The festive period is a wonderful opportunity to practice appreciation for what we have and what we are given, rather than focusing on what we don't have. However, we need to appreciate what we have every day. Why is this important? Contentment is inner equilibrium, being in harmony with the ups and downs of everyday life and we can achieve it by appreciating what we have. Inner contentment is a wonderful feeling of being alive. Brother David Steindl-Rast says "in daily life, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy." Brother David reminds us no matter how many goodies are lavished upon us in life, unless we are grateful for them, we are still beggars at heart. What a sobering thought. In the western world we rarely learn about abundance and how to embrace our blessings, either at home or at school. The media feeds us with rapes, murders and horror stories and most of us concentrate on what we don't have, the past, the future, the shoulds, the way it is supposed to be and consequently we forget how much we really have. We take for granted what we have and we also often take for granted the people who are significant in our lives. It is interesting to note that when we say "thank you" we are acknowledging a gift that we have been given. When we give thanks we usually feel good and any poverty disappears. Many of us find it difficult to say "thank you" because we think that we give more than we receive. This may be true. But sometimes we think we are giving more than we get simply because we fail to notice how much we are given. It is difficult to appreciate life and other people if you first do not appreciate and support yourself. This means training the mind to stop the "old chatter" of self-criticism and changing to self-acceptance. At the beginning it may mean flooding yourself daily with affirmations of approval, acceptance and love for yourself. According to Shakespeare, ‘The world is a stage’ and you choose a suitable role in it. You are the scriptwriter, and the principal actor and you determine the language by the quality of your thoughts, but don't forget you are also the audience. You can applaud yourself loudly and enthusiastically even if others don't. You can hug yourself every morning, pat yourself on the back in praise and recognition and affirm yourself. Maybe you think that is strange. But after all you are with yourself twenty-four hours a day. If you don't like yourself and appreciate yourself, how are others supposed to like you? If you don't like yourself, how are you going to like, love and appreciate others? Life does not always treat us fairly or gently at times. From time to time we have to expect to be treated unjustly or have difficult times. It is during these times that we have to treat ourselves nicely to reduce tension and frustration. We need to accept the way we are, with our faults and weaknesses, our successes and failures and see our difficulties and problems as opportunities for learning and personal growth. If we can do this we really are flowing with life and appreciating whatever life hands to us. When our hearts are filled with gratitude, we feel a deep desire to give back to the universe and the people around us. As we feel appreciation and gratitude we lose our temper less, we are kinder to others and care more about the state of the environment. Appreciation is one of the most powerful ways of healing the many hurts that may be hindering our ability to truly enjoy our lives. As we practice more in our every day lives, appreciating all that we have, life becomes joyous, light and happy.
