Rarely would anyone feel grateful for banging their thumb with a hammer. It’s a painful experience, and reacting to it with anger is entirely natural. Dancing around pretending that one is grateful for to the hammer or the pain would perhaps seem a little bit nuts.

You might however find later that you can feel gratitude for finding that your angry reaction, was very human and entirely normal for a physical being in a physical world. You might also find gratitude for finding in those painful moments, you have the capacity to forgive yourself for having been clumsy, inept and unfocused, when engaged in the act of pound nails.

From my perspective, gratitude is response that happens in moments of enlightenment. It’s that ah ha feeling when the penny drops and you understand something that helps move you along the path towards becoming love and light.

Gratitude was never intended to manufacture some artificially induced sense of peace. It isn’t for the purpose of overriding the individual processes and experiences of living in a dualistic world. Gratitude is the means by which we acknowledge that we have learned something of value to our spiritual evolution and in that moment of recognition aligned more closely with divine intention.

One of the most pervasive reasons for being unable to commit rise out of unresolved issues which cloud ones ability to move ahead (read fear). One of the first things to do, when beginning the process is to come to a place of trust in the self. Not easily done when the process of commuting in a new way may seem like giving over control to energies from without, rather than within. This can, and I speak from experience, feel like going into the unknown.

With Reiki, often we take this journey with someone else and there is some comfort in that. As issues raise up in the session, we can talk through them and gain confidence to move beyond them. Going a step at a time, our commitment can be taken in bite sized pieces, aided by others who may be ahead of us on the journey. The process continues as we gain a sense of self-reliance that helps us get through doubt and fear.

Gaining this self-reliance and trust in the process is, in my opinion a critical first step on the journey. For those locked into fear, this many not be an easy thing to do, especially for those who are timid or retiring. It is something which I feel needs to be a part of the discussion, very well and truly held out for close examination.

Each of is will have our own process, which may appear to differ from others. Under those differences are common elements which drive the process forward towards a single resolution – there in the struggle ends in Love. This is the single thing we all crave, all else is unimportant.