Welcome Message: Gratitude

Gratitude…Right Now…For No Reason at All by Richard Miller

There is much we have to be grateful for, no matter our circumstance. This is true whether we’re safe, fleeing terror, recovering from trauma, are alone at the moment or surrounded by loving friends. Gratitude is our birthright. It’s something we can all experience, no matter where we are or whom we’re with.

I’m grateful for being able to share these precious nondual teachings that are helping folks around the world realize that gratitude is something that’s always present. We just need to take time to stop and turn our attention inwards. May I support you to take a moment, now, to welcome gratitude?

In the meantime, thanks for your support these past months, whether in thought, deed, or monetary support, helping IRI continue its mission of helping people resolve their suffering and experience deep healing and peace. If you haven’t already, please give a year-end donation to IRI, so that we can continue moving these precious teachings into the world with veterans, the homeless, people healing through trauma or human trafficking, deserving kids and youth, and all those who come to us to experience their innate health and interconnectedness wholeness.

Blessings in your upcoming New Year.

With Gratitude, Richard Miller

Practice: Gratitude for No Reason At All

Gratitude can arise as a warm feeling you have when you feel thankful or appreciative, or when you feel kind, compassionate, loving, joyful, peaceful or content within yourself or towards another. It can be a warm-hearted feeling of thankfulness that you experience for being alive, or for no reason at all. Feeling gratitude, for no reason at all, is what happens the more you you take time to experience gratitude.

Gratitude manifests the more you attend to its feeling in your body. It’s that simple. The more you experience gratitude, the easier it becomes to access, feel, and express gratitude. Take time, then, to experience gratitude moments each and everyday. For instance, take time each morning or night, or in this moment, to note what you’re grateful for. The more you experience gratitude, the more you’ll find that you feel happier, and have a greater felt-sense of health, resilience and well-being as you go about your daily life.

So, relax back with your eyes open or closed and welcome the environment and sounds around you… The touch of air and sensations of warmth or coolness on your skin… The sensation where your body touches the surface that’s supporting it… Welcome the various physical sensations that are present throughout your body… Welcome your body breathing, letting go and relaxing with each outbreath into the feeling of simply being with this moment, just as it is… Welcoming sensations of ease and well-being throughout your entire body and mind…

Bring attention to yourself or to another toward whom you feel, or would like to feel, gratitude… Think of what you or the other person has said or done for which you feel grateful… Notice the sensations, emotions, and thoughts that come to you as you think of yourself or this person and what you, she, or he did or said… In your imagination, tell yourself or this person how grateful or thankful you feel… As you hear these words, imagine and notice how you or the other person feels and responds…

As you reflect on the feeling of gratitude, note where and how these feelings arise in your body and impact your mind… At some point, let go of thinking about what you’re grateful for and just experience the feeling of gratitude, without attaching the feeling to a person, activity, or action… Welcome the feeling of gratitude, just as it is… In your body… Right here… Right now… For no reason at all…

Imagine yourself going about your day, welcoming and feeling gratitude without attaching it to a specific activity or person… Feeling gratitude just for the sake of feeling gratitude… Feel how this affects your body…mind…and your day.

Imagine it’s nighttime, just as you’re falling asleep, taking the feeling of gratitude with you into your nighttime sleep…Imagine it’s morning time, just as waking up, feeling gratitude for no reason at all, and taking it with you into your day.

Completion

As you’re ready to complete this exercise and return to your daily activities, affirm your intention to take the feeling of gratitude with you into your daily life… Affirm the intention that during and throughout your day and evening, you remember and take time to welcome the feeling of gratitude in your body and mind… Affirm your intention to have the feeling of gratitude accompany you in your every activity and interaction… Then take a few more moments to feel gratitude and loving kindness towards yourself for taking this time for yourself to experience the feeling of gratitude.

When you’re ready, open and close your eyes several times while continuing to feel gratitude throughout your body and mind… Then, stretch and move your body while staying with the felt-sense of gratitude… When it feels right, get up and go about your activities knowing that gratitude is always here, remembering you all day, every day, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whomever you’re with.