Heart-Set of Gratitude

Are we just the passive recipients of the emotional state that happens to arise in us? Do we have a say in how we are feeling at any given moment?

Mindfulness points us to be fully accepting of exactly what has arisen for us; the simple observer of such rising and falling tides of emotion. And yet, in my experience, we can indeed suggest to ourselves how to feel. We can invite and encourage a certain feeling-set, a certain heart-set, in much the same way that we can adopt a mind-set. The field of positive psychology agrees with this view as does the Sivananda yoga tradition that encourages thought replacement of negative thoughts to impact our emotional state.

One very powerful heart-set in my own life has been that of gratitude. Over and over, gratitude practice seems to be a fundamental truth of our well-being. There is clear and powerful research that agrees. One such study (links below) concludes that heart patients that journaled daily for 8 weeks significantly improved various heart health markers including inflammation and heart rate variability.

This Thanksgiving, I invite you to move towards adopting a more consistent state of gratitude. Consider an exercise that has had a real impact on my own journey: every morning, as soon as I come to, before my mind has a chance to wander too far, I initiate a gratitude practice. I bring to mind sequentially three things/people/situations that I am grateful for at that moment. I go with whatever comes to my mind first. I state my gratitude to myself, imagining the person, place, or thing. I pause in between each one, to transition from a mere thought, to actually feeling the gratitude in my body, the way I would feel it when a spontaneous feeling of thankfulness arises. This last part is very important.

I usually do this practice as I’m getting my morning routine started, often as I’m making the bed and brushing my teeth. It’s especially powerful in the mornings I don’t feel like doing it because I am not feeling all that positive. I’ve found it a profoundly meaningful way to get the morning started and affect my heart-set for the day. I don’t mean to overlook the fact that many of us struggle with strong afflictive emotions that often feel out of our control. Nonetheless, taking just three minutes every morning to harness this fundamental quality of goodness has been worth it.

Here at Manifestations, I’m so grateful for the founding capital partners, for the great internal team, and for our entrepreneur partners that have allowed me to serve through this mission and to bring this vision to life. We are currently expanding our founding capital partners so please reach out to me if you are interested in joining us. charbelzreik@manifestationscapital.com