Once upon a time, on a cold winter morning, I rolled out of bed after not being able to sleep all night. The neighbors had been arguing and slamming doors, thunder and lightning kept waking me up, and I couldn’t get comfortable in any position. I got up cranky and frustrated, and my day was just beginning. The real kicker? Two months earlier a friend had suggested that I try meditating every morning! To tell you the truth, I absolutely hated it. I mean, for years I’d kept the same routine of coffee, news, breakfast, and going online to check my e-mail. Now, before doing anything else, I had to sit for a few minutes and focus on my breath? Most times I just ended up thinking about all the other things I’d rather be doing (or simply wishing I was still in bed). As you can imagine, sitting down to meditate was extremely difficult after a sleepless night, but a promise is a promise. I got out of bed, went to the little corner in my apartment that I had set up for meditation, and sat with my bitter thoughts about everything that had kept me up at night. Within two minutes of sitting down, however, something interesting happened: none of my complaints would stick. Instead of being upset about the storm outside, I felt blessed to be indoors. The neighbors’ arguing only made me feel grateful for the healthy relationship I was in, and when I really thought about it, there was no way I could complain about being uncomfortable in my bed while so many people were sleeping in cardboard boxes on the street every night! It was amazing how gratitude managed to stomp every negative feeling I had. My morning meditation turned out to be better than a cup of coffee, and I was positively enthusiastic about the day ahead. In fact, when I ran into my neighbors on the way out, I felt sorry and sad instead of angry, because I knew they’d actually had a rougher night than I had. Gratitude is an amazing antidote to almost any negative feeling. The minute we are angry with someone is the minute we have momentarily forgotten how grateful we are for having them in our lives in the first place. And as soon as we return to gratitude, the anger disappears. It’s amazing! Try it out sometime and you’ll find that smiling is inevitable.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 04:01:35 +0000