Start the day
Write down 10 new Blessings and why you are grateful for them. Read each one repeating “thank you, thank you, thank you“, feeling gratitude for each one.
As this Journey to Gratitude is progressing, we have become more aware and are now expressing gratitude for more and more things. Things that before we had taken for granted. We wake up every morning with such joy for this amazingly wonderful life and how much there actually is to appreciate.
Being aware and grateful for even the most simplest yet most necessary part of our lives, is the air that we breathe. On a personal level we cannot live without air. On a larger scale of things, life on earth, as we know it, would not have even developed.
There are quite a few things for which to be thankful when it comes to our planet
The earth orbits the sun at a distance which just right for it not to be too hot or too cold to support liquid water. Astronomers call this distance the “Goldilocks Zone”. Any further away from the sun or closer to the sun and there would be no liquid water and no life as we know it.
The earth is about 4.6 billion years old and for roughly half of this time, there was almost no oxygen in the atmosphere. The organisms that existed lived on carbon dioxide.
Luckily, a green algae developed between 3.5 billion and 2.7 billion years ago, which produced oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. The same process used by plants today to generate oxygen for our atmosphere.
In time the oxygen levels in the atmosphere increased. Organisms requiring oxygen became dominant. The earth became home to oxygen-breathing life-forms.
The other life forms were not so lucky. Oxygen was poisonous to them and they died out.
It took about a billion years for the atmosphere as we know it today, to develop. Eventually resulting in Homo Sapiens evolving about 200 thousand years ago, and me typing this today, and you reading this.
Be grateful for the air that you breathe
So, the air that we breathe is definitely something for which to be grateful. Our planet could have turned out quite differently.
Rhonda Byrne says,“When the realization hits you that all of these things might not be an accident, and that the balance of every microscopic element surrounding Earth and on Earth is in perfect harmony to support us, you will feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for life, because all of it has been done to sustain you!
The magical air that you breathe is not an accident or a fluke of nature. When you think about the enormousness of what had to take place in the Universe for us to have air, and you then take a breath, breathing air into your body becomes breathtaking in every sense of the word!
We take one breath after another and never give a thought to the fact that there is always air for us to breathe. Yet oxygen is one of the most plentiful elements in our body, and as we breathe, it feeds every cell in our body so that we can continue to live.
The most precious gift of our life is air, because without it, none of us would last more than a few minutes.”
Why is it important to be grateful for something like air?
This is an important realisation on our Journey because the less we take for granted, the more we are grateful. The more we are grateful, the more powerful will be the effect of gratitude in our lives.
Being grateful for the physical and material things in our lives is great and is important. But when we start feeling thankful for something like a beautiful sunset, the sound of waves on a beach, the rustling of leaves on a tree, a thundering waterfall, the awesome night sky filled with stars, the very air that we breathe; that is when we will truly reach such a deep level of gratitude that it is magical.
And the results of feeling gratitude at this level is magical.
Today’s Practice
For today’s practice take five deliberate breaths in and out. Visualise the air molecules entering your mouth, traveling down to your lungs. Imagine the oxygen being delivered by your blood to all the cells and organs of your body. Sustaining them, keeping them alive and functioning, and ultimately, keeping you alive.
Say “thank you for the magical air that I breathe“. Do this five times at different times during the day, preferably outside to feel the full wonder of fresh air. If that is not possible, then do this inside. While sitting at your desk, walking, shopping or waiting in a queue.
Imagine breathing in the magical air of gratitude, filling yourself up with gratitude and breathing out gratitude.
End the day
When you go to bed tonight hold your Magic Rock in your hand. Close your fingers around it and feel it. Think of all the good things that have happened today. Choose the best good thing that happened and, feeling as grateful as you can, say “thank you, thank you, thank you“.
Our quote for the day.
Namasté
Amethyst and Sapphire