Many years ago – long before the internet, I spent six months traveling around Asia. Carrying just a backpack and armed with a Lonely Planet travel guide book, I visited Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India and Nepal. My friend and I went to the most unlikely places and I still sometimes wonder how we managed to come back safely.
One thing that fascinated me most were all the different ways of how people seemed to practice their religion or express their spirituality. I experienced many rituals which I clearly didn’t understand fully at that time. One thing I always wondered was why people were making so many offerings – often on a daily basis.
It often felt a bit excessive, unnecessary and outdated to me. Yet somehow fascinating as many of them seemed to be fully engaged in the process. I observed a lot of satisfaction and happiness in their faces.
Today, I’ve got a different perspective on offerings. Every ancient culture throughout history has made offerings. Offerings were made to the sun, the earth, the animals, the plants and everything else in nature. The types of offering differ from culture to culture. If made correctly in their purest form, their common element was that they were always made with a deep sense of appreciation for the bounty of life. People were acknowledging what was or what could be good about life. A sense of wonder, appreciation and thankfulness created a mood of joy.
Gratitude was (and still is) the secret to a joy-filled life.
The modern-day version of offerings is appreciation and gratitude – a kind of ‘Thank you’ to the universe which can be expressed in many different ways. The process of feeling gratitude creates a positive energy around you and for you.
How is this relevant for you?
Nowadays, many people have a tendency of too much negative self-talk.
We focus on the wrong things. We develop a tunnel vision for what’s lacking. And we fixate on working harder to get more of something that seems to make us look successful - now or in the future. We rush to fix things that don’t work perfectly now. All this creates a downward spiral of disregard and not feeling well.
Even in the most challenging situation, there is always something to be grateful for. It can be small and it’s your job to find what’s good and wonderful in every moment. Widening your perspective enables you to discover that in every tiny moment, life is perfect as it is. Focus on what you have accomplished already, rather than on the things you think missing.
Gratitude happens in the NOW and not the FUTURE.
Science is slowly catching up on what Ancient Cultures have done intuitively for a long time. Today, there’s plenty of scientific research that shows that gratitude is like a superpower that
- Strengthens optimism
- Unlocks happiness
- Improves health
- Strengthens relationships
- Sharpens attention
- Helps to deal with adversity
- Opens our hearts
What you can do….
You don’t need to make offerings…
Just take the following steps:
1. Aware: notice what is happening in the immediate world around you
2. Acknowledge: capture what is good
3. Appreciate: feel what you’ve got is enough for this moment
4. Advance: take the positive energy of joy with you to create something new
Gratitude is a habit that can be developed. It’s a bit like building a muscle. You need to do the exercise and finetune your practice over time.
One way of practicing it is by keeping a gratitude journal, where you record your daily reflections.
Another practical way for gratitude in the work place is taking time to stop and reflect on what is working well – in that moment. You can do this after important meetings, stressful events, at the end of the work day before heading home by asking yourself:
1. What did I do well? What’s good? And then, only after you’ve answered these questions and checked in with yourself about how you are feeling in that moment,
2. Ask yourself ‘What would I do differently next time?
What are you most grateful for – right now?