How Can I Step Into Now?
Gratitude is one of the most effective ways to getting in touch with your Soul.
Deepak Chopra
Gratitude is the foundation of our courage to step into our life as it is right now. Gratitude for ourselves is simply Self-Love. It strengthens the ability to be fully present and meet daily seemingly mundane tasks, such as getting out of bed when our heart is heavy and the world seems grim and frightening.
Self-Love fueled by gratitude empowers us to sit in the fire generated by fear, anxiety, and grief. Caring and being loving towards oneself generates good feelings in this moment. Authentic gratitude for anything external must start internally. We must first experience gratitude for ourselves within our heart. Only then can we truly feel grateful for anyone or anything outside of ourselves.
How Can I Initiate More Self-Love?
This deeper, loving gratitude for Self lays the foundation, clears the way and creates the solid support we need. If we want to create meaningful change for ourselves, we simply start where we are, no matter how painful.
The first step is to clarify what you are grateful for right here, right now. Here is an easy journaling exercise that may help:
- Start by sitting comfortably with your journal nearby.
- Bring your awareness to your physical body and do three or more rounds of conscious, intentional breathing. For example, breathe in to the count of 4, hold for 1, release for 6.
- Now, with pen to paper, write about your gratitude. Here are some prompts that might help:
- What are you grateful for right this moment? Write it down, no matter how small or mundane.
- What does being grateful feel like? Be as descriptive as you can, focus on where the feeling of gratitude settles in your body.
- Can you identify–from a place of love and tenderness–what obstacles keep you from being grateful, even for the pain in your life?
- What beliefs hold you back? Can you change any of those beliefs?
How Can I Practice More Self-Love?
Theoretically, change can sometimes be instantaneous. History is filled with beautiful stories of great healings and powerful awakenings. For many of us, significant change is not so simple. Much of the time, it’s our thinking that creates the patterns of struggle and pain. Deciding to step out of the old, often destructive patterns and create new life-affirming ones, requires us to let go of:
- The lie that we need to be different
- The lie that we are not good enough just the way we are
We humans, consciously or unconsciously, have developed habits over the eons specifically designed to protect us and to help us cope with life on life’s terms. In truth, we are all divine beings. Love is innate, it is our birthright. Emotional freedom comes from being in gratitude, stepping into the Now and practicing Self-Love.
Take your time, be mindful and tender. This is for you. Reach for gratitude, it’s ready to open the door for you to step into the Now!
I am here to hold sacred space, to lend a hand and walk this path with you.