Being Grateful During Life’s Challenges
Shakti Gawain is the bestselling author of CREATIVE VISUALIZATION, LIVING IN THE LIGHT, RETURN TO THE GARDEN, AWAKENING, THE PATH OF TRANSFORMATION, and several other books. A warm, articulate, and inspiring teacher, Shakti leads workshops internationally. For more than 20 years, she has facilitated thousands of people in learning to trust and act on their own inner truth, thus releasing and developing their creativity in every area of their lives. Shakti and her husband, Jim Burns, are co-founders of Nataraj Publishing. They make their home in Mill Valley, California, and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
It is relatively easy to feel grateful when good things are happening and life is going the way we want it to. Even then, we often take things for granted. It feels so good to take a moment to express our appreciation to other people, to the earth, to our higher power, to life.
A much greater challenge is to get in touch with gratitude when we are going through a difficult time, or life is not going the way we think it should. At these times, we are more likely to be feeling hurt, confused, or resentful, which is perfectly natural. Gratitude is the last thing that would occur to us at such a moment. There have been times in my life when I felt more like shaking my fist at the universe, wondering why it was dealing me such a cruel blow.
It’s interesting, though, that after going through a difficult time, in retrospect we can often see that there was something important and necessary about that experience. We may not arrive at this perspective until months or even years later, but eventually we can see that there was some important lesson learned, a deepening of our wisdom, an awakening, or perhaps a new door that opened in our life as a result of events that seemed negative at the time.
For example, the loss of a job may have led us to spiritual or emotional healing. The ending of a relationship may give us the opportunity to discover that we need time alone, or it may pave the way for a more satisfying partnership. At that point, we may begin to feel grateful that life unfolded as it did.
Usually, a painful time in our life is what I call a “healing crisis.” We are letting go of something old, and opening to something new. Often, it happens because we have already grown in consciousness, and therefore can no longer live in the old way. Sometimes we are being confronted with a necessary change that we must make within ourselves and/or in our lives. There is a grieving process that we must go through as we let go of something we’ve been attached to. We must allow ourselves to feel our fear and sadness, and we can also remind ourselves that there is a gift in this experience that we simply can’t yet see.
So if you are going through a healing crisis in your life right now, reach out for as much support and love as you can, and allow yourself to fully experience all the feelings that come up. Ask that the gift in this experience be revealed to you as soon as you are ready for it. And remember that after a little time passes and you gain perspective, you will once again feel grateful for the amazing journey of your life.
