21 Gratitudes & The Power of Gratitude
Tuesday 14th of April 2020
- Concept Overview (this gives an overview of what is in the video lesson).
- Welcome to the 21 Gratitudes Movement Medicine Study Hub lessons. Details about the structure of all lessons (as above).
- Ya’Acov: Where did the 21 Gratitudes come from? Ya’Acov shares about his dream from 3 decades ago and explains how it relates to the mandala of Movement Medicine. The attitude of gratitude.
- Susannah: Gratitude practice is not “sugar on shit”. It’s not about trying to replace or transcend whatever we are feeling with gratitude. It is about adding gratitude to the mix and through that, gaining more perspective and resource. She shares a metaphor of walking up a valley in Switzerland (close to the Waldhaus Centre) and, as one goes up the hill, the grand vistas of the high mountains appearing into view - the altitude (as well as the attitude) of gratitude.
- Ya’Acov: shamanic understanding of reciprocity. How gratitude opens the door to receive. Perspective and reciprocity.
- Susannah: Rachel Naomi Remen (My Grandfather’s Blessings) speaks about how many of us have many more blessings than we have actually received and taken in. The energy of gratitude helps us receive what we already have.
The stance which gratitude encourages is one of inner empowerment. We are saying to ourselves and to life: “I am someone with something to give.”
Our gratitude as a bouquet of flowers. And when we genuinely offer this to another, it is a mutual empowerment
- Movement Practice
- Starting with safety. Clear the floor and acknowledge and listen to how your body is right now and moment to moment. We invite you to awaken the dancer, moving through the body exploring an attitude of gratitude for each part of the body. At the end of the practice, we invite you to expand and offer your gratitude out into the world around you.
- Reflection
- After your practice, reflect on how this feels in your body, using interoception (see the “Key terms” video which you will find in the “Orientation Section”). The movement practice is also provided as a separate MP3 (audio only) and is available to make it easier for you to use regularly.
- We suggest you do this practice at least 3 times this week. And explore how it develops. You can use the recording of course and, once you get the feel of what we are doing, give your attention to cultivating an attitude of gratitude for your body, in the dance, and as you go about your daily life.
- Integration
- Try being more explicit in your gratitude towards others. Offer “thank you’s” big and small. Write that letter. Thank the delivery person, the shop keeper. No thank you is too small to make a difference. Take time to recognise what happens in you and in the space between you (the relational field).
- Check out the key to the mandala in the “Orientation” section. Take some time to go through the 21 stations/gateways of the mandala and explore what you can genuinely find that you can be grateful for connected to each gateway. Write these down. Make a collage. Paint them. Sculpt them. And of course, embody them and dance them. Use the recording of our inaugural ceremony from time to time to help you with this. Get creative! This is a great way to get to know the mandala as well as to see the topography of your own gratitude. Notice how this affects your feeling in your body.
- Dangers to watch out for:
- One danger with gratitude as an idea, is that, especially for those of us with tendencies towards trying to be “good” or “spiritual” or “perfect” it can become a strong inner “should”. We may feel we should impose the feeling of gratitude on ourselves, trying to relegate other feelings to a “not OK” hiding place. This does not work! The surest way to kill real gratitude is to try to impose it on oneself. All the other feelings have their place. When you are sad, distressed, frightened, or angry, acknowledge and allow those feelings to the extent that you can safely do so Gratitude is the result of allowing the heart to move freely through all its feelings. If you want more information on this, read the Heart chapter in our book “Movement Medicine” by Ya’Acov and Susannah Darling Khan (available from Amazon and other book sellers).
- Another danger of this practice is that in our enthusiasm to “do our practice,” we can ‘inflict’ our gratitude on another person, rather than tuning into how they are and what is appropriate in that moment. Pay attention to where your focus is. Are you seeing the other and seeing how they are in this moment? Or is your focus on yourself, wanting to “do your practice”. Try turning the strength of your explicit gratitude up and down. Learning to give your gratitude appropriately for the situation is an art form in itself. We suggest not too much and not too little. Learn from what happens.
- Another danger is the temptation to tell other people that they should be grateful. “Don’t be upset! You’d feel better if you did some gratitude practice”. This is not likely to be helpful. We are giving you a practice to practice doing yourself.
- As you connect with and express your gratitude, it is a common phenomena that other feelings can arise which sometimes contain a poignant mixture of feeling of tears, joy and gratitude. This is natural, healthy and normal. Take some big gentle breaths, wrap yourself up in your arms and let these feelings gently be.
- Finally, practice beginning and ending the day focusing on what you can be genuinely grateful for in yourself, in others and in life. Nothing is too seemingly tiny to matter. Nothing too big to mention. This practice may seem small, but, in our experience, makes an immense difference to our lives and our feeling of resources, connection with goodness and our capacity to receive it.
- Resources:
- The Little Book of Gratitude by Dr Robert A Emmons
- My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen (hugely recommended)
- Movement Medicine by Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan
- The music we used for the practice is called Word Free Dance into Nothing from Susannah’s first album Party for God. Available for download from music-medicine.co.uk