Could a Gratitude Practice Save the World?

Have you ever wondered why you often hear your yoga teacher yammering on about GRATITUDE?  You've probably been to a class with this theme, yes?  At least on Thanksgiving! 

So what is the connection between yoga and gratitude? 

Yoga is the art of knowing our own true nature by bringing in self-awareness.  Gratitude is thankfulness or appreciation.  It's rooted in the Latin word gratus which means thankful or pleasing. In modern pop psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude has been scientifically shown to make people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. It can even enhance our relationship with others.

All good stuff!  But this doesn't explain its connection to yoga. 

Yoga asks the practitioner to become aware of experiencing themselves in the present moment, without judgement.  This is also the modern definition of mindfulness which was coined by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn whose clinical study gave great weight to the power of mindfulness in transforming our relationships with pain and stress, and the negative emotions surrounding illness.  Dr. Kabat-Zinn defines nine essential qualities of mindfulness of which one is gratitude. 

So yoga is not just stretching and breathing.  It's focus is less on the workout and more on mindfulness and raising consciousness.  But there are many levels of mindfulness and consciousness we can attain.  For example, you can be mindful that you are breathing.  Great.  It's good headway into being present and out of the thought patterns that predominate most of our minds. You can also take on a higher awareness that this smooth, easy breath you are drawing in brings a beautiful life force of energy that is the basis of your life.  Gratitude is that "higher consciousness" that comes by being thankful for the goodness you already enjoy right now in this moment. 

"Gratitude is a simple, yet powerful form of mindfulness that deepens our connection to the beautiful people, places, events, and things in our world. "Timothy Burgin, yogi and author.

So within our consistent practice of yoga or other mindfulness practices we can see that cultivating a practice of gratitude has the power to lift our level of consciousness even higher.  In looking into "higher consciousness" I ran into a beautiful diagram designed by the esteemed spiritual enlightenment teacher Dr. David Hawkins called the Vibrational Scale. Dr. Hawkins places gratitude right at the top levels of consciousness- above joy even.

So what's the big deal with this higher level of consciousness derived from practicing gratitude? 

Not only will we each individually find more peace in the celebration of our great abundance, this higher consciousness might benefit the world.  Here's my line of thinking.  If Einstein is correct when he said that, "We can’t solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,”  perhaps raising collective consciousness through something as easy as counting our blessings might benefit our society as a whole. 

I think the Reverend Monica McIntyre of the Center of Light said it best when she said, "we need to transcend that level of thinking and open ourselves to insights and ideas we can’t anticipate at our present level of awareness. It is reasonable to think that transformative spiritual development might provide an elevated platform from which to see the world differently—a place where creative, innovative ideas can merge with compassion and skillful action, unimpeded by ideologies, labels and past conditioning."

In this week of protests and violence and looting around the tragic death of George Floyd (whose neck was pinned down under the knee of a police officer until he was asphyxiated leading to his death) reveal a deep need for some new solutions to our society's problems with abuse of power, racism, anger and injustice. 

Moreover, last night Sixty Minutes revealed the depth of the environmental disaster that is the Tijuana River poisoning the families living in poverty along its banks and spilling up to 40 million gallons of RAW UNTREATED SEWAGE and harmful chemicals into the Pacific Ocean not 30 miles from here every day.  We Americans just spent $1 billion on a new Naval Seal training center at the mouth of the Tijuana River and $50 million on a border wall and did nothing to stop this crime upon the earth.  If you haven't seen the piece, please take several deep slow breaths and then check it out. 

I digress. ; ) And maybe practicing gratitude is not the only answer we need right now, but it's simple and is proven to bring happiness and greater awareness which might even lead to better solutions for our world. 

Gratitude is one of the highest states of yoga one can achieve and it is practice that can lead to enlightenment.   I hope to see you this week to practice gratitude for our amazing bodies and yoga.  I'll close with Rumi (and drop the mike).

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.  Rumi

Namaste,

Krista