The importance of gratitude

I woke up early this morning and went for my early morning spinning class in the gym. I decided to make gratitude my theme for the spin. While I was cycling I thought about all the things I am grateful for and such a loving feeling welled up from deep within me. I felt like my consciousness had expanded and filled the entire room. I was quite near the speaker for the music which was very loud and funky and I lost all awareness of where I was. These times are so special for me because I cannot achieve the state by meditation in the normal sense. Thinking about gratitude and bringing to mind times where something happened and I was grateful opens the heart. Awakening the heart is one of the most significant experiences of the spiritual path. When the heart awakenes there is a genuine feeling of one-ness between oneself and others. There is no feeling of separation. There is a connection and closeness with everyone and everything. Gratitude brings about this feeling.

After the class I went for a coffee with some of my fellow spinners and we chatted about the class. I was aware of a deep unexplained contentment. I came home and went for a walk and came across some people who were claiming to bring messages through from God in the answers people provided from the way they analysed various pictures. I was intrigued and stopped to speak to them. They told me that they brought messages through from God and it has brought comfort to many people. They asked me to choose a picture and I chose one which had a dolphin and a cow jumping out of the water. This picture struck me because it seemed to reflect where I feel I am at the moment. I would love to be as free and spiritual and light as the Dolphin but I feel more like the cow, dense and heavy. The words which came through from God for this picture were synchronicity, peace, spiritual. There was something about the experience that was compelling. It ended by them telling me that they would ask God to send me a dream. This would be some feat because I never remember my dreams, in fact I don't think I have them. Even though I am sceptical, if they are bringing comfort to people and people feel better and feel greater belonging after speaking to them then who am I to knock it. Even though they gave me a card with their internet details on it there was no hard sell of any description.

Afterwards I walked home through the park and the feeling of joy, peace, bliss was so overwhelming. I looked at the trees and noticed the various shades of green and some yellow as nature gears up for autumn and I filled with awe and amazement once again for the natural world. I was so grateful for the eyes with which I could see it all. As I connected again with the energy of gratitude I felt something shift deep within me and I thought to myself 'is it possible to this happy for no particular reason' and I thought yes, it is gratitude which gives access to such deep joy. Every night before I sleep I always say thank you for the day I am saying goodbye to. I am aware that everything I did today and said today I will never say again in exactly the same way. I created my day and it is right to give thanks when the creation ends.