The Power of a Thanksgiving Blessing


 

Fiery Fall Flowers
Fiery Fall Flowers

This is Thanksgiving Week here in the United States, always the last Thursday of November. It’s a time when families and loved ones gather to enjoy one of the biggest meals of the year; turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, peas and corn and salad.

For dessert there could be pumpkin pie or pecan pie or, preferably, both  with whipped cream!

All of that is simply tradition and it’s great, as far as it goes.

The essence of Thanksgiving, though, is to express our sincere feelings of gratitude for all the good that is in our lives. This is especially important during hard times when it may be more difficult to find the good.

Yet, the good is always there, even if we have to look a little more diligently to find it.

Once found, however, there is a very simple and powerful exercise we have used and taught for years that will help you multiply the good you have found, and multiply the feelings of blessing and being blessed that must always accompany true gratitude.

We have done this exercise more times than we can count and it has gotten us through some pretty hard times in the past.

Here it is:

** Gratitude Blessing Exercise **

First, sit quietly for a few minutes and put your attention on your heart center, or heart chakra, in the center of your chest. Breathe deeply and slowly in and out of your heart center until you feel your body and your mind relax a little.

Then, rub your palms together until they get nice and warm and place them over your heart center. Let yourself feel the energy exchange between your hands and your heart.

Now comes the really cool part!

In silence walk around your home and place your hands on the objects in your home; your sofa and chairs, tables, lamps, kitchen counters, walls, doors and windows. Anything you can see that you can touch, lay your hands on them one after the other. Go slow and allow the words of gratitude, blessing and love to arise spontaneously in your mind.

Avoid  trying too hard (or trying at all). This isn’t a race or a contest and there is no hurry to get it done. Let the present moment consume you and the words will come, or not. If no words come, that’s ok, the feeling of it is the most important thing.

As you do so, in your mind’s eye, imagine you can see the energy of love, flowing from your activated heart center, up your chest, across your shoulders, down your arms and out the palms of your hands into whatever you lay your hands upon.

You may also imagine sparkling particles of light flowing out of your hands. It’s okay to pretend it’s happening even if it’s hard for you to  imagine.

Confer your conscious blessing of love and gratitude on them and give thanks for the function they perform in your life. The chairs and sofa for providing a comfortable place to sit and be with friends and family. The walls forholding up the roof and providing shelter from the elements. The lamps for filling your home with light. The kitchen counters and appliances for providing the means for preparing nurturing food.

If you have pets, you can do this with them, too  – they really like it. It also works really well on humans! If it seems a little weird to do with humans you can always do it secretly in the privacy of your own mind when no one is watching — or even if they are!

You always have the power to express your love and gratitude in this way. And when you do, you ignite a highly refined vibration that fills your physical, emotional and mental bodies. This high, refined energy also fills the physical space of your home and is projected into the very matter of whatever you put your attention on and lay your hands on and elevates the very atmosphere you breathe.

When doing this consider the scientific truth that everything you touch is ultimately made of photons, particles of light. All matter is in a quantum state of light and information at its deepest level. It is more than the material we see with our eyes and by engaging in this blessing and gratitude exercise you make yourself available to BE TOUCHED at the deepest, quantum level, as well.

If you can do this in a slow, meditative, patient manner and truly enjoy the experience we predict you will feel differently afterwards.

And you just may set up a powerful vibration that will cause all that you have blessed and given thanks for to expand not only in the quantum realm, but in your own personal world of time and space and relationships, as well.

It’s never too late to give thanks or forgive and there’s no time like the present . . .

No matter where you live, we wish you the blessings of love and gratitude now and always.

If you choose to try this, please leave us a comment below and let us know what your experience was like.


12 responses to “The Power of a Thanksgiving Blessing”

  1. I agree with Maija, what a lovely gift. Thank you, as well, for reawakening
    our awareness of love, appreciation, and the healthy, healing effects they
    have on us and all around us. Miel

  2. What a wonderful gift from you to all of us who share this space!
    Thank you.
    I have often wondered why (by simply being lovingly aware of its existence) an insignificant dewdrop on a blade of grass has the power to transport our thoughts to a differnt plane.
    Thank you again for reminding us of the strength and magnificence of the loving energy that surounds us.

  3. WOW, how wonderful to receive so many great comments on our Thanksgiving Blessing post! Layne and I are so glad you appreciate this exercise and that so many of you have put it to use already.

    Edna, you certainly do not have to be religious to use this and benefit from it.

    Paul

  4. Thank you for this form of blessing. I cannot wait to use it, perhaps I can even do it before all my family leaves today. How great would it be for them to carry it with them when they go . . . 🙂

  5. Doing this exercise at the end of Thanksgiving Day was so appropriate
    and so very powerful!
    The wave of gratitude I had ridden all day crested as I touched, thanked,
    and treasured the beautiful and useful items surrounding me.
    Many thanks for this inspiring tool. I can see how it could shift a person
    out of just about any mindset where a flow of positive energy seems blocked.

  6. I think that is really lovely and Layne I don’t think you’re weird at all. I think it was good of you at your time of celebration to to take the time to remind us who don’t have the thanksgiving tradition, of things for which to be grateful.
    I would like to do this exercise but I am am not religious. I am wondering does one have to be religious in order to do it? Thank you

  7. Dear Paul and Layne,

    Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful exercise. I love that it combines the being/feeling of love with the “doing” of appreciation. And I love the idea and action of transferring the love in my heart to both the precious living beings in my life, as well as the “seemingly” inanimate objects that serve, protect and bless me daily.

    Layne, Thank You for your sharing so generously of your own experience as a guide and inspiration for those of us who can find ourselves “lost”.

    With much love and big hugs to you both,
    Shirley

  8. Thank you Paul and Layne for giving me this opportunity of sharing in your Thanksgiving day celebration. There are so many things in our lives, and in nature to be grateful for; the love of good friends and families; for music, the flowers which beautifies the earth, for all the people who have been inspired in various ways, and have contributed to making this world a better place. I am also thankful for this greatful heart that He has given me, which enables me to acknowledge, and be appreciative of my many blessings. Thank you Layne for your Big Hug, and I can see nothing weird in your being original and embracing your true feeling.

  9. Lovely exercise. I have specific times when I practice appreciation and gratitude, such as at the gym and on the train to NYC. 🙂

    Th exercise brought to my mind when I was doing more live seminars and I taught an appreciation exercise. People were to write what they appreciate and are grateful for. I gave people suggestions of what to appreciate, but they were not to write down my suggestions. The object was to trigger their own mind.

    While the participants were eager to think of and write down what they appreciate, one woman sat staring at the paper in front of her, unable to write anything. Her energy field was a distraction, so I asked her to leave the room with me. On questioning her, it was clear that in her mind — even though she was in good health, had a loving family, lived in a nice home, had a car, food to eat, etc — she had NOTHING in her life to appreciate. I had to do some hypnosis with her before she finally agreed (with tears in her eyes) that she did, indeed, have things to appreciate.

    What this told me is that no matter what “we” believe, the only thing that matters to someone is what he or she believes. Clearly, this woman was miserable because of what she believed.

    Fortunately, be the end of the 2 1/2 day seminar she was in a different place in consciousness. I would like to say that a “miracle” occurred, but that’s not true — unless we consider her asking me to be her coach a miracle, because I then had could remind her to “appreciate.”

    She gradually improved her outlook, but it took time for her to maintain an attitude that is “normal” for someone who has what many people would call a “good” life. In case you’re wondering, she was not diagnosed as clinically depressed. Apparently, it was her “thinking” that had made her so unhappy, not the depression that caused her thinking.

    Yes, we have to consistently “feed” our own mind with positive uplifting, inspiring thoughts.

    With Appreciation,

    Beverly

  10. I love this exercise and I’m totally up for following my weird.

    Joseph Campbell is well known for teaching us to “Follow Your Bliss”. I was more than delighted when reading “A Joseph Campbell Companion” ~ Reflections On The Art of Living where he also said “follow your weird”.

    For the life of me I’ve not been able to find that sentence again in the book but it made such a profound impression that it really doesn’t matter.

    So I’m with you Layne as far as the holy moments of weird go. My little dog and two cats are already aware of this trait of mine and now my toaster will be too.

    You and Paul are true blessings.

    Happy, happy thanksgiving!!!!!!

    I

  11. Thanks so much for this wonderful exercise. It helps the individual providing it and those objects human and otherwise that receive it. Wonderful!!! Amen & Amen

  12. This exercise came to be at a time when I was feeling cut off from Divine Love. I felt deeply depressed and had been praying for help and release from a persistant feeling of aloneness.

    The idea came into my head to physically bless the simple parts of my life that had long before been taken for granted. My stereo for the music it brought into my life, the window for letting light in and keeping the wind out, the shower head for all those long hot showers, the roof that kept the rain out, but made that lovely sound as the rain made a kind of music on my roof so I would cozy up under a soft blanket.

    I touched all most evey object in my house and was amazed at the level of appreciation that poured through me to things that seemed to simple or mundane to bless or give gratitude for.

    Something deep in me shifted. After about an hour I lay down and I started to focus the same quality of blessing and gratitude I had just expressed toward objects – to the people in my life. Some were easy to bless and feel gratitude for; others were initially difficult, but somehow I could experience in my bones that the most difficult relationships were helping me to develop a variety of important strengths.

    This was a deep, authentic and profound experience of being blessed and blessing at the same time. It frequently didn’t feel personal at all, as though I was simply a conduit for this energy. And then it was also deeply personal at other times.

    I was moved to tears several times, which was humorous and surprising when the observer in me would be struck with amusement at the image of me holding my toaster gently in my hands, as I gave thanks for all those delicious moments of hot buttered toast.

    Okay, the truth is out. I am an officially weird person, who is quite willing to do absurd things for the sake of Love.

    Long story short, it was a transcendant experience and like most valuable experiences I have, I recommend them to others.

    It became a regular part of our six month program curriculum and recommended as an alternative to antidepressants.

    Though it is clearly an energy exercise, I think it essentially bathes the body in it’s own neurochemicals that generate a sense of profound well being,

    I kept at it for three weeks and my 3 month depression completely lifted.

    It’s a tad amusing that such a simple thing could have such a profound uplfing effect, but in hindsight the sense is more one ” Duhhh. Of course.”

    I don’t like to pretend to feel grateful, I like the real thing and this simple exercise provides it every time – if you can overcome the weird factor.

    So go ahead, join the wierd club and get happy. Bless the world around you with your hands and honoir the simplest things in your life.

    Who knows, it could become a happening thing and we could have a secret handshake. Then we would always know who the truly weird people who value love and simplicity in our life really are. Of course that glowing aura of contentment would be a dead give away.

    Wishng you a beautiful life and the ongoing experience that you are a blessing in this world.

    Big hug,
    Layne

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