Today, we are talking about thankfulness, about how to be grateful all month long, not just one day in November after Thanksgiving dinner. On that one day, everyone is thankful for Brussel Sprouts and Kale, right? Okay maybe not the kale. But I know everyone is thankful for pumpkin pie! How do we extend that idea of thankfulness from one day to every day, all month long?
So we’ll talk a little bit about neuroplasticity, and how our brains can adapt and change and grow and create new pathways. And about keeping a THANKFULNESS journal or a list. And about how to look at difficulties with a new type of vision, a vision of thankfulness.
When we have a UPR – an Urgent Prayer Request – in our congregation, then I’m going to activate the UPRS -the Urgent Prayer Request System. And we will share and let the love flow.
I know this – our brothers and sisters who request prayer are thankful! They are grateful for the love that is shared, for each thought that is focused on their need, on their request. And I am thankful that I get to be with you in your homes, hospital rooms, rehab centers, in prayer and meditation, in healing sessions both in person and over the miles. I am thankful that I get the chance to love you more and serve you more.
Is it easy? Not always. There is difficulty in being a minister. I know this. And yet, I signed up for it. I have a tender heart, and I feel sorrow and pain for each person who hurts. My favorite verse in the Bible is really short – JESUS WEPT. His human side felt deeply the pain when he saw people he loved suffering. And his Divinity helped ease that pain. And I’m thankful for you, for each person here, for each person out there who listens or who questions or who asks: what if there was a church based on LOVE and not condemnation. I am thankful for each of you.
Remember how I explained those little connections of consciousness that we establish with each other like that children’s tin can communicator toy, with the string and the empty tin cans? That is how it works. Our expanded and expanding consciousness is a metaphysical masterpiece of Divine Connection.
And it’s proof of the neuroplasticity of our brains. Because our brains are not our minds. Our brains are not our thoughts. Our brains are the muscle that we can build and expand and stretch, through miniscule, microscopic neural and chemical pathways.
Our MIND is the collection of the thoughts we think, the thoughts we focus on, and those travel, at first, on the chemical pathways we create in our brains. The energy of our thoughts can expand from our brain and our mind to another’s.
So, let’s talk a little bit about neuroplasticity of our brains, and how boosting thankfulness, our “Attitude of Gratitude” ties into neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It happens when the brain changes and functions in a different way. Think of someone relearning to walk after a car wreck or someone relearning to speak after a stroke. These are instances of the flexibility of the brain to rewire or remake connections. When you practice or learn a new skill, like when you practice meditation, then your brain connections expand.
The term plasticity was used in 1890 by psychologist William James, brother of the famous writers Alice James and Henry James. William used the term to describe a structure that is “…weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once.”
Neuroscientists and Neurosurgeons like Dr. Eben Alexander, once were convinced that the brain could only make significant changes and grow during childhood. Children’s brains do have more plasticity during growth phases, but scientists now know that adult brains can change and grow, too. Many aspects of the brain can be altered during adulthood.
Now Dr. Alexander met God while his brain was officially dead, and it changed his life. He wrote a book about his experiences – Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife. Someone has borrowed my copy of the book, and when I get it back I will share it again.
Dr. Alexander’s brain was attacked by a bacteria and shut down during the severe illness that resulted. He was given up as “brain dead.” The part of his brain that controls thought and emotions shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.
He met God. A God that he, as a Jewish man by birth, and an atheist by training, never believed in. But, as is often the case, our experiences can come smack up against our prejudices and our preconceived notions.
Dr. Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today he lectures and tells his story as a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.
As a neurosurgeon he learned that what he “KNEW” as truth was only a small part of the truth. His definitions of life and the afterlife expanded as his experiences expanded. His neural synapses and pathways expanded from his experiences. This is what having spiritual experiences will do for you. It will expand your brain AND your mind.
So what does neuroplasticity have to do with thankfulness? AH, good question. Dr. Alexander is so thankful for the horrible experience of being brain dead. Because it opened up a new experience for him of knowing where his true life exists. His spiritual life.
Remember, over the last few weeks, we have been talking about how the good we want is within reach. The abundance we seek is already in front of us, we just can’t see it. It takes a change in our vision, not our physical vision, but our SPIRITUAL vision.
And our neuroplastic, malleable, changeable brain is part of that. Our brains can expand as we create new neural connections through new experiences! AS our brains expand, our thoughts do, too.
Think of it this way, your brain is the highway. It is a highway of neural connections in your noggin. If you drive back and forth over the same tiny stretch of road, then you see the same little things.
But what happens when one day, you get in your car, and you decide to take an alternate route to get to work or to get home. Well, you might see things you had never seen before. You might find a new Mexican restaurant, which is what my hubby Mark is ALWAYS looking for! And what if you get in your car and travel on a whole different road to a whole different town or state? Maybe you take Route 66 instead of the Expressway? Well, you will definitely see sights you have never seen before.
Your brain is like a highway. Your experiences are expanded points on that highway. Your thoughts are the car that carries you to new experiences. The DIVINE MIND is the gasoline that keeps it all going. Hows all that for a highway metaphor? The goal is to keep expanding the highway, the neural connections in your brain, and the beautiful spiritual experiences that can fuel those new connections.
We have been talking recently about expanding our consciousness, from a thimble to a chalice, to receive more and more abundance. The abundance is there already. Universal Flow of abundance is already available for ALL OF US. But if we aren’t open and prepared to receive it, then we might miss the flow that is right there in front of us!!
Now, thankfulness, gratefulness is a part of the link of preparation for receiving all that abundance. As you choose to expand your mind, and your experiences, then thankfulness will help.
Here’s why. When you step out and try new things, new experiences, new ways of learning or just a new skill, then sometimes, it can be a bit painful. There is a learning curve to every new experience. You aren’t a master at your craft without a lot of practice. Every master started out as a beginner!
And life itself, even when you aren’t trying new things, even when you are just driving in the old highway, life itself can just knock you over. We have all had that experience! Something out of the blue, something unexpected and icky, comes along and changes everything.
If you have been doing work on seeing your life with a new vision of thankfulness, then the difficult times in life are less difficult. I know it sounds simple, but this is really important. This is the path of resilience.
When you learn to be grateful for the difficulties of life, grateful FOR them, not grateful in spite of them, then you create more neural pathways to experience more goodness.
Let that sink in a moment. You will experience MORE goodness when you are greateful for everything because you are expanding your capacity for experiencing more goodness.
The good times will get better, and the bad times will get better. And yes, I mean that you must find a way to be grateful for the BAD things in your life. They are going to come at you whether you are grateful or not. BUT if you are grateful for EVERYTHING that comes your way, then you will find that the bad in life changes. Because YOU are changing it. You are driving down a different neural pathway.
This is the nexus of neuroplasticity, spirituality and thankfulness. Your brain, your mind, your spirit, your DIVINE connection is already abundant. And it can grow even more with thankfulness.
So how do we become thankful for the difficulties in life? It is a choice. It all comes down to your choice to be thankful for even the bad in life. Why be thankful for the bad?
Abraham Lincoln said this: “I am not concerned that you fall. All men fall. I cam concerned that you rise.” What is the difference between those who fall and those who rise? Choice.
You can choose to be thankful for the difficulties, for the struggles, for the dark times, because they can lead you down an expanded pathway to spiritual experiences. It is in the dark times that we grow the most.
Can we choose to be thankful for difficulties we experience this month? Yes, we can. We can choose to focus on the good that is present in all the bad. We can choose to reframe the negative into a place for growth. We can choose to rise when we fall.
The difficulties can teach you much about your own ability to rise up. They will teach you more, if you will let them, about your DIVINE connection and DIVINE abundance. Let the problems you face expand your neural and spiritual pathways.
This month, I challenge you to find two things every day for which you are thankful. It might be helpful to get a journal and write two things down every day for which you are thankful. It is easy to be thankful for the good. But I challenge you to find something each day that is difficult and be thankful for it, too. Something that in the past you might have groaned about or complained about.
I know it sounds hard to be thankful for what looks like it is “bad.” But start by asking 1 simple question: WHAT IS MY SPIRITUAL LESSON HERE?
By doing this, you will expand your mind and your experience. Turn the difficulty into an opportunity. Turn the fear into personal power. Turn the anxiety or depression into peace and rest.
Begin affirming everything you experience, you see and do. Keep a running dialog in your head that is focused on reframing all into God’s good. Now, I know that you are probably thinking, do you really expect me to be thankful for the awful things in my life? I want you to be aware of the opportunities to rise up. To conquer a problem. To love deeper. To experience your divine side. Jesus wept, and then he got busy. We can weep, we can experience the difficult, and then we connect with our divine mind and rise.
As I finish up today, I want you to remember Dr. Alexander who was thankful that his brain died and that doctors had given up hope for him. He was thankful that he had to relearn to walk and speak and think. He was thankful that he met the Divine Universal Keeper, the ALL. And he was thankful for the experience of nearly dying because it showed him his true purpose for living.
As you look for those 2 thankful things each day, know that all is for your growth, all is for your abundance, all is for your spiritual awakening.
Begin creating new neural pathways of goodness, of gratefulness, of thankfulness. Create an Attitude of Gratitude for the difficulties. And you will find that your brain, your mind, and your spiritual connections are expanded through the simple act of thankfulness.
Because THANKFULNESS is part of our daily spiritual walk. It’s not just for one day in the month of November, it’s a daily choice to see life with your spiritual vision.
Be Ye Thankful.
