Appreciation
“Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.
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This summer when preparing for the Camino, Angela and I discussed the concept of appreciation for a few miles. It seemed fitting to dust off the investigation of appreciation this week, when people are celebrating Thanksgiving and talking about gratitude, so I used it as this week class theme.
Gratitude is a wonderful thing. It is great to stop and be thankful for everything which we so often take for granted. However, we might consider how even gratitude can be breezy and thin. We stop to give thanks for family, food, shelter, clothing, friends, etc. How often, however, do we really stop to appreciate these things? Appreciation is like diving in and taking gratitude to a different level. It is seeing people or things for what they really are, all that they represent, and offering acknowledgment and gratitude for that. For example, you might be thankful that your aunt has come to visit this weekend. You might offer gratitude, which is sweet. However, consider also taking the time to appreciate really what she needed to to do come to visit. The hours traveling, the packing, the arranging for things to be taken care of at home. Noticing this is true appreciation. Expressing this appreciation can make another person really feel seen.
This is just one example. I invite you this season to reflect on what you are thankful for and then see what happens to your sense of awe and wonder as you dive deeper into the realm of appreciation.
With gratitude and appreciation for all of you who read my blogs!
Copyright 2018 Nancy C Murray
Nancy C Murray is a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, Reiki master and spiritual leader. She leads public and private yoga classes and healing sessions and also retreats and transformational journeys.