I’ve never been great at giving thanks or saying prayers or anything like that. Actually, I seriously rebelled against saying grace at the table as I couldn’t relate to the words and equated it with what, at the time, I saw as the old fashioned, rigid, religious dogma of my Grandmother (sorry G’ma!).
But I’m realizing more and more the importance of saying grace and blessings (or, in words that resonate more for me: living in gratitude) for shifting my own attitudes and mindset.
There also seems to be more and more talk about the power of prayer and intention for helping heal others and the planet.
In one draft of this article I referred people to the work of Lynne McTaggart and Masaru Emoto for “proof”. But the scientific part of me questioned that idea, as Emoto’s findings in particular are controversial. Yet, what would be the point of prayer at all if there wasn’t something to all this?
Also, as I understand it, there is proof that how we think affects the neuron structure in our brain, so that people who tend to see the positive will have the structure in place to tend to do that, and vice versa. It’s like a vicious spiral, although hopefully in reverse. The more our thoughts come from a place of gratitude and abundance, the more we tend to think in those terms, and the more we will experience that.
Ok, back to my story… In my meditation this morning, I had this lovely vision of connecting with Mother Earth, which was interrupted by the thought “I need to take a shower.” At first I was annoyed, but then I did the meditation thing of just looking at the thought, not engaging it. I then got this beautiful, simple blessing for my shower that for the first time gave me clear language that resonated with me.
Here is the formula:
From this ________ I ask for _______________________. Thank you for this.
For my shower I wrote down:
From this water I ask for cleansing, nourishment and hydration. Thank you for this.
And then I thought about eating:
From this food I ask for sustenance, nourishment, energy, vitality, and enjoyment. Thank you for this.
I continued with my garden, house, work, the dog, etc, realizing this could be used for anything in my life.
And the proof is in the pudding: It put me in a lovely state of gratitude and clarity to start my day!