Gratitude as a spiritual discipline

"Develop spiritual
disciplines that maintain an awakened state."

What would happen if you chose to be grateful...period? No matter what.

"Happiness begins
with our choice to say 'yes'
to whatever Life gave us,

whether we wanted it
or not." Brad Brown, Guide Lines to Feelings

Practice: This week, celebrate Thanksgiving by choosing to be grateful no matter what. Chances are you will notice more of what delights you, more of what is beautiful, more of what touches you. There will also be those times that you don't really want what Life is giving you. Then what?

Remember the five practices in the connecting space "above the line"? Notice, tell the truth, choose, create, and then...gratitude.
Happy Thanks Giving!

Willingness to choose service that provides "negative" Lifeshocks

The Courageous Conversation
"To be courgeous means at bottom to be heartfelt. The word courage in English comes from the French word cuer, heart. Life is a creative, intimate and upredictable conversation if it is nothing else, spoken or unspoken, and our life and our work are both the result of the particular way we hold that passionate conversation."
David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea, Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity.

Living Mastery is being willing to have courageous conversations even if your voice shakes and your knees tremble; to provide the truth of what you see, what you hear and what you think, all in the context of being For the other, For Life, and For yourself. Is that not what courageous love really is afterall; being willing to provide the Lifeshock that may serve to awaken and transform.

PRACTICE
Look and listen for your opportunities to have a courageous conversation with a loved one, a co-worker, a dear friend. What have you been holding back? What are you afraid might happen if you said that....
Find your truest, most noble intention and go forward Warrior.

"Wanting the best for you

is wanting the best

for me"

Brad Brown, Guidelines to Love