Turning Everything into An Opportunity for Gratitude and Love

The more I engage in spiritual practice, the longer I devote myself to spiritual practice, the more I see opportunities to turn anything and everything into an opportunity for gratitude and love. Allow me to explain through a recent experience.

I recently embarked on an adventure to publish an article on a popular online repository. The name of this online repository is irrelevant, it differs only in form from any other popular online repository. My thoughts about one repository over another is merely a reflection and projection of my judgements. But I digress. Back to the opportunities to turn everything into a practice of gratitude and love…

The online repository I was working on had many people (potentially) comment on the article in production. This was before it even made it to published space. A few comments were very helpful; some were neutral, neither helpful or unhelpful; some were confusing and did not help me any; and some seemed rather harsh, judgmental and some even accused me of acts I had no idea I had been perceived to have committed in preparing the article.

The helpful and neutral comments were easy to take. The confusing comments were, for the most part, frustrating. The harsh comments felt hurtful (at times) and embittered. It was the harsh comments that I reacted most profoundly to. I did want to ‘attack’ back. I wanted to defend myself. I wanted to point out that the other person was wrong in their judgements about me and their comments were inappropriate.

The first thing I did was…nothing. My spiritual practice has taught me that to respond back out of ‘reaction’ would do nothing for anyone. My spiritual practice allowed awareness that what was unfolding was merely a reflection of my own inner state of being. My work was not in attacking back; my work was in exploring my inner world and thoughts to learn from what was unfolding, to assess what I was perceiving and to take stalk of my own judgements and projections.

As I began this unravelling and unfolding process, I was able to begin to give thanks for the opportunity this experience was giving me. I was being given the opportunity to practice patience. I was being given the opportunity to practice receiving feedback. I was being given the opportunity to practice not judging others, even though it felt like they were judging me. I was being given the opportunity to discovery the chinks in my emotional and psychological armour. I was being given the opportunity to heal.

As I became more and more aware of what this opportunity was offering me, I became aware of my gratitude for this opportunity. And as I became more aware of my gratitude for this opportunity, I was able to open myself to the possibility of not only loving the experience, but also loving all the people involved in the experience, including those who offered feedback that I perceived as harsh and accusatory.

 We can turn anything and everything into an opportunity for gratitude and love. Our ability to create ‘space’ between the event(s) and our response to the event(s)—the less reactive we are and the more responsive we become—is in direct proportion to our personal and spiritual growth and development.

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.