3 Simple Strategies to Create Gratitude...Everyday!

Last year a tornado ravished through our neighborhood, flipping roofs off houses and uprooting trees within minutes. It felt like a train was driving through the neighborhood causing stuff to fly everywhere. Being uprooting from our home and returning for Thanksgiving I wrote the posts Where Do I Find Calm In the Storm? and A Salty Thanksgiving Back Bend. Last week I noticed twisted metal clanging from a naked tree as I enjoyed an evening walk. I found myself grateful to be strolling through a neighborhood with scars. I quite don't remember how I felt during my walks before the storm, however, I know now I have more gratitude for my home and my neighbors' home post tornado. Hardships will create gratitude, though, you don't have to wait for a storm to realize your life wasn't that bad after all.

Here are 3 simple strategies to create gratitude...everyday!
1. Appreciate the Ordinary--There is so much good in our days and lives. The good is so overabundant it appears ordinary...until the storm comes through. It's amazing what we take for granted. I'm completely guilty of rushing through the after school taxi-mom service and forgetting to notice how awesome each one of my kids are. Yes, it's the ordinary after school chaos of somehow managing 4 children to simultaneously arrive at 3 different places. Yes, they're still awesome and evolving...everyday!

2. Give a Compliment--Yesterday a Senior Lecturer took time to warmly share with me that she has heard some great things about me and the University was fortunate to have me as faculty. This took me by surprise as I said thank you. She of course didn't have to say this, however, I suspect as a teacher of many decades, she is always looking to compliment and empower her students and junior faculty. It feels good to be appreciated. Taking time to compliment...everyday!

3. Fill Your Prayers With Thanks--It's been said that "Thank You" is the best prayer anyone can say. Truth. Of course we all have a need for divine intervention to change a circumstance, however, when we stack the list of needs next to the stack of blessings, we find the lists are more about our attitudes towards life. We had a friend over for dinner recently and as I was sharing a story and trying to describe my elated heart response, he genuinely interjected, "Praise God!". Those were the words I was looking for! So Praise God...everyday!

Yoga and meditation has certainly helped me cultivate the mental organization to cultivate habits of gratitude. I definitely want to grow in gratitude because I know it will continue to multiply the joy and abundance in my life. As you sit down for Thanksgiving Dinner this year, I hope your list of blessings is longer than your list of needs and that you feel joy in gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving!

My Secret to Having a GREAT Day, Everyday!

Confession of a Yogathea Mom:  I am procrastinating making arrangements for our upcoming family Memorial Day Weekend trip because the thought of the whole thing is exhausting to me. 

There's still 4 days left to make arrangements right? We are bound to get awesome accommodations from a last minute cancellation...right.   The truth is that I'm more anxious about how to manage my 4 children, all day, everyday at home for 2 months this summer.  This really shouldn't be the case, since there was a time not so long ago that I had all 4 kids home with me all day, everyday, as the older two were home-schooled.  After an hour of reflection in yoga, knowing my perspective is causing discontent in my life, I finally fessed up to a couple of veteran moms; they completely understood.  The truth is these trips are becoming easier as we are out of the stroller and diaper stage, everyone dons their own seatbelt and mostly minds their own business in a book or electronic gadget.  Thank God for DVD players in the van!  Better yet, my two oldest will be especially helpful with the laundry because they know I won't leave until it's done.

Following my own advice, I took some time to express gratitude for this little vacation and the extra time I will have with my children this summer.  Gratitude is a virtue and cultivating it requires formal expression.  Whether writing a thank you note, expressing verbal gratitude, offering prayers of thanksgiving or keeping a personal list, formal expression of gratitude helps us to experience richer, more gratifying days in life.  This past New Year a friend of mine gave me a crafted "faith jar".   The purpose of this jar is as I came across issues that challenge my faith or bring me exhaustion (like planning a summer home with 4 kids) I am to write these down and throw them in the jar.  The notes in the jar are little prayers of surrender that I can commence 2014 reading, seeing what God has done.  The use of this practice creates room in my heart for gratitude as I literally let go of my worries into the jar.   I must confess, again, that it is only May and my 16oz Pinterest-esque jar is getting full, though my heart is more clear.  Remembering the positives and taking the time to formally express gratitude for them is my secret to having a great day, everyday.  

The Meditation That Guarantees Failure and The Meditation That Guarantees Success in Life

My high school Spanish teacher use to tell the class,  "Your brain is like your body, if you don't exercise, it will get flabby."  Of course the Senora was referring to our lack of intellectual stimulation over summer break that resulted in an extensive review and schoolteacher frustration   She obviously thought we could and should have known more...I do the same thing with my kids.

Sitting in silence amidst my own thinking usually reveals to me why I need to sit longer amidst my own thinking.  At a primitive level, my thinking is flawed, and unless trained, it becomes flabby and weak, just like muscle...the Senora was correct.  Sitting in silence amidst my own thinking requires me to accept myself and the world just as it is, broken and wonderful altogether.  Resisting acceptance of the world and refusing to embrace it develops "Should-Be Meditation" (SBM).  This meditation involves a subconscious perseveration on the following thought:

 _________(Insert Situation, Person, Circumstance etc.)        should be _________________.

Chronic overuse of SBM results in "Should-Be Meditation Syndrome" (SBMS) and will manifest into issues such as overeating, addictions, depression, actions of hatred and more.  SBM is something we are born with; newborns usually come out kicking and screaming.  As we develop, either we allow SBM to overtake us with SBMS or we train our mind to not be flabby with SBM.  Everyone deals with this:  How many totally content people do you know in the world?  When circumstances are within our power to change, SBM can be very useful to provide motivation.  Unfortunately or fortunately, our power to change much in the world is limited which is why SBM guarantees failure.  Living with SBM seizes our thoughts, contracts our bodies and imprisons the mind.  It makes us fearful because we can't directly change circumstances and it leaves little mind space free to enjoy life as it is--broken and wonderful.    It's really hard to sit still with SBM and nearly impossible with SBMS.  The cure for SBM and SBMS is sitting still amidst our own thinking which usually reveals more SBM and requires more sitting still amidst our own thinking.  Perhaps you're thinking you should make time to sit still amidst your own thinking?

After years of practice, sitting still comes more naturally to me.  My mind and body actually crave long lengths of silence.  Growing to the place of craving stillness requires the meditation of gratitude.  It's essential to be grateful for the smallest little things.  The slower I live, the more grateful I become, savoring the extraordinary in the ordinary.  And for the meditation that guarantees success:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.--Philippians 4:8
Yes, gratitude guarantees success!

Following the advice of my Spanish teacher, raising 4 children and not wanting their minds or muscles to become flabby, I continually have to put my SBM into check...am I expecting too much, should they have known more?  Sometimes hard to say.  Breathing in Philippians 4:8 I will sit still and accept them and others as they are--broken and wonderful altogether.  I hope you will join me in doing the same!
(By the way, I just invented SBM, but hope it soon goes viral :-) )

Thank You Military, Emergency, Healthcare and Entertainers

Merry Christmas and thank you to all of the military, emergency, healthcare, and entertainment staff and professionals for keeping us safe, healthy and entertained as we enjoy Christmas at home with our families and friends.  As I'm home today watching my children open gifts and chow down on Christmas cuisine, I know if another tornado struck my house, the local rescue workers, police and national guard would show up to make sure my family is sheltered appropriately.  If I burn the ham and start a fire, the firemen would come help put it out.   If a child decides to choke on a candy cane or has an overstimulated-sugared-yuletide-hyperactivity-injury needing medical attention, the emergency room staff is there and ready cast a broken bone or mend the gushing wound.  What can I say about the military men and women, not at home in foreign land?  I feel safe at home.  My debt of gratitude goes beyond what I know how to express you;  your struggle is our struggle and I remember you this Christmas and pray for you regularly.  And finally, what would Christmas be without a football game, radio or television?  The after dinner recliner pancreatic coma would not hold the same bliss without a good game which hopefully the military get to see as well!  I'll be home for Christmas this year, safe and entertained because others have sacrificed.  Meditating on how my safety and joy today has largely been created by the sacrifice of people I do not know, helps me to see the world as a better place that maybe isn't so broken.

Whatever you find yourself doing or feeling today at Christmas, remember those who are working and sacrificing, away from their family and friends and perhaps you too may see how Christ has made our world a better place that maybe isn't so broken.  Merry Christmas!