An Ecstatic Presence Empowerment: Three Steps to Engaged Gratitude

by LaSara FireFox, www.lasarafirefox.com

Do you want to increase the peace in your life? Do you want more love, more joy, more presence? Do you want to take an active part in becoming the actual manifestation of "heaven on earth"?

The most revolutionary thing we can do to increase the peace is to LIVE IT. As Gandhi said, "there is no way to peace. Peace is the way." The more we practice peace, the more peace becomes our lives. We can live peace in every moment.

I'm not talking about some abstraction, or idea of peace. Nor am I speaking of the absence of conflict. Even in the midst of conflict, we can BE peace.

Engaged Gratitude practice, in three steps:

1: Invoke and Embody The Presence of Love

Make love real. Agapic love. The big, big love that lives at the center of all things. The flame that burns "in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." How to realize, or remember, this love, you may ask. The practices are many, the goal one. Gratitude practice, asking powerful questions, inducing positive states, prayer and meditation are all ways to invoke love.

Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we can invoke and embody the presence of love. In my "playshop" called Being The Presence of Love, I offer not only many practices to make this practice accessible, but also offer the template of experiencing being present in love, so that you have a reliable, physiological anchor that will make it easy to access the power of Divine Love in any moment.

For now, an easy way to manifest the presence of love is to think of something that makes you feel a love beyond limits, unconditional, eternal. The perfect love. I find this love at the heart of deep prayer, in the arms of my beloved, sharing a smile with my child.

Think about it, and then feel it. Ahhhh. There it is. Now feel it even more. Let your heart, your whole being, glow with this love.

Of course, invoking the presence of love is only step one.

2: Grow Your Gratitude!

Gratitude heals the heart. This is true on multiple levels. Of course it makes sense on the metaphorical level - how could becoming grateful NOT heal a broken heart? When we experience loss, healing comes from realizing that the sum total of the impact of any experience was for the best. When we get this, it becomes easy to be grateful for the experiences we encounter.

In addition to the metaphorical, gratitude also heals the actual physiology of your heart. This is wonderful, and true! Gratitude practice is recommended as part of many heart-surgery and heart disease recovery programs. How does it work? Gratitude is the antidote for stress, anger, anxiety and many other ills. Stress, of course, is a huge contributor to both heart disease and heart attack.

Gratitude offers a rest to our physiological systems. For instance, say you're standing in line at the grocery store, and the people in front of you are taking forever. You may be late getting to where ever you're going, but is stressing out about it going to change the fact that you're stuck in line? Not a chance!

The one thing you CAN change is how you are experiencing the moment. So, instead of obsessing about your situation, take the time and cultivate gratitude. Even starting small will work. You can be grateful that you have the money to buy food. You can be grateful that you have a chance to read those amazing headlines on the trashy mag in the rack. I get really simple with it, and remember to be grateful to have a moment to be in stillness and silence. (Standing in line is a perfect opportunity for a moment of meditation.)

This choice is affecting you, and as a true believer in systems theory, I would say that is affects all that is. Your stress is not just your stress - it may very well affect the whole system in some subtle way. Your gratitude is the same way. As you choose to relax instead of stress, the ripples spread. Your interaction with the cashier is going to be different. His interaction with the next person in line may well be different, too.

On the personal level alone, though, the benefits are too many to mention. Gratitude is SO much nicer to hold in our cells than the alternative.

Another wonderful bonus is that because our minds sort for, and we notice, that which we expect, when we start practicing gratitude, we start noticing more and more to be grateful for. Gratitude practice, just like any other practice, becomes easier the more you do it!

3: Make Love a Verb; Gratitude in Action!

Love and gratitude become more powerful by far, when put into engaged action. Engagement is the final step of this process. Take your love and DO something with it. That something might be sitting in prayer, but think of how much more prayer you'd bring if you were to start hosting a weekly group prayer night at your home.

When you find gratitude for the food on your table, let it remind you that you can do your part to reduce suffering by offering food to those in need. Make a meal, box it up, and offer it to a local homeless person you have seen around.

While you're at it, have a conversation with this person.

At the Season for Nonviolence gathering a while back, Dr. Arun Gandhi pointed out that compassion is different from pity. I paraphrase the esteemed man here; pity offers the food and hopes the person will walk away with it. Compassion offers the food, asks the person how they ended up on the streets, witnesses the story, and does it's part to cause an end to the reasons that this person and others end up without.

Namaste. We are one. We are none. Consider yourself empowered!