everyday grateful

March 17, 2021

everyday grateful
A new wrist mala was born this week. It will be the second in a series of four. The first was 'this too shall pass'. By requests and popularity we have decided to launch a new mantra bead to the collection every three months for a year. They have been created to be worn individually or stacked together. This mantra has been my get up and go for as long as 'this too shall pass'.

e v e r y d a y   g r a t e f u l

 

I believe the most valuable investment in life is gratitude. The more we can bank, the more agile our resiliency will be. 

 

Gratitude is medicine by itself as well as aiding us to open our eyes a little wider. 

 

When we’re grateful, we are most likely to be present with the gifts inherent to us all. Like drinking in the warmth of the sun, sensing the good earth beneath our feet, or simply following the breath deeply in and slowly out until stored tension in our bodies fall away.

 

I am grateful to the forests that sustain so much life, fauna and flora, four legged and winged ones for sharing this wondrous earth.  

 

I am grateful for the wisdom keepers and ancestors who have paved paths before us,
and thankful for open and curious minds.

 

I bow to the farmers who tirelessly turn and till the soil to grow the foods that sustain us
I pray for the elements that support them,
And give thanks for the cooks that enthusiastically explore ways to bring joy to the senses.

 

I ooze with gratitude for those who hear our laughters and our cries 
Push us past our fears and lift our spirits
Clean up the wounds of our falls
Toast our feats and
Awaken our purpose.

 

I am grateful for my many mistakes, past, present and future,
grateful for the comforts that take us out of danger 
And the discomforts that keep us awake.

 

For all of this, I remain.. 
Everyday grateful
  
This week my walking pal Julie Jarvis from Real Things meditation cushions (best meditation cushions ever, I must say) introduced me to the books and work of Dr Edith Eger, an Auschwitz survivor that became a psychologist and helped many people heal themselves of life's traumas. Even in the camps that she barely survived, at no point did she wish revenge and cruelty to her persecutors. Rather than seeking vengeance, she wished the German soldiers healing from their hatred and maintained that they could only kill her body. She was a teenager when she went into the camps and reminded herself often of the words of her mother, to whom she last witnessed as smoke from the gas chambers. "Remember to keep your mind and your heart free. No one can take that from you, unless you give it."

 

Dr Eger wrote two books. The Choice she wrote in her late eighties, which is a retelling of her life. Many parts of her years unfathomable, yet not told through the lens of the victim. She is similar to Victor Frankl that way, as you can read in his book Man's Search for Meaning. Her second book is The Gift that she wrote recently in her early nineties.

 

She teaches that it is not what happens to us in our lives that matter but what we do with it. That it is important to get comfortable being vulnerable. If we don't feel, we cannot heal. She has no tricks to forget or resolve elements of the past but can teach us to come to terms with what is or was. She prompt us to ask ourselves if we are evolving or revolving. Great question.

 

This interview of Dr Rangan Chattergee with Dr Eger, now I believe 93, is long but a brilliant treat. If you can only take it in ten minutes at a time, you will gift yourself treasurable nuggets each time. I promise.

 

To you with love, a lotus and a smile,

 

Gisele

 

Auschwitz Survivor Reveals The Secret To Overcoming Any Obstacle In Life | Dr. Edith Eger

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