Gratitude

"It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. " Eckhart Tolle

At this time I want to express my gratitude for you. Thank you for staying with your practice. Thank you for being adaptable and flexible and keeping your sense of humor when virtual classes got a little glitchy. Thank you for staying open to trying something new. Thank you for your donations, too. I appreciate them so much. They are helping me as all of my work in the hospitals stopped and hasn't begun again. Thank you for feeling free to connect with "virtual strangers." Thank you for the discussions we have had every week. 

​There are times in our lives when we seem to have to search for even one thing to be grateful for. When the darkest clouds seem to obscure clear thinking, we can find healing through gratitude. Start small and work your way into a catalog of gratefulness. As an evening practice keep paper and pen near your bedside and list things for which you are grateful. "This practice can boost serotonin levels increasing your happiness. Feelings of gratitude activate the part of the brain that produces dopamine, a messenger molecule that stimulates your brain's reward and pleasure center, and stimulates your social dopamine circuits, which make your social interactions more pleasurable." The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time.

We must move to the laboratory where all radical change can occur inside of our very mind, heart, and the cells of our body. I call it the laboratory of contemplative practice, which rewires our inner life and confirms in the soul a kind of “emotional sobriety.” Richard Rohr