Today is the Fall Equinox, one of two days during the year when light and darkness are equal. Today represents a day of balance and marks the beginning of moving into the darker days of autumn and winter–the time of year when nature invites us to join her by going inward.

For many, today is a day to give thanks for all that we have in our lives–for the rich bounty of the summer we’ve just enjoyed, for the warmth of the sun that nourished us and all of life throughout the spring and summer months, and for the wonderful fruits and vegetables coming into the marketplace now that will sustain us through the cold months ahead.

As we anticipate the fall season and the coming of winter, today is a perfect time to express our gratitude for what Mother Nature provides. We can do this with a wonderful exercise I’ve learned and practiced, along with one of my favorite fruits–an apple.

Take a freshly washed apple and hold it. Look at it and really be present to its beauty–its rich color of red, yellow, or green; its shape, its fragrance, its sheen, and the promise of sweet juiciness when you bite into it. Don’t bite into just yet, however. Instead, reflect on the journey the apple seed has gone through, from seed through soil, to tree, and finally fruit. Think about how this apple has come to you from a store, a farmers’ market, or your own backyard. Then, contemplate the origin of this fruit from the very first apple growers, being thankful to our ancestors who sustained this gift for us so that we might enjoy it today.

Take a bite of your apple, savoring its sweet juices and crunchiness. Again, be present to its flavor and the nutritional goodness it provides to your body. On your next bite, contemplate another blessing in your life–something else that you are grateful for. Maybe its your family, your work, your friends, where you live–whatever comes to mind, feel gratitude for it. Speak what you are grateful for out loud and then take another bite. Savor this blessing in your life as you chew the bite of your apple. Continue to bring to mind other blessings, taking bites of your apple and savoring each blessing until the entire apple is consumed.

Allow your apple to remind you that we always have enough in our lives to nourish and sustain us, even in the darkness and cold of winter. We have enough, and we are enough. Let today remind us that balance is possible in our lives and that life’s gifts are always with us to sustain, nourish, and bless us.

Happy Fall!

The beauty of our power as individuals is that we have the ability to set our intentions each and every day for how we want to show up and for what we want to manifest in our world. We can take time each day to connect with our heart intention and to the Divine, in whatever way we experience both. Whether we do that through prayer, journaling, meditation, time in nature, or any other daily practices, we have the opportunity to put forth into the world our intentions for love, compassion, healing, peace, and unity. We have the capacity to experience our interconnection with all that is seen and unseen through our hearts.

Last night, I received a beautiful email from the Chopra Center in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It included a loving meditation created by Chopra Center’s co-founder, Dr. David Simon. In part, the email expressed,

“As we take time this weekend to consider what 9/11 has meant to us both individually and collectively, we invite you to also consider what you wish to see unfold in the next ten years. Chopra center co-founder, Dr. David Simon has created a beautiful intention-setting meditation that will help you connect with your heart and put your attention on what you’d like to see blossom in your life and on the planet. As he has written, ‘The greatest contribution we can make to the well-being of those in our lives is to have peace in our own hearts. Our state of being broadcasts expansion or contraction to every sentient creature within our midst. When our hearts are filled with gratitude and our minds are brimming with enthusiasm, everyone we encounter leaves our space feeling a little bit lighter than when they entered it.’”

If you are so moved, please take a moment today or in the days ahead to experience this beautiful healing meditation.

Intention of the Heart by David Simon from Chopra Center on Vimeo.

With love,
Donna

What if you woke up one morning and found you’d lost one of your five senses? Which sense would be most difficult to give up? Recently, I was involved in a discussion about this very subject. Some years ago, with a group of friends in California, we had the very same conversation. It’s interesting to ponder. So, what if…

I know I take my senses for granted. I have all of them and rarely do I–except for these discussions–consider losing any of them. I don’t second-guess that I will wake up to the sunlight peering through our bedroom window. I expect to taste my first cup of warm, green tea as I sit down in my morning meditation chair. With my sense of hearing, I hear the morning sounds of chirping birds. When I plug in my iPod, I know I’ll hear my favorite recording of singing bowls. I feel the pen in my hand as I journal and record my gratitude list each day. I smell the essential oils of my candle as it burns.

Throughout my day, I continue to experience life through my senses–hearing the sounds of my daughters and husband, smelling our dinner as it simmers on the stove, hugging a friend or family member, seeing the rich colors in my home and outdoors, and tasting the food we’ve prepared. The richness of my days continually nourishes me through my senses.

So, which one would be the hardest for me to let go? Most people say that it is the gift of sight they could not live without. In my two group discussions, this was what every other person said. To not be able to see the world in which they live would be the most tortuous. For me, however, I find that I’d have the hardest time giving up my sense of hearing. To not hear the vibrant and therapeutic sounds of music would be most devastating. To be unable to hear people’s speaking or singing voices, birds chirping, or my cat purring, would be unbearable.

Helen Keller, who became blind and deaf after a mysterious fever at nineteen months of age, mourned the loss of her hearing more than her sight. I tend to think that I’d react in the same way. Since I was born with the gift of sight and have experienced over a half-century of visual input, I believe I’d be able to recreate in my mind’s eye the images of beautiful scenes and the faces of significant people in my life. Sounds however would be harder to hold onto. I don’t believe I’d be able to recreate Beethoven’s 9th in my head or Mozart’s Requiem or Carmina Burana, some of my favorite pieces of music. I doubt I’d be able to hear Sarah Brightman’s range of notes and passion, or the sounds of my daughters’ voices. In time, I believe they’d all fade away. No, I don’t think I could easily endure the loss of my hearing.

So, how about you? What would be most difficult for you to give up? As you’re contemplating this question, I invite you to take some time to really appreciate your senses today. Be present and take in the sights, sensations, tastes, sounds, and feel of your day. Linger a little longer in each experience, and send out a thought of thanks to the many parts of you. And have a wonderfully bellisima day!

Tonight is the Academy Awards–the night when Hollywood acknowledges and appreciates the past year’s best-of-the-best in movie entertainment. Certain individuals, groups of collaborators, movies, music, and more will be honored with an Oscar tonight and proclaimed the winners.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if starting today, every one of us sees ourselves as winners also? Aren’t we all?

We show up everyday in our lives. We care for, provide for, and support our loved ones. We care for ourselves. We stand up for what we believe in. We speak our truths. We strive to live authentic, passionate and spirit-filled lives. We show lovingkindness towards others. We give of ourselves in a myriad of ways. We strive to be open-hearted in order to spread love. We seek connection to the Divine. We seek connection with our fellow human beings.

These are all honorable qualities. These are all meritorious gifts. And most of us demonstrate these attributes on a daily basis.

My wish for you tonight–if you choose to watch the glamour and glitter of Hollywood–is to please remember the STAR that you ARE. You shine your light every day on someone–probably many “someones.” So stand up and take a bow. Write a speech of gratitude for all that fills and inspires you to “suit up and show up” in your life each day. And grab your own Oscar–be it a flower, a glass of champagne, a cup of tea, a piece of cake, or a bowl of popcorn. Give yourself the gift of appreciation and acknowledgment for being all that you are each and every day of your life.

Thank you for being alive. Thank YOU! You are the winner. Take it in today and shine your light onto the world. We need YOU.

And the winner is . . . YOU!

Joan Borysenko states, “The knowledge that all things are interconnected is a first step toward spiritual awakening. A second step is putting that knowledge into action through good stewardship of personal and planetary resources. When the Lakota medicine man Wallace Black Elk was asked how we might heal the earth, he answered that the earth can heal herself; all we have to do is stop making her sick.”

We can stop making Mother Earth sick by changing our perspective. When we are able to see what we receive from the material world as gifts rather than resources at our disposal, we can begin to have a different relationship with all we have. When we begin to see our food, clothing, and shelter as gifts rather than resources, we are able to connect with a sense of gratitude for the way in which Mother Earth provides for our basic needs. Through that gratitude, we can begin to truly appreciate all we have and not take it for granted. From this perspective of being grateful, we will naturally want to use less rather than more. This awareness shifts us from an assumption that resources can be exploited to a perspective that the gifts of our world must be protected by us–to see ourselves as stewards of Mother Earth’s gifts. When we’re able to see ourselves as stewards–rather than “conquistadors”–we begin to see that these gifts must also be preserved by us for future generations. Lastly, we begin to understand that when we exploit resources, not only do we make the earth sick, but we make ourselves sick as well.

Today, what actions can you take that reflect your understanding of our interconnectedness with the web of life? What steps can you take that promote preservation and health of our planet rather than exploitation and sickness?

Here are a few ideas:
*Compost your kitchen waste.
*Donate to charity clothes you no longer wear or your children have outgrown.
*Find a new way to reuse an item that has outgrown its original use. (e.g., Turn old drapery fabric into a retro jacket. If you don’t sew, find someone who could make it for you. Spread the wealth!)
*Organize a neighborhood swap party this spring to promote reuse of items rather than the need to buy more.
*If you don’t have your own garden, donate your compost to someone who does.
*Propose to your town or city that a piece of unused land be used to start a community garden.
*Download music instead of buying a CD.
*Support your local library by checking out books rather than buying them.
*Elicit the ideas of your family to come up with other ways to see everything we have as gifts.

What additional ideas can you and your family create that move you and the planet towards a healthier life?

As the light of our days increases, may the light continue to grow in your own life and heart. And during this season of renewal and rebirth…

May this magical season touch you in new and unexpected ways.
May you experience the joy and blessings of this season each and every day.
May you wake each morning and go to sleep each night filled with a deep sense of peace and gratitude.
May the blessings of family and friends continue to multiply in your life.
May you have wings to soar and a strong foundation from which to take off and land.
May abundance and prosperity be with you always.

Have a blessed and love-filled holiday season!

Whatever we are waiting for–peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance–it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart! -Sarah Ban Breathnach

How open is your heart today? And how grateful are you for where you are at this exact moment in time? We can only experience that which we seek when we recognize what we already have–what already exists in our lives. It is in that knowing that more becomes possible. It is the gratitude for exactly where we are that allows us to open to new possibility.

I often find myself striving for the next thing, whether it’s an internal or external change. It may be something as profound as wisdom, new insight, courage, or strength; or it may be something as mundane as a new business opportunity, a new source of income, a more fit body, an occasion to travel, the next perfect day with my husband and/or my children. It’s about what I want to have in the future. Attached to what I want to have is the unspoken internal message of lack–what’s missing in my life right now. When I am focused on the next whatever, I lose sight of what already is in my life. I also start to feel like I’m chasing that whatever, and it continues to feel elusive and just beyond my reach. Even those sources of pain that may be in my life at any given moment are only sources of pain because I am not willing to look at the deeper meaning of their presence with an open and grateful heart–to see those sources of pain as seedlings–opportunities for growth and expansion.

As Jack Canfield says in Jack Canfield’s Key to Living the Law of Attraction, “You are a living magnet. You literally attract the people, ideas, and circumstances to you that vibrate and resonate at the same energy frequency as yours. Your energy field changes constantly, based on your thoughts and feelings, and the universe acts like a mirror, sending back a reflection of the energy that you are projecting. The stronger and more intense your thoughts and emotions are, the greater the magnetic pull becomes. Now, this is not a process that requires any real effort; a magnet doesn’t ‘try’ to attract anything–it simply does, and so do you! You are always in the process of attracting something into your life.”

Think of your open and grateful heart as the magnet. The more heart-centered we can be and the more open and grateful our hearts and minds, the more we’ll draw to us–or magnetize–that which we most desire. Acknowledging with an open and grateful heart that this very moment is the result of everything we’ve ever thought, done, believed, or felt up to now–and that we are exactly where we’re supposed to be–allows what we yearn for to flow to us.

Starting right here and now, look at your life with an open and grateful heart. And then get ready for all that you desire to begin to manifest in your life! It can be a bellisima life–it is up to each of us to allow it to happen!

Every year in November, we in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving–the day to give thanks for the abundance in our lives. We share it with our families and close friends around a table of food reflecting Mother Earth’s abundance as well as our own bountiful lives. Additionally, many people bring focus throughout the entire month of November to the attitude of gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is “like a gearshift that can move your mental mechanism from obsession to peacefulness, from rigidity to creativity, from fear to love. The ability to relax and be mindfully present in the moment comes naturally when you’re grateful,” according to Dr. Joan Borysenko in Inner Peace for Busy People. Having an attitude of gratitude, as I learned long ago in a 12-step recovery program, is the key to feeling joy in our lives.

When we are grateful, there is no room for feeling lack or despair, worry or fear. It’s impossible to feel fear and gratitude at the same time! When we are grateful, we are dialed into the abundance in our lives. We are able to see the glass half full rather than half empty. We are focused on what is rather than what is not. We are in the glorious present moment! If we live in our heads, we are usually in the past (where regrets may reside) or in the future (where fears and longings may be). But when we’re in the glorious present, we’re living from our hearts where gratitude dwells.

It’s easy to feel gratitude when everything seems to be going right in our lives. But what about those times when we are struggling with present-moment challenges? During those times, according to Jack Canfield in the Key to Living the Law of Attraction, it’s important to “try to be grateful for even the difficult and challenging situations that arise. It is often through these situations that we experience the most profound spiritual and emotional growth. You can learn to view each apparent obstacle as an opportunity to develop a new quality, strength, skill, insight, or wisdom and be grateful for the lessons. Each and every challenge is another opportunity for growth and expansion. Rise to these occasions, and appreciate all that you are learning in the process. Keeping your attitude positive and appreciative through these times will not only help to avoid attracting more of these difficult situations into your life–it will also create a field of positive energy that will attract more of what you do want.”

When I experienced breast cancer in 2007, I initially could not find anything for which to feel gratitude–I most definitely was not grateful for the disease in my life. However, as time passed, I was able to see that because of this difficult time in my life, I grew in courage and strength, learned many things, and had many experiences that otherwise would never have happened. The wisdom and learnings I’ve experienced, the relationships I have formed, and the life path I am now on are all a result of this profound event in my life. Today, I am overflowing with gratitude for where I am today.

There are various tools and techniques that can help bring you to an attitude of gratitude. Here is a list of a few of those ideas that can increase your gratitude awareness:

1. Carry a small token, stone, crystal or some other meaningful object with you each day in your pocket or some place that you can easily access. Throughout the day, each time you reach into that place, you’ll have a tangible reminder to stop and think of something to be grateful for. As you hold or touch your small object, take a moment to breathe and really feel the emotion of gratitude.

2. Anytime you feel yourself “awfulizing” about your life or events in your life, try focusing on all the things that are right in your life. This will bring you immediately to a feeling of gratitude.

3. Start keeping a daily gratitude journal. This is a great way to begin to develop your awareness of gratitude. This doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process–simply jot down five things you are grateful for on that particular day. This can be people, events, or things that you are most grateful for that day. As you write them in your journal, feel the gratitude and appreciation. Remember, there is no right or wrong here. Anything–including the sun on your face, the snowfall outside your window, a kind word, a friend, or just feeling good about what you accomplished that day are all examples of what you might write down. You can do this during the day, but I prefer to keep this journal by my bed and make my list just before I go to sleep. This provides me with a wonderful sense of acknowledgment of my daily blessings as I drift off to sleep.

4. If you prefer not to write before you go to sleep, try using another suggestion given by Dr. Joan Borysenko that she learned from a Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast, author of Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer. Every night before you go to bed, say thanks for something you’ve never thought about being grateful for before. Initially, it’s easy to come up with something new, but as time goes on, you’ll really have to dig deeper to find that something new each day. If you stick with it, however, you’ll begin noticing things to be grateful for throughout your day, knowing that you’ll need something new for that night. This simple exercise keeps you mindful and has the power to change your life.

Zig Ziglar said, “Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important, and by far the most life-changing.” So, instead of focusing on gratitude just on Thanksgiving Day or during the month of November, why not practice a gratitude attitude daily? You might just find yourself smiling for no apparent reason and declaring to yourself and others, “Life is good!”

This past Friday night, I had the awesome opportunity to be in a circle of women and share a spa experience with them. During the relaxation visualization, I asked them to see themselves waking up tomorrow with smiles on their faces and feeling a deep sense of gratitude for their lives.

I’ve read about gratitude in so many books and I understand just how important it is to connect with that feeling. However, as I visualized along with these women Friday night, I felt it flood through me in such a profound way that I had one of those a-ha moments! Even though I’ve heard it before, I experienced in that moment the knowing that when we are filled with gratitude, there is no room for other contrary feelings. We cannot simultaneously feel sadness, fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, inferiority or any other feelings of disconnection.

Along with the overwhelming gratitude I was feeling, joy was present and a deep sense that all was just as it should be. I was where I was supposed to be with these women who all have rich life stories of their own. We were all thinking of another woman whose physical life may be drawing to a close–knowing that we have all been touched by her presence in our lives. In that moment, how could we feel the anticipated pain and loss when we were experiencing gratitude at our deepest core for the blessings we’ve received from her?

In my own life, I see how easy it is to feel disgruntled over “stuff”–big or small. During the normal flow of everyday life, I can so quickly “latch on” to feelings that leave me disconnected–dissatisfaction, anger, worry, frustration, fear, to name a few–rather than connecting to those thoughts and feelings of unquestionable support–gratitude, joy, peace, serenity.

One way to feel connected and supported is to everyday think of 5-10 reasons for gratitude. And as has been prescribed by many, the best thing to do is to write them down. Each and every day–even better, each and every night before you go to sleep. In that way, you allow that deep sense of gratitude to permeate your body and subconscious mind as you sleep. How can you not wake up the next day with a smile and an overwhelming sense that all is well–all is good–all is as is should be?

I started a Gratitude Journal long ago but then tucked it away in my bedside table. Friday night, while talking with one of the women, I remembered that journal. I promised myself that I would begin again to list each and every day reasons to be grateful. They can be as small as “My family helped me with the laundry today” or as big as “I am alive.” No matter what is on the list, I am certain that I will go off to sleep feeling good! And as Wayne Dyer states in “The Secrets of the Power of Intention,” “God is in good.” When we’re connected and filled with gratitude, there’s no other choice but to feel good!