Being Thankful
Thanksgiving Day is one of my favorite Holidays to celebrate. Not because of all the food we get to eat (calories do not count on that day, right?) but because we all get an opportunity to reflect why we are thankful for in our life. Being thankful is something that I decided to practice everyday decades ago. It is part of my daily prayer. When one practices something for a long time there are bound to be difficulties along the way. There have been plenty of times when being thankful was really difficult. It was specially at these times that I told myself that I was not just going to say "I am grateful" and move on. During those times I had to dig really deep to feel grateful.
I wish I could tell you that connecting to gratitude in this way made me feel very cheerful and happy but that did not happen every time. But in those moments connecting to gratitude did bring understanding and acceptance of the situation at hand. It also brought the realization that even at those times there was something to be thankful for. Even if that something was the breath. Have you ever been thankful for your breath? Not as a consolation price or because it's the only thing you have but because you truly madly deeply feel grateful for it?
As much as I love Thanksgiving Day it has not been a smooth journey. Learning about the history behind this holiday turned me off to it for a few years. It is good to know this because it added a new dimension of clarity to our collective awareness as a nation. I realized that yes the origin of this holiday is less than ideal and I am grateful that I know this. I also decided that to me the essence of this holiday is the remembrance of our capacity to be thankful and grateful. So I am personally reclaiming this holiday... all of it and not just the nice parts.
Today I also want to thank all of you for letting me be part of your yoga journey, for sharing your practice with me, and for putting up with all my rants either via email or in class for all these years.
The biggest, most heartfelt, and brightest:
THANK YOU!!!
to you all
and
HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!
Blessings
Jorge Nihal
