Gratitude: Being Complete with the Past

Did you know????

“You can’t love your kids and worry about them at the same time…” 

The first time I heard that, I was thinking what you’re probably thinking right now… what do you mean I can’t love and worry about my kids at the same time? Doesn’t worrying about them mean I love them?

Of course you love your kids. Of course you worry about them. But love and worry, draw from two different energies. They are two different vibrations, two different frequencies. It’s like trying to listen to disco on a country radio station. It can’t be done because they’re on two different frequencies.

Gratitude and Worry

Worry is focusing on what you don’t want to have happen. It’s setting a negative intention. 

So, as our kids were growing up, I re-trained myself. Rather than say, “Be careful!” I’d say, “Have fun. Be safe. Call your dad.” In this way, I oriented them to a different focus: one that communicated trust instead of worry.

The same is true of gratitude. You can’t be grateful and worried, or grateful and upset at the same time. They’re different vibrations, different frequencies. The universe knows the difference and doesn’t respond to words alone, it responds to your vibration.

Previously I shared the story about a time when I was in nature, and nature “spoke” to me. What it said was this:

I see you. You walk my land, take my trees, drink my water, and breathe my air.
“Thank you” will do

The power of deep gratitude struck me at that moment–to be thankful for everything in our lives–for all that we have and all that is coming to us; for all that we are and all that we are becoming.

This reflects acceptance, the ability to surrender to what life gives us, with deep gratitude. To be thankful for the way things are without adding or taking anything away. 

When you worry about the past and ruminate on what was accomplished or not accomplished, you offer a vibration other than gratitude. 

Being Complete with the Past

An important aspect of Gratitude is being complete with the past.

Because in order to move forward, we have to let go of whatever we’ve been holding onto. We have to leave the old story behind. We must free our minds to think creatively and expansively. 

Be complete with the past, with gratitude.

Here’s how to express Gratitude for the past and make space for your future. 

1. Be Complete with what you’ve accomplished: Review the year and be thankful for what you’ve completed- projects, goals, plans that you finished. Whether it was perfect or scrappy, you finished. Be complete. Make a “Ta da” list of all the things you got done this year.
2. Be Complete with what you didn’t accomplished: Review the year again and be thankful for what you didn’t get completed-projects, goals, plans that you didn’t finish, or even start. These are still on your “To Do” list, and you may want to come back to them later, but for now… Be complete.
3. Contemplate the year ahead 2023: Instead of setting goals or making plans (you can do that later), get quiet and imagine the next year.

Vision

Dream

Feel into the experiences you want to have, the relationships you want to give more time to, the connections with others you want to deepen, places you want to visit.

Focus on how you want to feel.

We’re close to the end of the year and this may seem counterintuitive, but in a relaxed way, without strain, envision the year ahead and just hold on lightly to your dreams and visions.

What do you want more of? Focus on that. Give only a brief moment to what you want less of.

As you look ahead to 2023:

• What are you committed to improving or changing in yourself or your business
• What are you most looking forward to learning in 2023?
• What would you be most happy about completing?
• What are you going to do to create more joy in your life?
• Who do you want to serve with love in the year ahead?

Let these questions stimulate several of your own questions. Open your mind and suspend your beliefs about time, money and distance for a little while.

Pull out your calendar from last year (and have fun) looking through each month. See what you’ve completed.

Do the same with what you didn’t complete–without judging or making up anything about yourself. Create two columns or have two separate pages to make a list, whatever is most useful. 

As you look toward 2023, relax, don’t get fixed on making stuff happen, not yet. Enjoy the process and surprise yourself with what comes up.

As you envision the year ahead with peace, let there be joy in the visioning. 

If you will accept what is, and be complete with things just the way they are, without adding or taking anything away, you will experience more ease and more grace in your life. I promise. 

Relieve yourself of the burden of your expectations and have more fun thinking about how you want to feel. Be in the joy of what lights you up. 

Begin with a clean slate. Clear the way and create space for the new year ahead. 

Love and Blessings,

Tom

Drop a comment down below and let me know if this was useful for you. Thanks!