Today is a beautiful day

Today in the UK the weather is its characteristic grey. That may be an outer reflection of how people are feeling inwardly. Often at this time of year, as the evenings draw in and and it gets colder and it rains, November is when people often feel depressed. With the economic storm clouds gathering and people's livelihoods on the line, this may feel a doubly depressing time for many.

It can be very easy to lose sight of hope. With depression, life closes in and becomes heavy and lifeless. One feels hopeless.

It can also be hard to see what is positive in life and to lose touch with what one does have that has value.

Losing sight of oneself and one's value is a deadly process. It is also a complete denial of who we are, which is infinite value. Part of the human condition perhaps is to be tested in this.

The practice of gratitude can seem a remote activity at this stage but it has great merit. With gratitude, you tune in to yourself and state what it is in your life that you can be grateful for at some level. Make a list. Bring in everything, even the body which you inhabit and the beauty of nature that surrounds you and the air that you so freely breathe. You might find that gradually the list gets bigger. After all, as a human you do have great merit. Like everybody else, you're just learning.

The practice of gratitude is a way of saying thank you for something given, freely given. In expressing gratitude, we open our hearts and energetically give our love to others, or in this case to ourselves for what has been given. After all, what is more important than to love ourselves - because we are temples of love.

With these thoughts of giving in mind, especially to those who have not or who are without, as we do as Christmas approaches, you might like to watch this touching short (5 min) film on YouTube. I think it's been around before but I just got the bigger version today. It certainly touched me.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0ux90HFe7Ds

And not lose sight of what really matters.

When change finally comes at last

When much wanted change finally comes, it can seem like a wonderful fresh breeze blowing away a lot of stale air. After a period of being stuck, all seems fluid and hopeful, full of possibilities. Perhaps the election of Barack Obama, the first black President of the US and with a very different dispensation from the previous regime, may be one of those moments - a fulfillment at last of Martin Luther King's dream. Despite the financial crisis and looming recession, there is maybe at last something moving in the body politic and one which offers a new dawn on the issues the US and the world face. So, welcome Obama!

When wanted change finally comes, it sweeps in or emerges gradually, but it does happen. Suddenly everything can look like a different place. Somehow there seems to be a sense of possibility. When shifts like this happen, we look upon the world differently and believe in things in a way that we didn't before. When whole groups of people do this, lots can happen. It's very powerful.

And it's worth enjoying a new sense of optimism, even when times seem difficult.

It's a great object lesson on how a change in our perception of a situation can affect our whole outlook on life. Of course we think it is something in the external world that has created it, the illusion of Effect. According to that way of understanding things, what we think is conditioned by things outside of us. What we don't see is that we are at Cause in the process, albeit in this case jointly. It is our minds that have changed, we have thought the new thoughts and felt the new feelings, and we actually control that, even when we think we don't.

For me, it is a useful reminder that perspectives can change when I change what I see, or in other words when I think differently. Whatever the stimulus, internal or external, my mind neurologically goes down different pathways, and makes new meanings. What it is important to remember is that we can change how we see things and have different outlooks and different options as a result.

As we now contemplate a possible new order, it might also be useful to think about what we could be viewing differently ourselves. Who or what could you be thinking about differently? Is there someone who you've being seeing in a negative light, who perhaps actually has some positive qualities, if only you let go of that negative attitude which might be past its sell-by date? Is there someone whom you could forgive? Is there a situation which you keep reacting to in a particular way, which if you let go of your attitude and started to think differently might actually get changed or be approached differently?

In fact, what needs to change in your life at the moment? What are you hanging on to that is past its sell-by date? What in your life is stale and needs to be moved on. How much have you found yourself being a victim of circumstance or other people when maybe if you changed your mind could be moved on in some way?

When significant change occurs, yes we might feel scared, but also it opens up new possibilities. And it's important therefore to think about what you intend, what you envision, and how you could move with the change yourself, and embrace a different, more fulfilling reality. It is after all your own choice.

So, with the advent of Obama, now might also be the time to bring in some changes for ourselves, and take responsibility for that.