in my building - it makes me feel so happy when I walk by, and I am grateful for that! It reminds me that there is still much beauty in things that are aging.

It’s that time of the year again. A time when we quiet down a bit during the hustle and bustle of the holidays to reflect on how lucky we are to be alive, to have what we have, and to experience – hopefully – gratitude.

For me personally, as I reflect on where I am right now in my life, I am so grateful for all that I have – which is indeed plentiful at the moment. As I write this, I am on my way to Hawai’I for a wedding celebration with my family and our close friends of one year of marriage to my husband Ed. I am grateful to have meaningful and impactful work, to feel like I am fulfilling my life passions, and to have an abiding sense of ease and well-being In my life right now. Notice I didn’t say I am grateful to have a million dollars in my bank account. Indeed, as I was doing my daily morning routine of writing in my “gratitude journal / morning page” (which I have been doing since 1996!), I wrote “once in the beginning, I feel like I know what Nirvana is.” To me, at this moment, Nirvana is a feeling of having few worries and life-stresses, and a feeling of confidence that things will flow as they need to and an abiding feeling that the Universe always provides elegant solutions to each of our challenges.

How can we experience more gratitude in our lives regularly? Here are three possible ways from three master teachers:

1) Whether you are a fan of Deepak Chopra or not, I think you would agree with what he says here: Breathing in gratitude, we breathe out joy. This simplicity is the key to our vitality. We spend years searching for the key, looking high and low. The journey home begins when we realize that the key is hiding in our own pocket. Whether we are practicing yoga on the mat, or sitting in meditation, or just moving through life, we can do a simple mantra with each breath – inhaling quietly say “gratitude,” exhaling quietly say “joy.” The journey back home to experiencing an ease of well-being starts with each breath.

2) One of my favorite Buddhist Meditation Teachers, Gina Sharpe, reminds us that every breath we take in is a gift we receive from all the plants on Earth. The plants process what they receive from us – our carbon dioxide – and transform it into something that allows us to sustain our metabolic processes – oxygen. So, all life on earth is constantly giving to and receiving from each other. Gina writes: I find it so helpful to just remember that which I call “me” is an expression of an ever changing, timeless and unstoppable process of giving and receiving, and in remembering, relaxing again and again in gratitude, allowing it all to unfold. When we reflect like this, gratitude arises naturally and openly, saturating every breath, every moment with the joy of simply being alive. Gina reminds us, like Deepak, that our breath can be the entry point to helping us experience the arising of gratitude from within.

3) One of my favorite of the Buddha’s teachings is based on his assertion that receiving a human birth is extremely rare and exceedingly precious. One of the analogies he used to illustrate this is that the chances of us receiving a human birth is more rare than the chance that a blind turtle floating in the ocean would stick its head through a small hoop. Quite extraordinary odds indeed! He would often instruct his monks to go out into the forest, sit at the base of a tree, and do a practice called “gladdening the heart.” Essentially the heart of this practice was for the monks to reflect on the many fortunate circumstances that had brought them to be there in that time and space, and to have tools at their disposal to be able to seek freedom and liberation. As practitioners of yoga, like-wise we can reflect on just how lucky we are not only to have this chance at a human experience – such as it is with all its joys and challenges – but also that yoga has traveled from the faraway East to being literally at our fingertips and that it is a tool that can help us to realize more gratitude and joy.

Gina concludes by saying: May your Thanksgiving celebration be alive with gratitude and love. Indeed, may you be experiencing that right now.

May you be happy,
May you live with ease,
May you inhale gratitude, and exhale joy,
May you, with each breath, remember how lucky you are to be alive.
May you remember all the tools for liberation that are in your pockets and at your fingertips,
May you feel alive with deep feelings of gratitude and love, …
For the benefit of All Beings.

Aloha with Metta,
Paul Keoni