The greatest day starts with gratitude
Thwarting anxiety and dread and the suffering of the mind through starting the day with a positive spin.
When you wake up first thing in the morning feeling dread or sadness, there can be a tendency for this to persist throughout the day. That first heavy feeling in the morning can be driven up into cycles within the mind.
The negative and heavy feelings can trigger thoughts and memories of the past where perhaps mistakes have been made, or you hold regret or shame. Without a pattern breaker, the feelings attached to these thoughts can dominate the whole day.
Sometimes, those negative feelings first thing in the morning can perpetuate fear or anxiety for the future. The day ahead feels almost impossible to manage or deal with.
When there is deep dread or fear in the body, it drives the deepest desire for the opposite. The high or comfort of self-soothing, a strong aversion to the negative when all it needs is gratitude for what you do have.
My experience was that, in the mornings when I felt deep heaviness or dread it could drive my mood for the whole rest of the day. Unfortunately, sometimes these feelings of dread would persist for days, weeks and even months, all because of the mind’s persistence to fixate on finding a solution to something that needed to be felt in the body.
There are a number of practices in Holistic Shadow Work which have given me and many of my clients complete relief from the feelings of anxiety, fear, stress and dread. One of those is a practice of gratitude first thing in the morning. That begins with taking action in the present moment, when you first wake in the morning, so that you’re reprogramming your subconscious to find and feel gratitude. Cultivating the capacity to experience positive feelings about the things in your life and what may come.
Elevate your whole life, one thankful thought at a time.
Simply contacting five things you’re grateful for first thing in the morning, and feeling the appreciation in your body, can change your whole day!
This gratitude practice is a powerful tool. It’s one of the ten foundational practices that are offered as part of the Transform Program.
It encourages your conscious mind to bring you into a joyful state of presence, and (if done well) increases your capacity to hold the frequency of joy in your body. It brings conscious awareness to your inner thoughts in the present moment and requires you to change your perspective.
This practice works with your conscious mind to transform the subconscious. This is one piece of the transformation puzzle.
Below you’re going to find simple step-by-step instructions on how you can bring your conscious awareness to gratitude every day to change your life forever.
TRANSFORM THE INNER VOICES AND PATTERNS
TO BE FREE, CALM AND PRESENT
Through this practice you can allow your body to release heavy and negative feelings of sadness, fear and anxiety. You can feel a lightness and happiness about the world which is around you. This is the first step on a journey to freedom and living in the present moment.
Your inner functions, or voices, serve(d) a purpose of keeping you in equilibrium or homeostasis. They kept you “safe”. They got you to where you are now.
Training the mind to find gratitude in the moment, rather than the worst or the negative of a situation, is the beginnings of reprogramming of the subconscious.
Sometimes things can feel pointless because of the incessant mind chatter, never mind a practice that feels somewhatmake believe. But it’s not make believe, there’s always something to be thankful for.
Discovering Gratitude
A practice to shine light on the darkest of days.
Step 1, Physical space: Keep a pad and pen next to your bed, this makes it easier to implement when you first sit up in bed. It makes it simple to create a new habit.
Step 2, Agreement with self: Write in your pad this statement, “Each morning I will write 5 things that I’m grateful for”, and say it out loud to yourself now.
Step 3, On waking each morning before doing anything else: Sit up in bed and write 5 things that you are grateful for.
Maybe you feel grateful for the nature around you; the birds singing; the park and grass; the sea; the feeling of wind on your face; the sun on your skin, and so on.
Maybe you feel thankful for your connections, your family, friends or pets.
You may be grateful for your health, running water, food in the fridge, even having a flushing toilet and running hot water!
Once you have written your 5 things, let them fill your mind and allow the feeling of gratefulness and happiness to fill you. Really feel it in your body, maybe there is a warm glow within that is associated with thankfulness and joy.
Step 4, Fortify: Write post-it notes and stick them around your environment to remind you what you are grateful for.
Step 5, Gratitude for what you consume: Tell your food and water that you’re grateful for it whenever you are about to eat or drink. Feel the appreciation for having access to this sustenance.
Step 6, For your people: Offer your gratitude to those people around you, tell them you’re grateful through voice messages, emails, text and in person. Share your appreciation and allow your gratitude to weave through your external world.
You may find that you feel some sadness or heaviness before being able to find gratitude and that’s okay. Be with these feelings if they are present for you, but continue to gently seek out with your mind the memory and experience of gratitude.
Gratitude is grounding. It grounds you in the present moment. It has the power to bring you out of autopilot to be with what is here in the now, to truly notice what is already here, and what is on offer.
Can you feel the power in this practice? Are you ready to go deeper?
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