Walking in Gratitude

I walk in gratitude

I stand in grace

I hold tight to my peace

I take up space

I drip light on my thoughts

I walk in gratitude

Through the thunderous storms

I walk in gratitude

For gratitude is my home

Gratitude. It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot. You know expressing gratitude is good for your health so you diligently write down your daily gratitudes for the day. This is a great practice that builds good habits but it’s missing some key components

It all started at the end of college with a meditatiation class I took toward the end of college. I was always so stressed, working almost full time with a full class schedule and social life. That first brush of meditation was my first experience with learning how to deal with stress.

I was just before the birth of my first child that I discovered the world of spirituality, mantras, and gratitude. I picked up the book Living in The Light by Shaki Gawain. This book changed everything for me. It was the start of this beautiful journey.

From there I found kundalini yoga, jounaling, Meditation, and really cemented in writing down my daily gratitudes and started learning about manifestation.   

Just about three years after discovering kundalini yoga I found I was pregnant with my biggest surprise of my life! Twins.

It was after the twins were born that I finally understood what expressing gratitude should feel like.  I was sitting on the floor with my journal, both of my boys laying happily in their twin z pillow, me running on about two hours of sleep.  I sat down and wrote…

I am grateful for my children……

Then I paused.  I only felt nothingness when I wrote that, I of course was tremendously grateful, and I felt immense love towards my children.

But in that moment I realized that just writing my gratitudes did not actually bring up any emotions at all.  So I set to work.  The work of connecting gratitude with feelings.

Each morning I sat and I put my hand over each of my babies hearts and I looked them in their sweet little faces and told them how grateful I was for them. Then I would do this with each of the things I was grateful for followed up with writing them down.  For the first time ever I was feeling into gratitude.  Purposely connecting the emmence feelings of gratitude with the practice of writing gratitudes.   

Try it out:

Sit and choose one thing you are grateful for.  Say I am grateful for_____. See how that feels to say or write it. Really focus on how you are feeling in your body.

Now bring the person or thing you are grateful up in your mind.  For this example I’m going to use a person you are grateful for.  Close your eyes and think about this person.  Bring them up in your mind.  Think about all of the happy memories, things that they do that bring you joy, the love you have for them.  Keep going until you can feel the gratitude in your heart.  Then, write or say I am grateful for______.

Did it feel different? Practice this daily.