Core Wisdom�: Daily Thanks-Giving

The officially sanctioned day in November we call Thanksgiving is past, and if you you got into the spirit of the holiday this year, you probably took at least a few moments or more to reflect on what you could give thanks for, who you were grateful was in your life, and perhaps be present to the miracle of life itself.

Perhaps you took the opportunity when you were with family and friends to publicly expressyour thanks to those you love and respect.

Great!

Now what? Do we wait for next year or some other "official" day of thanks?

Here in the United States we are now fully into the official "Holy-day" season of Chanukah, Christmas, and celebrating the New Year. I invite you to use this "officially sanctioned" time of "Peace on Earth, Good Will toward All Humanity" as a launching pad to have each day be a day of Thanks-Giving, to daily be present to the gift and blessing that life is in all its forms and diversity.

I am not suggesting that you do some "feel good" or positive thinking exercise, or pretend that all the "ain't it awful" news that spews out constantly over the airwaves isn't happening and driving people into an unconscious state of fear, helplessness, and apathy that only a new distraction in the form of a product, a scandal, a medication, or someone or some group to blame can numb.

I am inviting you to do something much more radical. I am inviting you to act in a way that will alter your energy frequency within and without; so that what you identify with and how you relate to the world shifts forever; so that what begins to arise in your life are flowing and creative possibilities that you never could have imagined would be possible.

I am not asking you to believe me, only to be willing to test out what I am going to offer you for yourself. If you don't engage in the inquiry, you will be left with your belief that you are right that what I am going to suggest is silly, naive, and an avoidance of reality.

If you do test it out, preferably for a month (though even two weeks will allow you to experience a shift in Being) you will step into a new reality where you awaken each morning with a sense of joy and gratitude, and are open to new possibilities and "coincidences" flowing into your life.

Here it is; The Daily Thanks-Giving Inquiry:

1. Each day, as you awaken in the morning, ask yourself, "What am I thankful for? What am I grateful for?" and then wait...and see what arises. Whatever it is, allow yourself to be with it, allow it, experience it and your gratitude for it fully (how ever much that is in the moment). Give thanks for it. Do this at least three times a day for a few minutes. Before going to sleep at night, ask the question and be present to the answer that arises before falling off to sleep.

2. When you are able to ask and be with this question daily as suggested, then double the number of times a day you are finding something to be grateful for. It can be as simple as being thankful for being able to breath freely, or to have hands that allow you to draw, type, write, hold, and embrace another. Or it may be gratitude for the sense of smell --- being able to smell the aroma wafting from the kitchen as one of your relatives bakes your favorite pie. It might be as simple as the ability to hear and appreciate music, the sound of a child's laugh, the wind in the trees, or a lover's soft, quiet breathing on the pillow next to you in the night.

3. Observe that you can ask the question even in the midst of some circumstances that you would consider unwanted or upsetting, and even then something will arise in response.

4. What if what arises to the question, "What am I grateful for?" is the thought, "Nothing Damnit!"? Do not resist any answer that arises! Allow that answer to BE. Welcome it. At the very least you can give thanks that you have the courage to tell the truth of what is present in that moment rather than putting on a pretense. That is something you can appreciate and be grateful for. When you stop resisting something---be it a thought, feeling, emotions, etc.--it will begin to naturally dissolves back to formlessness/nothing.

5. The folks who recommended Grace before meals were on to something. It does not work, however, if it is just a rote recitation of some words. It has enormous power if spoken with conviction from the Heart.

6. If you continue to do this inquiry with intention and commitment, you will be aware that a shift is occurring; that without your having to consciously ask the question, you begin to be aware of more and more moments arising around you that are bathed in a palpable aura of gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciation.

This inquiry is not some kind of shallow positive thinking trick. What you are creating when you do this inquiry wholeheartedly is a new vibration of Beingness that is resonant with your true, joyful infinite nature. Every time you create the experience of giving thanks, of being grateful, you are interrupting and releasing the conditioned patterns of fear, doubt, lack, and survival that are indoctrinated in us from an early age, and attached to us through identification with the tenacious grip of old barnacles on the bottom of a boat. These patterns of limitation and negative conditioning cloud our minds so we only perceive and attract those vibrations that validate despair, apathy, grief, disappointment, resentment, anger, regret, blame, failed expectations and "Why me!?" cries of victimhood.

7. If you begin, engage in, and continue this Thanks-Giving inquiry, and embrace ALL that arises in answer to the questions, "What am I thankful for? What am I grateful for?," you will discover that the inquiry will morph into a Natural Way of Being. When this occurs you discover that the world that arises within your Awareness is more and more in resonance with thankfulness, gratitude, appreciation, and love.

8. The choice is yours what Field of Being you choose to live from, and what world arises in response to that field. We have all met people who are "Offended Waiting to Happen." These are those folks stuck in negative conditioning who are offended before anything even occurs. They wait for whatever crosses their path to be the excuse for dramatizing the bitterness and suffering that they have created as their resident state of Being. Or we can create a Field of Thankfulness, Appreciation, and Gratitude from which we live and which gives us the world that arises in response to this Field of Being. In such a field, all can be allowed, all can be included, and understanding, compassion, and unconditional love are expressions of our response to all manner of human activity and natural circumstance that may arise.

In this space of gratitude and thankfulness, the illusion of separateness gives way, leaving us with the truth of ONENESS and the interconnectiveness of all life. We then know ourselves to be the authors, actors, producers, directors, and audience of the unfolding show called, "Life As The Universe!", and give thanks for the miracle of LIFE taking place for our enjoyment in the infinite Awareness that we are.

During this season of "official" Holy-Days, I invite you to begin, embrace, and enjoy this Thanks-Giving Inquiry, and allow the New Year to be truly that -- within and without.

                -- Hal

Hal Isen & Associates, Inc. 541-488-7687 [email protected] Ashland, OR 97520