Mindful Gratitude Exercise #5: Be Thankful for Things in the Past NOW

“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.”
-Alphonse Karr

One of my favorite books of all time is "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.  If you've read it, then you're familiar with Eckhart's statements about the Pain-Body and it how it feeds on the past:

[The Pain Body] will create negative situations in your life so that it can feed on the energy. It wants more pain, in whatever form. It is pure pain, past pain – and it is not you. 

The truth is that the only power there is is contained within this moment: It is the power of your presence. Once you know that, you also realize that you are responsible for your inner space now – nobody else is – and that the past cannot prevail against the power of the Now.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Mindful Gratitude Exercise #5 will be helpful to you if you are someone who repeatedly feeds their Pain-Body by continually reliving the past, either by constantly yearning for "better days gone by", or by never-ending-ly obsessing about how negative your life situation has been up until now.

With a little practice, you can learn to be thankful NOW for things that have happened in your past, negative AND positive.  On the positive end of the spectrum, you can be thankful for all the pleasant memories you have, maybe even dwelling on particular ones and reliving the feelings they bring up, and being thankful for those feelings as well, both that you got to feel them "then", and most of all that you get to feel them "NOW".

If you frequently think about some part of your past that you consider to be negative, turn it around by being thankful that it didn't turn out worse than it did, or try to find some things that you DID appreciate about the situation, and realize those positive aspects of the situation didn't have to be there.  In other words, "it could've been worse."  Find the roses on your particular thorns.  They are always there!  You just have to look for them.

WARNING:  This exercise can be annoying and counterproductive at first if you're not careful!  It's wise to spend only a few minutes at a time at it if you're just beginning your gratitude and mindfulness practice.  Start by jotting down a few positive things about your past in your Gratitude Journal instead of sitting and letting your mind run wild on past negative events.  Remember to take baby steps!  A good rule of thumb is, if you feel any type of bad feeling creeping up in your body, STOP immediately!  Gratitude and mindfulness should ALWAYS feel good.  The feelings associated with them are unmistakable, you'll always know when you're getting it right.

Let me know if you try this exercise, and what your results were!  Or, if you know other effective ways of making peace with your past in the present moment, feel free to share that as well!