Learning Gratitude – Part 4 – The Framework

As I sat drinking a half bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling cider (from the bottle), and feeling like a bit of a lush, (hahaha), I started doing the first draft on my ingratitude R&R work.  It began with looking at the basic’s of feeling ungrateful and replacing ingratitude with gratitude, but then I looked in earnest and I started wondering what are the real reasons for my ingratitude habits?  Those questions led me deeper into what we could term, the origin of my ingratitude story.

Try and remember that all of our stories are good. They are what cause us to be who we are and get us to do and reach for the things for which we reach. Our stories have the potential to make us strong and powerful. They can bring us into ourselves and get us to weave more than a single color into our souls. Each of us has a story. In fact we have many stories that we piece together like a patchwork quilt, to make our ‘personalities’ and ‘personal-realities’ come to life.  Let’s be sure to never shame ourselves or others for the stories that have made us who we are. I find the personal stories of every person on the earth to be fascinating and beautiful. Our biggest mistakes, sorrows, and greatest errors are some of the most beautiful and revealing pieces of fabric we add to our quilts.  The best part of our stories is that we get to decide how they end and what they ultimately create. We choose the pattern the patches take.

The beginning of our story is like a good play, it introduces the characters, sets a stage, foreshadows the possibilities, creates the theme, and introduces a catalyst that causes us to be ready for change.

The middle of our stories is an opportunity to create and connect to ourselves, our goals, and our desires. Often in this act we start to deal with and try to resolve our struggles, inner conflicts and the catalyst/problem that arose in the first act. In this act we find out that one of the reasons we’re unable to resolve the problem is because we haven’t acquired the skill set to conquer the forces of adversity we face. We must learn the skills, and when we do, the new experiences and skills cause us to become more aware of who we are and of what we’re capable. This causes our change. We begin to develop into who we’re really meant to be. Often we also encounter others along the way to help us find these patches of the self that must be discovered and brought back and added to the whole.

The ending or third act of each of our stories is where the plot climaxes and we are brought into the most intense focus. The question of how we have choosen to use the raw materials of our lives must be answered. We address in some way the question of who we really are and if we are going to use the experiences we’ve been given, plus our new skills, for empowerment. Or will we fall into loss of confidence and need to make the journey again?

Truly, because our whole life can be seen as one play, all the little micro-dramas fit into the three acts and culminate and changed in a moment to successes where the hero comes off victorious. No matter what has happened in our lives up to this point, the play is never over. We still have choices to make and a performance to finish. No one can decide or judge what the next act in our lives will hold, but us.

Gratitude helps us take all the experiences of the play of life; past, present and future and transmute them into light, energy and beauty. There is no greater power than the power of sight. Physical sight mirrors spiritual sight. The physical and spiritual are analogous functions of each other.  When we feel beauty we see beauty. One does not cause the other, but is a mirror reflection of one another.  When we struggle to FEEL grateful we do not SEE and EXPERIENCE abundance, only lack and deficiency. When we FEEL grateful we also SEE and EXPERIENCE abundance and plenty. They are happening at the same time because they are happening at the same time in different levels of causality and creation. If we truly want an abundant life, we must create an axis of creation for gratitude because as gratitude is expressed, we create abundance for that which we’re grateful.

Gratitude is a gift and blessing. Some people seem to be born with a natural gratitude for everything and everyone. It’s as if they can see the axis of creation and have a natural association with the power of creation before them.  The rest of us are not born with this vision of true creation. It’s shielded from our view by a veil. This is not a problem, as we can develop it anytime we choose.  I was NOT born with the gift of gratitude, but I desperately want it and I know I can all have the gifts I desire, so I’m going to receive it! I have received other gifts through doing the following process. In another post I will share the experience of being given the gift of Charity, but for now, I am going to walk through the process of receiving the gift of gratitude because God says,

“covet earnestly the best gifts…” 1 Cor. 12: 31

To receive a gift we must make the space in us for it. If we have beliefs, thoughts, and feelings that conflict with the feelings we desire, then there’s no room for the new beliefs, feelings and thoughts. We must remove the old  that stand in the way.  Here is the pattern to remove the old patterns that aren’t serving us and replacing them with a new pattern. This is the Remove & Replace format to bring the mind back to its blank canvas so we can start to paint a new picture on it.

The R&R format looks like this:

1. Dear God, Higher Self, Christ… (or whoever you desire to address your prayer to)
2. I’m sorry for (believing, thinking, and feeling…. fill in the blank here with your own feelings, ideas, and beliefs)
3. I choose to (believe, think and feel….Fill in the blank here of what you want to feel, think and believe instead of the old patterns you just repented of.)
4. Thank you for the opportunity to … (learn this lesson, overcome this weakness, see this viewpoint, become…. or any other thing I can see and be grateful for.)
5. Close in the Name of Jesus Christ if you choose.

In the next post will share all of my ingratitude R&R with you.

If you are wanting to feel more gratitude, I suggest you take out a piece of paper right now or soon, and begin to write down the things you think and feel that might cause you to be less grateful than you would like to be. And then replace them with a new choice and expression of gratitude. Follow the format above.