The Reiki precept: just for today I will be grateful for everything, sounds easy, but it can be a challenge. You might be wondering why being grateful might be challenging. A couple of reasons that come to mind are perspective and circumstance. The way one looks at their world has an influence on whether or not they feel they have anything in their life to be grateful for. For example, what I’m grateful for may not be what you’re grateful for, and what you’re grateful for might not be what your neighbor’s grateful for. However, we’re all grateful for something. Individuals trapped in an abusive situation, suffering from depression or anxiety, someone who feels oppressed might find it harder to find something to feel grateful for. Getting into and staying in the flow of gratitude is important, especially when life sucks.

When I first started focusing on this precept I was in an abusive marriage, I was having a hard time with one of my coworkers and I found myself in nightly battles with my son over homework. My good days were monotonous: wake up, go to work, deal with an unpleasant coworker, go home, make dinner, fight with son to do homework, go to bed. My bad days were similar to my good days, but with the added bonus of having to deal with Jekyll rather than Hyde when I got home from work. Needless to say, my circumstances at the time made it a bit difficult to be grateful for much more than the superficial (and even that was a challenge). As I continued to focus on this precept a shift took place. It was subtle at first, so subtle that when I actually noticed how in flow I was with being grateful, I was amazed. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to grateful for an abusive, a**hole of a now ex-husband or the crap he put me threw at the time. However, the more I was grateful for the friends and family that were helping me and for the lessons I was learning and the strength I was gaining through it all, the easier it became to be grateful for everything. Learning to be grateful for everything is not an easy lesson, in fact it’s downright hard!

Being grateful for the hard times is just as important as being grateful for the good times. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to be in the flow of gratitude when life’s circumstances have you feeling like you’re in a black hole. However, they’re a great way to start being in the flow of gratitude. The most trying and difficult times of our lives is when we should be the most grateful. Why, because once we get through the lessons, through the muck and mire, through the hell of it all, we emerge stronger, braver and more accepting of others’ trials and tribulations. When we can’t get past life’s circumstances it can be difficult to see what we have to be grateful for and sometimes the best we can come up with are half-assed answers like the beautiful weather, the birds singing, or our jobs that we dislike. These are acceptable answers. But when we get down to the nitty-gritty, these are, in many cases, superficial. When you’re grateful for the seemingly superficial things in life, you can become grateful for the truly important things in life. Not just the well-known important things like friends and family, a home, etc. When you’re really in the flow of gratitude your thankful everything. You’re thankful for the hard lessons that life throws at you that lead to something (or someone) beautiful, overcoming difficult circumstances that could’ve left you in a gutter on some random street in any town USA, learning and growing every day from everything life has given you – the good, the bad and the crazy – that’s truly being in flow with gratitude. Share some of the things you’re grateful for and how you get into the flow of gratitude.