What are you practicing?

We all practice some thing. Many things, really.

I like this word “practice,” not because it is trendy; if anything that makes me slightly disinterested in using this word. I like this word because in mind’s eye (can you imagine an eye in the mind? I imagine an entire body. the world. eternity) . . . Ahem, in my mind’s eye . . . I see three things about practice (probably, more, but for practicality, I’ll stick with three).

Practice / Is

1. Revealing
2. Fluid
3. Spatial

____

Yesterday morning I awoke to feel the heavy greys—albeit, on a sunny, chirpy start. The grey that sits heavy on your chest (the chest of your mind. see, another body part of the brain), so much so that you have trouble getting out of bed— the day feels weighty before it’s begun. It is not weighty because the to-do list is too long (it could be too short or too boring or too repetitive). And the trouble is not so much in the eyes opening, it is in the soul waking. How do we keep awaking to the same? The same day. The same me. The same routine. (So conflicting for someone who rather does not like change).

Have you felt this?

Are you feeling this on this Groundhog Globe we are currently spinning around on?

 As I kicked off the covers I realized . . . Trina, this is not a novel feeling. This is not onset with COVID or quarantine. It’s a familiar, feeling. One I’ve been practicing for a long time. Well, when I write it like that . . .  UGGHHHH! Practicing a feeling. I think we can practice feelings (I’m still floating this concept—so take it at your own risk). But do think about it. We practice our feelings when we ruminate. I’m really good at practicing the wrong feelings. Ruminating on what is wrong. What is missing. What is tight. What can’t be changed (there’s the butt of my brain). Before this lockdown life, I had been, actively, practicing how to interrupt rumination. Building muscle in my brain.

I reached over for my phone and opened ‘the Gram’ just to check what the day’s workout (so I told myself). Then, I started scrolling. Thankfully, I was interrupted by a square that reminded me about my brain training—about a feeling I had, previously, been, practicing—gratitude (which I’m well aware is very much more than just a feeling).

Gratitude is, really, not fancy. It’s basic. It’s redundant. Yet, if something is redundant, there is usually a reason, and the reason gratitude is a redundant message is because it works. It works because it is ETERNAL.

 

Gratitude is not a nice idea someone floated centuries ago while enduring difficulties or gliding through goodness. Gratitude—Giving Thanks—is an ETERNAL PRINCIPLE. It was. It is. It is to come.

 

When we practice gratitude we are living within the Kingdom realm. We position ourselves outside of space and time. Things are no longer things, they are gifts. People are no longer people, they are souls. In gratitude, we find sanctuary and solace under the King’s jurisdiction.

I got out my journal and pen and listed. I listed everyday ordinary things.

1. Ella cooked dinner last night. I received a break from the kitchen. The salad, with fresh corn, was lovely.
2. Stephen. He works so hard to provide for our family and future.
3. Stephen helped me clean all of the groceries yesterday; it took half the time.
4. Watching a TV series with Ella—spending time together.

I don’t do this every day, but I’m practicing (also practicing: not picking up my phone, first thing. Or last thing. And hopefully not so much between).

Whatever you are practicing—intentionally or not has something to reveal to you.

Whatever you are practicing—positive, negative or neutral is fluid. You can change what you practice.

Whatever you are practicing—will create space or take up space in your life.

 

[Download my FREE Gratitude Journal Here]

 

Tomorrow my intention is to practice giving thanks before I scroll. To not give the grey heavy beast a place to sit upon my chest. I can’t control if he comes, but I can practice telling him to leave. I can show the grey there is no space because I’ve given that room to gratitude. Confined as we are at the moment, we are are not—if we can but remember that we are free within a Kingdom that is outside of space and time.

Leave a comment and let me know what you are practicing, adjusting, or giving thanks for today.

Loads of Love,

Trina

P.S. Join me, with Nicole Zasowski (author and marriage and family therapist) on Instagram LIVE tomorrow!