The practice is around gratitude,
The first stage of the spiral of the work that reconnects.
I'm going to read some of the considerations on gratitude from the book Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown.
The originating impulse of all religious and spiritual traditions is gratitude for the gift of life.
Yet we so easily take this gift of life for granted,
Which perhaps is why many spiritual paths begin with thanksgiving,
To remind us that for all our woes and worries,
Our existence itself is an unearned benefaction.
In times of turmoil and danger,
Gratitude helps us steady and ground us.
It brings us into presence,
And our full presence is perhaps the best offering we can make to our world.
That our world is in crisis,
To the point where survival of conscious life on earth is in question,
In no way diminishes the wonder of this present moment.
For the great open secret is this.
Gratitude is not dependent on our external circumstances.
It does not depend on whether we like where we are or approve of what we are facing.
On the contrary,
To us is granted the great privilege of being on hand to take part,
If we choose,
In the great turning.
Gratitude is politically subversive in the industrial growth society.
It helps inoculate us against the consumerism upon which corporate capitalism depends.
Gratitude is at the core of indigenous culture in North America,
Where it is seen as a sacred duty.
Perhaps the practice of gratitude can help us understand the remarkable self-respect and dignity of those native people who have not been defeated by centuries of broken promises and cultural genocide.
It would seem that gratitude and the dignity and self-respect it engenders has helped them survive.
And that is an inspiration for all of us as we face the great unraveling and the suffering it brings.
I'm going to introduce in my own words two exercises based on one of the most popular techniques for the gratitude stage of the work that reconnects.
They are the open sentences exercises,
A marvelous way to bring to your conscious mind clearly and concisely some events and values that make you who you are and allow you to play the role you play.
Please sit comfortably and have your notebook and your pen close by.
First,
Please close your eyes and connect to your breath.
Relax your shoulders.
Allow gravity to pull the muscles and skin on your bones towards the earth and allow the awareness of your spine to raise the crown of your skull towards the sky.
Sitting in silence for one full minute in this spaciousness between the earth and the sky,
Please connect with the feelings of gratitude within your heart.
I will sound the meditation bowl when the minute is up.
Let it rest a little and relax for a matter of seconds finger finger on the idling towards the earth.
You You You The minute is up Please open your eyes slowly And take a deep conscious breath with me Now please write down the first open sentence in your notebook Reflect and complete the sentence in your own words during the next minute When one minute is up I will sound the ball again and Read the next sentence there are five sentences in total First sentence Some things I love about being alive on Earth are Some things I love about being alive on Earth are Now you may complete this sentence in your notebook.
I'm going to time the minute You You You Finish the sentence And now I'm going to read the second sentence the second open sentence a place that was magical or wonderful to me as a child was a Place that was magical or wonderful to me as a child was One minute starting from now you you you you you you The minute is up you can finish your sentence And now please write down the third open sentence a person who helped me believe in myself is or was a person who helped me believe in myself is or was Now please complete that sentence you have one minute starting from now one minute starting from now you you When you have finished a sentence you can write down the fourth open sentence Which is as follows some things I enjoy doing and making are Some things I enjoy doing and making are Please complete you have one minute starting from now One minute starting from now you you The last sentence the fifth sentence is as follows some things I appreciate about myself or some things I appreciate about myself or Please complete in a minute starting from now you you Thank you,
Thanks for your contribution Now I'm going to repeat this exercise with open sentences about the great turning If you heard the previous episodes you would have heard me talk about Joanna Macy's definition of the three stories of our time which coexist and which we move through in different ways as individuals There is business as usual Then there is the great unraveling story Which points to the disasters caused by the industrial growth society and the business as usual attitude And lastly there is the great turning The great turning is the historical moment that we are all called to live in This transition where we are to either serve a new life sustaining society or to provide hospice care to a human species in state of extinction Sitting in silence for one minute with your sitting bones reaching down and your spine tall in the spaciousness between the earth and the sky Please connect again with the feelings of gratitude within your heart Let's breathe in Breathe out Breathe in Breathe out And one last time together,
Breathe in out Open your eyes if they are closed and take a conscious breath Now please write down in your notebook the following open sentences This time you can complete the sentences at your own pace During more or less one minute So here are the sentences I invite you to write down there are only three First sentence To be alive now in this time of global crisis What is hard for me is I'll say it again twice To be alive now in this time of global crisis What is hard for me is To be alive now in this time of global crisis What is hard for me is That is the first sentence which you are to complete And the second question the second sentence open sentence is What I appreciate about living in this time of global crisis is What I appreciate about living in this time of global crisis is What I appreciate about living in this time of global crisis is And the third and last question As I look at my life It seems that I am taking part in the great turning In the following ways As I look at my life It seems that I am taking part in the great turning in the following ways As I look at my life,
It seems that I am taking part in the great turning In the following ways So please answer these questions in your own time Pause the recording And when you are ready to start again Please play Thank you for your responses to the open sentences on the great turning I invite you now to close your eyes for a moment And to think about how these two open sentence exercises have made you feel In our next episode which will be published next week we will move to the second stage called honoring our pain for the world Which the first stage of gratitude has prepared us for Remember that gratitude can be felt in every moment In between these two episodes please practice noticing around you what gives you gratitude and why And read your sentences again in your notebook But also notice that plant That electronic device that person Your hands Even that pair of socks What around you gives you gratitude and why?
Thank you for listening This is Gaia speaking
