“If the only prayer you said was ‘Thank You’”, writes the 13th century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, “that would be enough.”
I have been thinking about gratitude a lot lately. Maybe it is because I have been delighting in the spell of spring weather this past week. Seeing the brilliant yellow of daffodils rising out of the moist dark winter soil. Observing the cherry blossom drifting like snow to the ground. Feeling the welcome warmth of the sun penetrate my skin and my soul.
Gratitude is a good thing to live by. It turns out that there is neuroscience to support this. Evolution has predisposed the human brain to register danger and threat more readily, laying down the neuro-pathways to more easily access the survival information when needed. Anxiety and stress is what we feel when our body and mind repeatedly register external threats to our well-being. Most of the things that happen around us each and every moment are not of a threatening nature, and yet we do not notice the positive things very well.
Neutral and positive experience trigger less neurological response; it takes a bit of effort to focus attention and take in the good things that are happening to us. I may be rushing down the street to a meeting, fearing that I will be late, feeling the stress of possible embarrassment, and totally miss the gentle warmth of the sun on my skin, and the delightful play of colour of the blooming magnolia tree as I pass. Brain research suggests that if I were to slow down and take note of the positive experiences, allowing appreciation to rise in me, then the brain triggers a series of bio-chemical responses that increases my sense of well-being, and even happiness.
Check out this TED talk with neuropsychologist Rick Hanson who gives an insightful explanation of this brain phenomenon.
Benedictine Monk David Steindl-Rast comes at the power of appreciation and gratefulness from a spiritual perspective. He makes the surprising observation that people do not experience gratefulness because they are happy, but experience happiness because they are grateful. How do we nurture gratefulness in ourselves? By deliberately directing our attention to the positive phenomena that arise in most of our moments, by mindfully engaging the everyday experiences that connect us with beauty, delight and goodness. Steindl-Rast says that every moment of our lives arises with rich opportunity for us to be grateful. We simply need to slow down, to notice, and then continue to the next moment. Even when the moments holds hardship, danger and discomfort, we have the opportunity to be grateful for the resilience, courage and wisdom that help us meet the challenge. Steindl-Rast askes why it is that there are so many people we know who have all the things, material and relational, that we would think are necessary for happiness, and yet they are un-happy. Then there are people who live in dire contexts, and whose life circumstance we would not want for ourselves, and yet they express great happiness. The difference, he says, is gratefulness – the practice of opening to the opportunity in each moment to appreciate in what is given.
David Reindl-Rast also gave a TED talk, in which he explains the power of gratefulness with delightful clarity.
Then you may also want to see the TED talk with time-lapsed photographer Louis Schwartzberg who finishes his talk with a visual meditation with a voice-over of David Steindl-Rast poetically evoking gratefulness.
May these videos open you to seeing each moment with new eyes, allowing your whole being to respond with gratitude for the gifts that each moment reveal.
Henri Lock is the United Church Chaplain at the University of Victoria. He is part of a religiously diverse team offering spiritual resources to the UVic community through the office of Multifaith Services.
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking HERE
