Manduka US Site

November 22nd, 2012

Grace And Gratitude

By Manduka Ambassador Dana Damara

The words grace and gratitude get used so often; I often wonder if people really know what it means. To feel gratitude for your family, your friends, your job, your home, your financial success, your material possessions, your health…all those things is really easy.

But what about feeling gratitude for the things in your life that aren’t so frilly? Like your computer breaking down? At the same time that your girlfriend decides to leave you. Or how about when you lose something that is important to you like say, your favorite Manduka mat? What about your job ending? You get into a car wreck. You file for bankruptcy. How about feeling gratitude for those individuals who talk behind your back or worse, seemingly get under your skin every, single time you see them.

Can you find gratitude in those situations?

Because honestly, that’s the yoga we speak of when we talk about embodiment. It’s not about the perfect posture…it’s about embodying that grace and gratitude in times of adversity.

Life is not a sedentary event that we can plan out or remain rigid to while navigating through it. It is always changing, ever expanding and infinitely growing. And although we do create our lives in conjunction with our thoughts, we must also allow for Universal order to do its thing. It’s co-creating... all the time.

And when we stumble, or when life seemingly pushes us into our shit, grace reminds us that it’s pushing us there for a reason. And if the s@#t stinks, most likely that means that the reason is beyond our knowledge or understanding. Grace holds space for gratitude beyond our understanding. We breathe it in and allow it to just BE what it IS in THAT moment.

As we trod through those difficult times, we can do so kicking and screaming, slinging shit and mud, blaming others and playing the victim role or we can feel gratitude and allow grace to step up and bring it all in. When we truly embody grace and gratitude it’s like the Red Sea parts… that breath makes way for clarity, vision and an acceptance of what is… truly what is. Not what WE THINK it should be.

The next time you find yourself facing adversity, breathe it in. What can you learn right then? Where is the light? That one breath in time will bring grace rushing to you.