Appreciation & Gratitude – Oprah and Deepak Meditation Challenge Day 11

Day 11 was directly connected to Day 9 in many respects. On Day 9, we were taught about choosing to radiate the light within us and becoming one of those people who  ooze warmth and love. How exactly do we do it? How do we spread warmth and love to others? The answer was given to us in today’s lesson. By expressing gratitude and appreciation, we can fill hearts with warmth and love.

 

Notice and Appreciate

Come to think of it, when Oprah mentioned people  who always made me feel warm and comfortable, my mind immediately flew to all those  people in my life who appreciate my efforts and express gratitude generously. Being appreciated and thanked makes everyone feel loved and cared. What we do not think about, is that we should give back the same amount of appreciation and gratitude for others to feel the same way when in our  presence. The theory of giving and receiving explained yesterday is applied here as we focused on the centering thought for the day:

I nurture my relationships with attention and appreciation.

This gratitude and appreciation needs to be applied in our lives in two areas. The first, to people who are close to us and have made a difference in our lives. It is so easy to take them for granted and neglect to make them aware of their contribution in our lives. To do this, meditators were encouraged to think of 5 such people and write to them a gratitude-filled letter.

“Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.” —Khalil Gibran

The second, and the more challenging ones are, people who we do not have good relationships with. Here lies a big problem. My ego holds me back and I am pretty sure you can identify with this. But I am going to make an effort and Deepak’s words be my guiding light:

When we are appreciating someone, our ego moves out of the way. We cannot have our attention on both appreciating and ego at the same time.

Thus, appreciating others can be a big step in looking past your ego and growing closer to your spirit. Deepak also talks of difficult relationships as badly wrapped gifts. If these relationships have taught us to explore our inner soul, helped set boundaries, increased appreciation for what we have, then they are blessings in disguise and we should be as grateful for them as our good relationships. True transformation can only begin with real gratitude and appreciation.

Meditation

The mantra ‘Sat Chit Ananda’ is one of my favorites as I have already mentioned in my recap of day . It makes meditating easier as I love the feeling of bliss it imparts. It was a fulfilling meditation today and I hope to be able to say this often.

Namaste.