Meditation & Mindfulness
Workshop

“Live the actual moment.

Only this actual moment is life.”

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Gratitude.

From Routine to Ritual

After a month in lock-down and in such an introspective, thought provoking time, I thought

it would be a good idea to record and share some thoughts and ideas that have surfaced.

Having more time to spare, my daily meditations and yoga practise have taken on a more

profound meaning, becoming less of a daily constitution but more intrinsically imbedded.

During my time in India, living a more conscious-led existence, a wise guru (one of many

encountered), once told me to treat every daily action as a ritual, from getting out of bed to

brushing ones teeth, to preparing food etc, even walking, eating and driving needs to be

approached with conscious consideration and mindfulness. In fact, Thich Nhat Hanh, the

Buddhist monk and godfather of ‘mindfulness’ says, “When we are mindful, deeply in touch

with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to

be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love.”

So, during this current lock-down, when I wake up in the mornings and I’m more and more

aware that without the usual tsunami of responsibilities, pressures and expectations of

normal daily life, the air feels lighter and therefore the space around me, more abundant.

I’m more than aware that I’m one of the lucky ones; I live in the countryside, with access to

a garden and green areas to walk; my working hours have been limited to a few on-line

sessions and so- far I’m not running out of toilet roll. That’s not to say I haven’t felt acute

pangs of guilt, especially after talking to friends who are currently working on the ‘front-line’

dealing with the worst of the crisis, but through moments of calm, I’ve been able to breath

and replace those choice cuts of guilt with gratitude, a much more productive substitute

and a far more positive one.

So, today its gratitude that I’m attempting to focus on when I practise my daily mindful

meditations, e.g. gratitude for the mobility in my body when I do my yoga stretches in the

morning, gratitude for the strength in my muscles as I move through choice asanas, even if

they creek and ache, and gratitude for the skin that envelopes me as I shower, dry and

moisturise my body. This bit can be hard as like many of us, self -depreciating women, I can

judge and obsess over my body’s imperfections which I must remind myself is the ego

speaking and not the truth.

I find that touching or stroking things (in the safety of your own home) and making a

blessing as you do so, is a helpful tool to focus on what’s in front of you and usually taken

for granted. In fact, at the end of every yoga class/session I always end with a closing prayer

followed by a self- blessing, touching head, arms, torso, legs and feet before bowing to both

the ‘god within’ then the universe, symbolised by our yoga mats.

So when I greet my home in the morning I try to continue this practise (much to the

amusement and confusion of my partner) by blessing everything I come into contact, with

love and gratitude, e.g. my trusty electric toothbrush as it cleans my teeth, the banister, the

soft carpet under my feet, the view from the window, the kettle as it boils water for my tea,

the toaster as it browns my bread, my chickens as I feed them their grains, and collect any

eggs (that’s an easy one), the clear sky, my garden, every mouthful of my breakfast, every

sip of tea and even my toilet and the toilet paper.

Most of these activities are part of our daily routine, yet when they are done with a little

more consideration and thought, they can be transformed into to something far more

meaningful and therefore more profound.

It’s all about practising gratitude and appreciation, by honouring what we have through

ritual and consideration then all the ego- led trappings such as aspiration, greed, avarice and

even the fear of missing out, lose all their power.

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” – Anonymous

Ultimately I’m most grateful for the time given to me during this lock-down period, soon the

world will be back on its axis, spinning to the familiar rhythms of work, entertainment,

travel, commerce and capitalism, and I’m treasuring every day as a precious gift, a way of

noticing things, time to acknowledge and enjoy.

Deepak Chopra, another learned guru, that I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting, talks of

practicing gratitude in his 21 day Abundance Meditation programme. He suggests that

throughout our day we look for, and find, as many things as possible to be grateful for, then

to make an endless list as we go about our day, and let that list include all aspects of life,

from the physical, mental, emotional to the spiritual. He asks us to be attentive and

observant of the small things and big things, the obvious or mysterious…. And as we notice

all this abundance around us, breathe it all in and allow our being to be filled with joy and

gratitude.”

“Gratitude is a divine attitude in wisdom traditions. It takes you out from the ego-self and

takes you into the higher self. That higher state of consciousness initiates self-repair, self-

regulation, and healing.” Deepak Chopra