Express it.
If you are reading this in order, you read about how much pain I was in. I was cut off from everything and everyone. I was filled with so much anger. Thank goodness I had someone to remind me to be grateful and focus my energy on gratitude instead. The first thing that happened…. I was much less grumpy.
Want to know what I started with?
I started with something I experienced all the time and took completely for granted. Indoor plumbing and hot and cold running water whenever I wanted it. Standing in a hot shower was not only relief, but it also calmed me. I still take long showers for that reason.
Remembering to be grateful for that one thing made it much easier to be grateful for other things and soon I was once again seeing Nature around in all it’s beauty. Many many things in Nature take my breath away, how it works so perfectly, how everything within adapts to whatever environment is present.
Now, I know you may think it is silly to be grateful for hot and cold running water, but if you really think about it…. Start in Nature, first, there must beHydrogen and Oxygen. Then they must be combined it just the right combination 2 Hydrogen and 1 Oxygen. Then enough of those molecules come together and create clouds and finally, there are enough to make rain.
But it doesn’t stop there.
The water then must be collected in reservoirs, lakes, wherever and finally brought a treatment plant. Think of all the people who work to clean and treat the water! Then, it must be transported to us wherever we are, into the plumbing put in place by contractors who built our homes. And finally, it comes out that spigot into our tubs or over our heads just by turning a knob. So it is easy to forget that hot bath or shower starts with Nature. The very thing I want to be connected to in the best way possible.
The other wonderful thing found in Nature is LifeForce!
The more you understand and are grateful for Nature the stronger your connectedness to the Creator/Nature. When you begin to express your gratitude, you strengthen that connection and that changes everything!
Remember this?
Scientifically, gratitude and its effects on the brain and body remain relatively new. Some show increases in gray matter volume in the right inferior temporal gyrus and posteromedial cortices (Zahn et al., 2014)1.
Another study shows increased levels of oxytocin sometimes called the Love hormone (Algoe and Way, 2014)2.
The more you feel and express your gratitude, the more Oxytocin is released and the better you feel. This feeling I am talking about affects your body as well as your mind and emotions. The benefits include better focus, more restful sleep, and more. There is an article here that tells you about 31 benefits of gratitude.
Do you think this is the extent of it? Not so! The closer you get to that Source, the more Lifeforce you absorb. Lifeforce is also in that weave I spoke about at the beginning, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you. Lifeforce is what drives us, determines our level of health how we age or don’t age. The more lifeforce you harness, well, you can age backward.
In 2010, I discovered Guruji Mahendra Trivedi and what is now called the Trivedi Effect® . The Trivedi Effect® is a natural phenomenon that elevates our consciousness to reveal our life purpose, uncover our hidden gifts and guide us to achieve everything we were meant to and more. Guruji Mahendra Trivedi’s gift is the ability to connect us to the God of our understanding, the Creator, and raise our consciousness. With that, everything else follows. If you want more than benefits though, you must do the work. Gratitude plays a big part in that, without gratitude there is no transformation.
I chose to do the work, to implement everything I understood as Guruji Mahendra Trivedi taught us and transform rather than just received benefits that may fade over time. My gratitude extends from him to each of the others who impacted my life in a wonderful way over these past nine years. My understanding of gratitude has grown and changed over this time as well.
I think gratitude, I feel gratitude, and I express. Now, I am living gratitude and we will talk about that next time.
1Zahn, R., Moll, J., Paiva, M., Garrido, G., Krueger, F., Huey, E., et al. (2008). The neural basis of human social values: evidence from functional mri. Cereb. Cortex. 19, 276–283. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhn080
2Algoe, S. B., and Way, B. (2014). Evidence for a role of the oxytocin system, indexed by genetic variation in cd38, in the social bonding effects of expressed gratitude. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 12:nst182. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst182
Our Connection has the best medicine for what ails us. Nothing like it in this world except by what we experience of that drawing near, deep listening and receiving the care that comes from the Author of Care.
I really appreciate the flow of this article of how you start off to being grateful for everything and nature and recognizing the life force that is felt through nature and the more of that we are able to harness through feeling gratitud, the more of an optimal life we can live.