The Conversation: Grateful Heart | A note from Christa Rady
I've found that one of the most beautiful ways to approach my yoga practice is with a grateful heart.
It's so easy to go through the motions of life, disconnected from our hearts path. We say that we're grateful, that we're #blessed but without connection to the heart, this expression is fleeting. It doesn't have to be this way.
The feeling of gratitude that we feel while on our mats in savasana is available to us every minute of every day. As long as we're breathing we have something to be grateful for. Easy to say right? When we find gratitude for the "simple things" that we so often take for granted, our breath, our heartbeat, the sun, the moon … we find a starting point for stepping into gratitude. From this point, we can move closer to our heart. This is where compassion is key.
Finding gratitude can really be hard sometimes. When shit hits the fan and life gets tough it's not always easy to count our blessings. It can also be challenging to push through resistance in our minds that blocks the path to our hearts. When we meet resistance we must meet it with compassion. Compassion with acknowledgment of what we observe and willingness to work through it, not around, but through to get closer to our hearts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Our hearts are our internal compass. To connect to deep gratitude in our hearts, we must clear the pathway to our heart with diligence as our guide.
When I approach my physical practice with a grateful heart I am full, I am willing, I am present.
When I close my eyes and place my hands on my heart, I am grateful.
From my heart to yours,
Christa
