Thankfulness Vs Possessiveness

When we forget our blessings come solely from the Divine, and when we imagine our prosperity is due to our own prowess, we lose what we hold dear. God will always prove Her place as our Divine Mother, our singular source and supply. Security comes in maintaining a spirit of gratitude towards her. 

If you want to know how grateful you are for something, notice how attached you are to it. The more attached you are to something, the busier you are possessing it rather than being grateful for it. 

Possessiveness expresses the opposite of gratitude. 

The idea that anything external is needed for you to feel love internally is a lie. Every butterfly in your stomach, every goosebump of affection, every single loving feeling you’ve ever felt throughout your many lifetimes has initiated inside of you! Each time you’ve fallen in love, you fell only within yourself. 

We’ve all used plenty of people and things as triggers to feel love – most of us still do. But it’s been inside us all along. When I try to possess (control) something or someone, I’m denying my own Divinity and acting out of the fear of loss. If I attach to something on the outside erroneously thinking it’s generating love inside me, I will always get disappointed. 

Genuine gratitude is a form of unconditional (agape) love. If I am grateful for anything, that means I acknowledge it originates 100% with the Divine. Gratitude recognizes everything is an utter gift of grace manifested by the dharma (God’s will, destiny). I own nothing. All originates with God and goes back to Him sooner or later. No matter what exists in this moment, I must be appreciative of it! 

Thankfulness is something we must embody. It is a way of being, a component of loving awareness. It starts by being grateful for ourselves, grateful to others, and eventually becoming grateful for everything we experience. The result of this practice is being as grateful for grey as for youth, in shame as for fame, and with loss as for gain. Paul wrote to those at Thessalonia, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will (the dharma) for you in Christ.” Gratitude in every moment trains us to see the Divine everywhere and in everything. 

Consider the most challenging person in your life – are you grateful for their presence in your world, or are you fighting it? Whatever you resist will persist in your predicament. The quicker you get thankful for them, the faster you’ll recognize them as your teacher, learn the lesson, and move on. 

What if you were grateful for everything in your past? How would that shine in your present? Suppose you lived with zero remorse about past events – would that not enhance your existing positivity and outlook on the future? Reframe regrets with a regimen of appreciation. Acknowledge them as educators. You have nothing better to do with your past than to be thankful for it!

There’s just one object in my life to which I feel an emotional tie. It’s a medallion given to me by my mentor Brooks. I imagine being without it often. When I do, I feel a tightness in my stomach and an aching in my shoulders. (watch this ego trip) It reminds me of so many moments with Brooks and the stories that he told – it’s troubling for me to consider living without it (stop possessing it). I’m seriously attached to its’ sentimental value! Yet intellectually, no way I want to reincarnate for a necklace! This exercise shows me clearly where I have work to do! To be truly grateful for it, I need to recognize it’s just another tool for my awakening and be ready to give it up at a moment’s notice. What can I say? I’m working on it. 

When you’re Godly grateful for something, you’ll hold it like a feather in your flat palm. No matter if the slightest breeze whisks it away – you recognize that the Universe has to remove the old to deliver the new. You’ll never flinch – you’ll hold your hand open and relaxed, waiting for the next instrument of your awakening to arrive. We have to release lots of “good” things if we want the best the Divine has to offer. 

Letting go while being thankful is a massive component of manifesting prosperity. Genuine gratitude attracts plentitude. If you embody a spirit of gratefulness, the Universe will continually deliver you more experiences for which to be grateful. 

Take a life inventory. Consider the things that would cause you emotional and/or physical distress if they vanished tomorrow – career, bank accounts, home, the ability to travel, possessions, parents, health, wife, kids. One or more of those places is where we’re all stuck. We’re busy possessing those people, places, and things. If I’m grateful for everything, I allow life to pass like watching a movie with suspension of disbelief, utterly engaged in the moment. When it ends, I don’t lament it. I just wait for the sequel. 

You might say, “Hey! I don’t want to detach from my wife, kids, job, stuff, whatever…” No problem! Seriously, take as many lifetimes as you’d like. Soul progress is over-dramatically slow in terms of Earth years. We’ve been doing it together millions of years already. What’re a few more millennia? God is the Alpha and Omega, outside of time – She’ll wait.

As for me, I wanna be free. That means letting go entirely, completely unattaching – while at the same time being utterly thankful for the grace at the base of my here and now. I pray you satisfy every desire and become an embodiment of gratitude. Pray the same for me.

Here’s to thankfully together being free. 

Blessings,

Ram Ram,

JC