During this last week, gratitude has saved me and brought me such peace of mind. I’m not talking about the gratitude for any particular thing or event that has taken place, but just gratitude. Gratitude is an energy force that generates peace in our mind, heart and soul. Let me further explain.

Of late, I’ve been going through some challenges in the world of form. However, I KNOW, as I’ve been taught by my mentor, Ernest Holmes, that “when things look the worst is the time to do your best work.” In other words, when you are challenged is most definitely the time when you are to call in the big guns (the greater consciousness) that permeates all experience and generates great changes in your troubled consciousness. For me, it is a matter of surrendering to gratitude.

One night, I woke up in a stressful condition. I kept trying to quiet my mind through affirmations and an attempt at a Spiritual Mind Treatment with my sleepy mind. Nothing seemed to be working. I just couldn’t refocus my thoughts. Suddenly, I got the message to move into a state of gratitude. Spiritual Mind Treatment does work even when you think it isn’t. It gave me the message that I needed. “Be Grateful!”

I began to call up from within the feeling of gratitude. I’m at choice in every moment as to what I feel. My feelings can shift. I began by thinking of specific things and people for which I was grateful, beginning with the man that was sleeping next to me, my husband. I built my gratitude from that place. Almost suddenly, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude for nothing at all but being alive and living life. The feeling of gratitude continued to sweep over me until I was lulled to sleep. I had forgotten what I was even stressed about.

And, the feeling has continued. Now it seems like a state of being. Gratitude is an energy that will heal everything and anything. Gratitude is a state of being that can become our constant companion when we choose it as such. It doesn’t matter what woes we might be experiencing. Gratitude is greater as it comes from our Heart Center, the processor, healer and King/Queen of our life. If you are having trouble holding your light in what can seem like a troubling world, let Gratitude hold it for you, through you.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andrilelo-Feren, Co-Founding Director CSL Kaua`i and the Institute of Magnificence and Author of “What Do I Need to KNOW? 101 Thoughts That Changed My Life” and “This Thing Called Treatment,” both available on Amazon.