Gratitude

As I have said before - shamanism is not just about taking journeys into non ordinary reality. We humans have to live in the material world that we are born into and for most of us in the "Western" world that is not a particularly painful experience. Although we, as a society, have distanced and alienated ourselves from the Natural World and have become reliant on technology - we can still live comfortable lives for the most part.

Yes, we do have stress and there are huge issues around pollution, consumerism and human over population. And we have recently been subjected to "the politics of fear" fuelled by media hype and governmental dishonesty concerning the so called Covid-19 "pandemic". As you may have gathered already - I am a total sceptic when it comes to all this corona virus nonsense. The common cold is quite often caused by a "corona virus", which is why the government testing kits are useless - they show everybody who has had a cold in the past 6 months as testing positive for Covid-19.

So politics and corruption aside - life is pretty good for most of us right now in 2020. I have been made to realise that I have allowed myself to be negatively influenced by the lies that are constantly bombarding us from the television, the newspapers, the internet and most of all - the politicians.

The realisation came through a painful process where my relationship with my partner was threatened by my negativity. My attitude wasn't helping anybody, it wasn't doing anything to put the world to rights and it was destroying my mental health. Basically, I had become a complete pain in the arse to live with.  

I had to find a way to change myself and turn my negative thoughts into positive thoughts. One simple way to do this was to make myself think of 3 things I was grateful for every morning as soon as I woke up. Gratitude proved to be a great healer. Initially I would write down the 3 things I was grateful for in my Shamanic Journey journal for two weeks, until the process had become a habit. I soon found that I felt much "lighter" and happier. At the same time I did my best to avoid the news media - both mainstream and alternative. I have tried to avoid "conspiracy theories" wherever possible.

When you actually sit and think about it - you find that you do have a lot to be grateful for. Yes some people are going to say "I have lost my job" "I have cancer" "My best friend just died" - BUT for most people in our privileged society life is pretty good MOST of the time.

We can be grateful for the simple things that we take for granted - a roof over our head, a bed to sleep in, food in our belly, the ability to walk, the ability to see, the ability to hear, somebody to talk to, somebody to love - the list is almost endless. These are things that a huge number of people in the world can only dream of.

 I always feel a deep gratitude when I am out in the wonders of Nature - away from all the cars and the shops and the crowds. Just to BE can be the most blissful thing in the world. We don't need to have more stuff in order to be happy - sometimes less really is more.