An Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude Practices

Here are some of my other favorite ways to practice cultivating gratitude.

Nightly Gratitude: Each night before bed, list 5 things you are grateful for.  This can be done alone or with a loved one where you each share 5 things you are grateful for that day.

Random Acts of Kindness: For some, cultivating a general attitude of gratitude is accomplished by sharing kind words with  others, smiling more often, saying thank you whenever you are inspired to, avoiding gossip, and mindfully allowing yourself to feel the lightness of joy, gratitude, and love in all areas of life.  As Dolly Parton says, “Smile–It increases your face value.”

Journaling: Writing down things you are grateful for each day is extremely powerful. It allows you to note things in the moment and then reflect back on the past few days, week, month, or even years. There is no perfect way to do this! For some people,  journaling daily is what works, for others a few times a week works best.

Flower Essences

If you have worked with me, you know how much I LOVE flower remedies and how POWERFUL they are!  Have you ever wondered how they work?

In Flower Essence Repertory by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz, flower essences are defined as “subtle liquid extracts, generally taken in oral form, which are used to address profound issues of emotional well-being, soul development, and mind-body health.”

According to Dr. Edward Bach, discoverer of these remedies, “This system of healing, which has been Divinely revealed unto us, shows that it is our fears, our cares, our anxieties and such like that open the path to the invasion of illness. Thus by treating our fears, our cares, our worries and so on, we not only free ourselves from our illness, but the Herbs given unto us by the Grace of the Creator of all, in addition take away our fears and worries, and leave us happier and better in ourselves.”  (The Twelve Healers)

All life is interconnected in many ways.  Plants and flowers are another example of this.  In fact, flowers are an outward expression of particular patterns of life force, patterns that express themselves in us as thoughts and feelings.  These patterns or qualities function on an energetic level.  By harvesting and specifically processing these plants, we are able to maintain their energy.  Then, when we ingest or absorb the liquid storing the energy, our energetic patterns are changed.  This change can be subtle yet life altering.

In understanding how this is possible, it is important to remember it is not the chemical composition of the liquid.  It is the life force of the plant that is contained within.  Flower essences are vibrational in nature, similar to homeopathic remedies.  By working vibrationally on the energy field of a person, flower essences are able to have an influence on all levels of human life – mental, emotional, physical, and energetic (or spiritual).

Imagine hearing a moving piece of music or seeing an inspirational work of art.  Both sound and light reach us as waves, or vibration, and affect us on many levels.  They resonate with us and within us.  This is one way to think of how flower essences work.

Kaminski and Katz offer this further explanation.  “Another model which may be useful in understanding the vibrational resonance of flower essences comes from holography. A holographic photograph consists of light-wave interference patterns, any portion of which contains information from the whole and can be used to re-create the original three-dimensional image. Thus, we can describe the water containing the blossoms as receiving a kind of holographic imprint of the essential qualities of the plant. Each drop of water contains the whole configuration of the plant’s archetype. As we dilute the flower essence, we attenuate the physical substance of the infusion so that it is no longer biochemically significant. However, the full etheric “message” of the plant essence remains in the few highly dilute drops we take into our bodies.”

While I prefer to craft custom blends for people that are specific to what they need, single remedies chosen to address a specific concern can be wonderful as well.

Here are some of my favorite remedies for encouraging appreciation:

• Buttercup – seeing one’s own worth and the gifts one has to share
• California Wild Rose – joy of life and deep appreciation for being on Earth
• Holly – Ability to feel happiness and joy for others
• Manzanita – knowing the value of the physical body and world; deep appreciation for the body as the “temple of your spirit”
• Sage – appreciate for the lessons of life; learning and growing from life experiences