by Swami Ramananda
The month of May has inspired us to remember with gratitude the many blessings we have received in this lifetime. Gratitude is a practice that never gets old and once we begin reflecting, there is no end to what we have to be grateful for. Examining our lives with gratitude softens the heart, keeps life’s challenges in perspective, inspires humility and reminds us that we are part of a much bigger picture than our limited minds can comprehend.
One of the primary reasons this practice came to our minds is the occasion of Mother’s Day. For most of us, our mothers made great sacrifices in giving birth and nurturing us through childhood. All of us can likely feel gratitude as well for other important mentors and mother-like figures whose love had a great impact on our growth.
This time of year, it’s also easy for us to feel gratitude and awe at the array of Spring flowers and trees that are blooming around us. Everywhere we look, there is this incredible beauty that we are blessed to witness.
In the United States, May also includes Memorial Day, honored on the last Monday of the month as a way of remembering the military personnel who died defending our country. But we are also choosing to remember all those ancestors, elders and leaders who sacrificed in countless ways to give us the opportunities we now enjoy.
We can feel an even more profound gratitude for the saints and sages of all the faiths who have been for us a source of inspiration, embodying the spiritual Light and serving as role models. We offer our respect and gratitude as well to the Yoga masters who dedicated their lives to transmitting the teachings and practices that have impacted our lives so deeply.
Practicing gratitude can transform our lives even more fully if we embrace the understanding that each day provides us with another opportunity to learn and grow, to expose and heal our limitations and selfishness, and open our hearts wider to love more fully.
Gratitude need not be only an inner appreciation of life’s journey and all we’ve received. It calls for a response. Whenever we sincerely pause to contemplate the magnitude of our blessings and feel the resulting fullness in our hearts, we will naturally be inspired to give back in some way, to serve those in need. Gratitude becomes an underlying source of nourishment that inspires us to act with generosity and courage by embodying peace and compassion, spiritual values that are so desperately needed in our world.
You can join Swami Ramananda for his weekly, in-person/online (hybrid) Mixed Level Hatha class every Saturday at 9:30am PT. And join him for the 4-day Yoga Vacation and Retreat: Community, Contentment, Compassion May 27-30 in Bolinas.
Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI) which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.