Welcome back to our second session on gratitude.
Today we're going to slow down your candle lighting time to highlight the potential for sensing a presence of now awareness within the simple lighting of a candle.
So as you light your candle today,
Please tune in to the moment of the candle bursting into flame and in that moment,
Try to feel a sense of immediate transformation from the ordinary to the extraordinary as you light your candle in the actual moment of lighting it.
I'm going to pause now as you light your candle with this in mind.
Did you feel something?
Did you feel a sense of peace that the light brings?
It all happens in a millisecond as a candle springs to life.
Beyond words like extraordinary or transformation,
In this instant sensation of light being birthed,
You are experiencing an example of the presence of now.
And within the presence of now,
It is also possible to experience the healing sense of peace and gratitude.
Breathe it in.
At this first stage of witnessing your candle light,
It is possible for the flame to transform your inner and outer universe with light and peace in the presence of now.
And now please bring your hands together in gosso,
In peace and in gratitude,
And close your eyes.
At this second stage,
It is possible to continue to feel a sensation of light glowing all through you.
Breathe it in.
And at this third stage,
You can extend this sensation of light and peace by breathing gratitude for your awareness of this presence of now sensation,
Moving well beyond you into the space you are in now and into every living thing in your midst as you mindfully give thanks for this sacred moment,
This living presence of now moment,
Blending as a healing intention for today's session.
Breathe it in.
And finally,
At this fourth stage of our candle lighting ritual,
As you relax your hands to your lap with fingertips touching in your centering,
Calming and comforting position,
Eyes still closed,
Try to hold on to this sensation for a few moments longer by focusing on your sense of gratitude for the healing presence of now that you are experiencing.
Gratitude has the potential,
As do most positive energies,
To bring us into an awareness of the presence of now in a very positive way.
Gratitude is an ethereal energy of universal life force,
And in connecting with this source energy,
We are touching our own vital energy where we experience Reiki energy in the healing presence of now.
How?
In the example of candle lighting,
Gratitude helps you focus and connect with the peaceful sensation that the light offers you.
And in focusing,
To feel the peaceful moment of light with awareness,
Noticing what is happening to you physically,
Mentally and emotionally in that moment,
And with this awareness,
Feeling this energy of peace,
Also known as Reiki energy,
Expanding into the presence of now.
You can see the logical progression of reactions in what I am suggesting.
Now let's look beyond the candle to see how gratitude can impact your life in other areas as well,
Such as being present with gratitude to a person in your life whom you care about,
Or present with gratitude to an objective you have met,
Or present with gratitude to an unexpected visit or message from a friend wishing you well,
Or present with gratitude to a child asking you yet another question.
Each of these actions can create feel-good moments when they are met with gratitude,
And not so much when they are not.
Many of these things happen daily as a matter of routine.
Without gratitude,
Though,
We miss the opportunity to feel the peaceful energy of Reiki that gratitude generates.
By mindfully training ourselves to come into the moment,
By looking for gratitude in all of our activities,
We are training ourselves to become present in these moments.
We are training our minds to slow down.
It is in slowing down that we become present,
And in becoming present,
We open ourselves to feel gratitude as a living energy of vital life force moving within us,
Connecting us to our source energy of the universe,
Transforming us,
Then moving out from us and possibly transforming others by our passionate or compassionate response.
Why is it so important for us to be speaking about gratitude in this course?
Gratitude is the glue that transforms our humanness into loving and peaceful ways of kindness and compassion as we walk the earth.
It is very difficult for me personally to separate the words Reiki and gratitude,
For each word embodies our inner home space where we meet our source energy and connect with a feeling of something more in our life.
I have another story to tell you that will help to explain.
In my early days of teaching Reiki,
I had a private student who reported on her second class with me how she noticed wildflowers growing by the roadside on her drive home following her first Reiki attunement the previous week.
Now this may not sound like much,
However,
This woman drove on this road every day on her way to and from work and had never seen those flowers growing there before,
Despite the reality that they had been there all along.
They were oblivious to her perceptive reality prior to her awareness of Reiki energy.
However,
As she explained later in her moment of actually seeing and appreciating the wildflowers,
This woman was so affected by their visual beauty she couldn't wait to tell me at her next class.
Nature had been present to her each time she traveled this road.
However,
Her mind was so preoccupied with other thoughts she could neither feel nor see nature reaching out to her.
Her Reiki attunement brought her into the present moment of her new reality to live the presence of now reality of her truth about how she was living her life,
Playing out in the simplest of lessons that nature could offer her,
The wildflowers by the roadside.
And in their quiet beauty and simplicity,
They spoke volumes to her that may never have been achieved in her therapist's office talking about her life.
On that life-changing day,
She was able to receive,
To be held by the etheric energy of nature in a transformative moment of conscious awareness of something more.
She had opened to connect with a greater depth of awareness of all that is.
In the eternal and healing presence of now.
And she couldn't wait to tell me about it,
To share her gratitude with me.
Can you imagine her delight and joy?
Followed by her full acknowledgement that she had never seen this obvious beauty in nature before.
Yet in just one moment in this woman's life,
She was instantly connected to her inner truth,
Her desperate need to slow down and discover other things she was missing,
An awareness that she was living an unbalanced and out-of-control lifestyle.
Her experience was so profound and enlightening that gratitude became an automatic partner.
She lived gratitude through her experience of now reality like a spiritual awakening to something more in her life than she could previously see or feel.
With only an introduction to Reiki's teaching and energy,
She had opened to an awareness of something more that would forever change the way she was living her life.
In relationship terminology,
She had opened or reconnected to a renewed relationship with source energy of the universe.
Seeing wildflowers for the first time was her touchstone from nature,
Reminding her of this eternal relationship within a presence of now awareness.
As we partner with the energy of gratitude as lifestyle,
Our awareness of all that is is reinforced to recognize and open to more and more in our life for which to be grateful.
We do this as the woman who saw the wildflowers has taught us by gratefully living in the presence of now.
I find myself saying thank you out loud in my car each time I enter a busy freeway with enough space between vehicles that my access is easy.
I also say thank you out loud when I find a parking space quite easily,
Especially in an area that seems filled with cars.
It's at these times I feel as though I am being held by an invisible sense of something more,
An energy guiding me in even the simplest of things I might do in any given day.
As we end our session today,
I'd like you to move your hands so that one hand is on your heart center in the middle of your chest and your other hand lightly over your throat,
The fifth chakra that partners with the ether element.
This is a very calming position at any time and especially when you feel stressed.
It's also a healing space of comfort for anyone who's grieving a loss and needs to feel a sense of being held by the universe.
Notice the positioning of your body.
You're holding yourself.
It's a healing space that can hold you in times of feeling gratitude also as you remind yourself of the Reiki precept as affirmation,
I am showing gratitude to every living thing,
Remembering that this includes you,
Yourself.
Rest now,
Breathing more slowly and deeply.
Close your eyes again if they've been open.
Put your feet up and allow yourself to relax into this self-care Reiki position for as long as you need today.
Just reflecting on what we've been speaking about.
We'll continue with gratitude next time as well.
Until then,
Please continue to feel this gentleness for yourself as you breathe gratitude for and through your entire being,
Body,
Mind,
Spirit,
And soul.
