Oh, To Have A Life Of Gratitude!

Namaste everybody and welcome to In The Flow with Lorie Albert.

So I get asked a lot as to why I call myself a happy medium.

And actually my husband actually said that,

Gave me that sort of little term because I'm always,

Or at least I try to,

Always be on the upside and try to find the positive.

And I'm giggling a lot and that sort of thing.

I'm happy.

I'm just generally a happy person,

Right?

Hence a happy medium,

Right?

But you know I get asked how do you stay that way?

Like what why are you happy all the time?

How is that even possible?

You know and so I've talked about this and like actually read a lot about this over the years because why are some people tend,

Why do some people tend towards gratitude or happiness in their life and then other people tend towards depression or sadness or whatever?

Some of it I really do believe is a physical thing,

Okay?

So I do give that its due credit,

Okay?

However I think that there is a large group of people.

This might be an unpopular thing to really say,

But I think that there's a large group of people that choose to either be happy and live a happy grateful lifestyle and people that choose not to.

Sometimes for some people it's just easier to not be grateful.

It's how they have been their whole life.

It's it's how they have been their whole life and it feels like who they are.

So they don't they don't understand how to be anything but not grateful or not happy,

Right?

So then of course I get asked the question well I want to be happy so how do I get there?

And the question the answer to that is first of all you have to within you truly make a choice.

It's your it's really totally obviously up to you.

But you have to make the choice in your soul,

In your heart.

Do you want to be grateful?

Do you want to live a grateful lifestyle?

Do you want to live a happy lifestyle?

That is your choice.

And it can be it can be a daunting task,

Right?

And I'm not saying it's it's easy and I'm not saying I am happy 100% of the time because that is so not true,

Right?

However there are things there are sort of tools and mechanisms.

Ooh that's a word.

There are mechanisms that I have sort of put in place for myself to get myself out of that place that I get into or that I can go to,

Right?

Aside from meditation which I always talk about.

You know there's one way that there's one thing that I do that gets me in a state of gratitude almost instantaneously and I want to tell you about it.

And it's nothing it's not a special secret or anything like that.

It's just a way of being.

It's just a way of it's a way of being and it is being present.

I literally was just reading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and in that book he talks about he says that there's this story that the Buddha gave a silent sermon and all he did was hold up a flower.

Oh my god this makes me like emotional,

Right?

Because it's so true.

This is so perfect,

Right?

He held up a flower in front of whoever,

Right?

And he just was looking at the flower and only one person that was looking at the flower with him started to smile.

Because when you look at what is right in front of you,

When you look at the flower in front of you and you just recognize it for what it is,

For what it is and what it's not.

It may have blemishes on it but if you recognize it for what it is and it's its own individual beauty that is pure joy.

That is gratitude.

That is happy,

Right?

So being in the present moment is truly how to find gratitude and you know I know I say this all the time but it's true.

Meditation helps you get to that place of presence and that place of happy and that place of gratitude.

And to me there is no other more important lesson than than this.

Because yes you know we always talk about how we are spiritual beings having a human experience and yeah okay and and yeah you're right we need to experience and we're here on earth to experience everything about earth right?

The good,

The bad,

The ugly,

Everything right?

But if you want to go through it and be in a happy place,

In a good place,

In you know being present is the way to do it.

So that's what we are focusing on today.

So everybody get comfortable because we are going to meditate.

Okay yeah you know when you when you get start getting a little older getting into the meditative state or whatever it can be a little challenging but that's okay.

Again happy and I'm gratitude I'm grateful that I can at least even do this at all.

So there you go.

Finding the finding the thing to be grateful for in a not so great situation that's another key to being happy right?

So okay so let's get ourselves comfortable and close your eyes when it feels right.

And as we take our deep breath in let's focus on all of the muscles in our body just relaxing.

So let's take a deep breath in through our nose and release it.

Ahh.

Relaxing our bodies,

Relaxing our mind.

So what are you grateful for today?

What is good in your life?

What is going well?

What are you so thankful for today?

Could be that cup of coffee that you've already had that just kind of did its thing.

It could just simply be that you woke up this morning.

So our mantra for today is the Hawaiian prayer ho'oponopono and this particular prayer which I've talked about before allows us to dig deep inside and see ourselves and see life from a perspective of gratitude.

It cleanses us,

It heals us and allows us to begin again.

And the mantra is I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

You're not saying I'm sorry for any one thing specifically.

You're not asking for forgiveness for anything specific or saying thank you or I love you.

For anything or anyone specifically it's for the universe for all of it.

It's a universal prayer.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

I will keep the time and let's begin.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

You you you you you you you you you I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

I'm sorry please forgive me thank you I love you.

Start bringing our awareness back to our bodies.

Feel the tingling of the gratitude that is now flowing through our soul and our spirit.

Whenever you feel comfortable you can open your eyes.

How awesome is that?

It is so amazing to be in a place of gratitude right?

So I'm so thankful you guys are all here today.

I hope you take this feeling of happiness,

Gratitude,

Joy,

Whatever it is for you.

Take it with you the rest of the day and enjoy yourself.

Have a beautiful day from my heart to yours.

Namaste.