Several years ago, when I was going through a tough time, I spoke up in a seminar and said that I wanted more joy in my life. The coach, Denise Palmisano, replied that if I wanted joy, I needed to cultivate gratitude. She said to me, "Janet, gratitude is the road to joy." That interaction changed my life in a profound way. I began a gratitude practice every evening at the end of my day. In a journal I wrote 5 things for which I was grateful. At first it was difficult to find things to appreciate, and I found myself being thankful over and over for the food on the table or the roof over my head. As time went on, it became easier and sweeter to notice all the wonderful people, things, and actions around me. Sweeter still, each time I connected with gratitude, I could find joy right behind it.
Gratitude has become an important part of my life, an aspect of my personality. I love the feeling of it in my body. Gratitude feels like the sun shining down on me – warm, loving, nourishing, life-giving. It wells up inside my heart, like an overflowing fountain. It is more than giving thanks. It is an appreciation of the beauty of the planet, an openness to seeing the contributions of others, a willingness to give credit, an awareness that I am never alone.
Gratitude, along with the willingness to let others in, is the antidote to overwhelm. When I am in overwhelm, I am thinking something like "I have all this to do, and I can't do it all myself." When I stop to appreciate what others are doing, or I create an opportunity to someone else to contribute and then I appreciate that contribution, I reduce that feeling of overwhelm.
Because gratitude begins as a conscious awareness, a thought, or a statement, it is a choice that I can make which produces immediate results in my mood, my outlook, my possibilities, and my actions. When I use Reiki energy, the best way for me to access it is to experience gratitude; this opens up the pathway for the Reiki energy to flow through me. Gratitude makes me smile, and smiling makes everything better.