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Mindful Smack: BLESS MY ____.

by Elena Brower on April 5, 2011

For a long time I made fun of people who would use the word “Blessings” in their daily life. It felt empty and fake (because the word had no meaning to me), and now I’m seeing the vitality and importance of bestowing the simplest blessings.

This week, BLESS YOURSELF. Bless everything in your life. Nothing fancy, nothing particularly ritualized; just say a private, silent blessing on as many things/people in your life as possible and notice the difference in the ways in which you listen and see anything and everything. This is related to Gratitude, which will be a future Mindful Smack.

I’ve found that kids love to say blessings, and even naturally use their hands to do it, so if you’ve got kids around, involve them.

Ideas: bless your food, home, family, water, work, office, desk, computer (!), friends… it’s limitless. Notice how you feel, and most importantly, how you connect in a new way to that which you’re blessing.

—
Elena is a NY based Anusara Yoga teacher. To learn more please visit The Art of Attention and Vira Yoga.

  • Paula Llavallol

    Bless you, Elena! xx

  • http://www.AmazingJuicePlus.com Amy Willard

    You have a knack! Maybe I will get a few back! Could sure use them this week!

    Thank you!!

  • http://www.woodlandgarden.org Rachel Huntzicker

    Fantastic blog post! Thank you, Elena. This truly resonates with me and I am happy to receive this mindful smack :)

  • http://thedailylove.com/mindful-smack-bless-my-____/ Ten Hut

    I like this message regarding blessing everything around you. It lets me know I have power because I am blessed to be a blessing.

    Thanks for the reminder.
    T

  • http://www.NamasteNutrition.net Diana Cullum-Dugan

    Elena, I loved this Smack. Being from the south, I have trouble with blessings too, for it’s often used after saying something negative about someone, as in, “She just doesn’t know how she looks in that dress, bless her heart.” Turning the use of the word blessings into an avenue for seeing the good instead is powerful. Thanks for sharing your Smack!

  • http://google nditsheleni

    Thanks a lot Elena your message really means a lot to me.I will now count everything that i have as a blessing. I lost my hearing few years ago but despite not being able to hear i have managed to acqure two degrees and i am currently doing my masters in administration. Despite all that happened to me i can now count everything i have as a blessing

  • Rita Pace

    3 things:
    1. Diana-your post cracked me UP.
    2. I learned to always bless others from you, Elena, and it’s been more than 10 years since that lesson.
    So perhaps you have been teaching this longer than you remember?
    3. There is a beautiful entry (p. 128) from Sharon Gannon in my much dog-eared copy of Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet on the power of giving blessings “…trying to actually contact each person every day to tell them you love them and bless them would probably prove impossible, and even become annoying. Since they live inside you anyway, the most direct means to contact them is to go inside your heart. When you say their name in sincere loving way, you both fall into love-dissolved into the universal heart-your own true eternal being.” (fall INTO love is my favorite part)
    Thank you so much for being a part of my blessed life, Elena. And your new hair-do is pretty. XO Rita

  • Emily Stone

    The etymology of “blessed,” often crossed with the Latinate benediction (from bene dictus- lit to make good by speaking) is actually the derived from the Old English slash Proto-Germanic cognate meaning to “make holy and/or to mark with blood. ”

    I find that interesting because it reminds me of Gurdjieff’s theory that people aren’t born with souls, ratherthat the soul is something one earns by walking through fire. Burn, baby, burn.

    Ram om. Emily