So grateful to have Nature in its raw beauty just outside our window.

It’s been an interesting journey being temporarily disabled, having to negotiate life on crutches and wearing a boot on my right foot over the past seven weeks. I’ve learned to slow down and savor the beauty held in more moments. And in many ways, I am grateful for the experiences I’ve had. So much so that my yoga practice right now is to reflect on what I am particularly grateful for. Here are a few things:

1. I’m grateful for the many people I came across who offered to help me out in small, yet important ways – like holding doors open for me, offering me their seat on the subway, giving me room to pass slowly by as they walked around me, and offering their help in any way I needed. Thinking about these occurrences make me smile and reminds me of human beings’ capacity for unsolicited kindness and generosity. For this I am grateful.

2. I appreciated that JetBlue made it so easy for me to travel with a disability by giving me extra leg room and a front row seat at no extra charge. Thanks, JetBlue! My heart grows fonder for you, which is a benefit for both of us.

3. I appreciate the travel assistance I received from the airport workers who as soon as I arrived at the terminal wheelchaired me from check-in through TSA all the way to my plane. One of these workers particularly stood out to me. He is a relatively recent immigrant from Bangladesh. He shared that a family member was able to sponsor him and his wife and their three children to enter the U.S. He kept saying how happy he was to be here in the U.S., “America is the best!” he said several times. I am grateful that I could have that reminder of how lucky we are to be American citizens. And I was grateful that I could help another human being with a generous tip to help him in his new life here. I get so overwhelmed sometimes by the many sad events that happen in far off places and long to help in some way. This man gave me an opportunity to help make the bigger picture brighter in a small, localized way. Thinking about that man makes me smile now, and for that I am grateful.

4. I am grateful to Nature. My husband and I are fortunate to have a home in Florida with a backyard that is frequented by Sand Hill Cranes, Ducks, Turtles, Alligators, just to name a few from Nature’s immense lineup of diversity. The other day I got to sit by the window doing my work, and every so often I would peek out and one of God’s creatures was in my field of vision. Being able to observe Nature is one of the most healing of pastimes. I am so grateful that I can see Nature from such a close vantage point. My heart grows wider thinking about it now.

The spiritual teacher, Sadhguru, says:

“Gratitude is not an attitude. Gratitude is something that flows out of you when you are overwhelmed by what is being given to you.”

And in many ways that is what I am experiencing right now – just an overwhelming feeling of appreciation for all that I have been given.

And I don’t mean just the good stuff I’ve been given, but even the “bad” stuff. About this, here are two lessons from Pema Chödrön:

Gratitude
“Be grateful to everyone” is a way of saying that we can learn from any situation, especially if we practice this slogan with awareness. The people and situations in our lives can remind us to catch neurosis as neurosis, to see when we’re in our room under the covers, to see when we’ve pulled the shades, locked the door, and are determined to stay there.

Don’t Flee from Uncomfortable Tenderness
The natural warmth that emerges when we experience pain includes all the heart qualities: love, compassion, gratitude, tenderness in any form. It also includes loneliness, sorrow, and the shakiness of fear. Before these vulnerable feelings harden, before the storylines kick in, these generally unwanted feelings are pregnant with kindness, with openness and caring. These feelings that we’ve become so accomplished at avoiding can soften us, can transform us. The open-heartedness of natural warmth is sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant—as “I want, I like” and as the opposite. The practice is to train in not automatically fleeing from uncomfortable tenderness when it arises. With time we can embrace it just as we would the comfortable tenderness of loving-kindness and genuine appreciation.

It is the tender moments of life that can be our best teachers. Yes, we can initially act by recoiling and moving away. But every so often, when I am confronted with one of those uncomfortable moments of life, I find a piece of my heart breaking open a bit more and feeling compassion for myself and/or the “other”. I am grateful for those tender moments of higher awareness that can override my base human self. In my search for higher awareness, I love revisiting this lesson again and again from the Buddha:

The Buddha taught that every human birth is precious and worthy of gratitude. In one of his well-known analogies, he said that receiving a human birth is rarer than the chance that a blind turtle floating in the ocean would stick its head through a small hoop. He would often instruct a monk to take his ground cloth into the forest, sit at the base of a tree, and begin "gladdening the heart" by reflecting on the series of fortunate circumstances that had given the monk the motivation and ability to seek freedom through understanding the dharma.
— The Old Wisdom

If in fact that this is true, then just the fact that I’ve arrived here as a human birth is more than enough to be grateful for. I feel like I’ve been given an opportunity to help move the Universe’s Creation forward. I am grateful that my heart is capable of “gladdening” and that I’ve been given tools to experience even greater freedom.

One of those tools I’ve heard about is the practice of writing down things one is grateful for. It can lead to an expansion of one’s heart and mind. Just by having done this exercise here, I can say it is true. I feel more aware, more expansive, and calmer and more at peace. I feel freer. I am grateful for this human birth, and for my inner longing to seek greater freedom through yoga and contemplative paths such as Buddhism.

As we wind down the year, I hope you can have some time amid the hustle and bustle to reflect on all things are you grateful for. I hope you can not only practice gratitude, but in fact be the very essence of gratitude – the continuous giving and receiving that are the very actions of Life itself in each moment, in each breath you experience.

May you be happy, …
May you be healthy, …
May you look to the positive, …
May your feelings of gratitude inspire one person near you, … and from there ripple out for the benefit of ALL Beings everywhere.

Aloha and Metta, Peace and Freedom,
Paul Keoni Chun

Engaged Yoga

Yoga, Buddhism, and My Reflections on Gratitude

Keoni Movement Arts