Attitude of Gratitude

Photo: Siriadi Kaur

I once read in 3HO page that Yogi Bhajan said (not an exact quote): in the flow of life, there comes a gap, where the old is gone and the new is not yet there. In that gap, you develop an attitude of gratitude. This is what I have experienced. Three years ago, when my husband first lost his job and then I 4 months after, while he worked hard to win new customers for his own new company I started to teach Kundalini yoga full time, there was a huge gap in our life: the old jobs and way of livings were gone, and we were nowhere ready in our new situations.

The gap gave me not only a chance to face myself and all the fears, anger, anxiety etc…but also joy and gratitude. While we can’t afford many of the things we used to have, I realized how lucky we have been having them for so long and taking them for granted; how blessed we are to be so healthy and have a happy family with three lovely kids. While I may not have so many classes as I wish to, I have a lot of time to enjoy the wonders of life, like a surprising sunny day in the dark December, the fresh air in the early spring…Many times I have classes with only one person, and I am grateful she came that I can keep teaching. It is not always easy to feel so, but I am grateful it is more often I feel grateful than feeling disappointed, thanks to the daily Sadhana that I have time for now.

The most amazing thing I experienced in this gap is the loving existence of the sangat. I grew up in China, where the culture favors more group and community. I have seen all the drawbacks of group pressure of conformity to the extent of robbing of individual’s uniqueness and creativity; the blind enthusiasm of community leading to disasters for the majority and favoring the few. So I have been very cautious about community and somewhat content that there is not a huge Kundalini yoga community in Finland as in some other countries. However during this huge gap in my life, people from the sangat have helped me with unconditional kindness: from sharing the tent in the yoga festival, giving me work to support myself and family, giving free ride for me to attend the trainings, to free healings for me to stay centered and keep up, and donation to my yoga studio so more people can experience the teaching…to just name a few. I can feel the loving energies from them and understand we are all part of the sangat, what we do as individual for the others make the sangat. Though it may not look like as we expect, it is there for all of us. We just need to start from ourselves, and bring the kindness as much as we can to people we meet every day.

My deepest gratitude and respect to all of you that have been keeping up with the teaching and spirit, helping others selflessly and lovingly. Here is a link of a meditation “Heart of Gratitude” I learnt from the Sangat, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSL8bCBr6os., may it fill (the gap of) your life with love and gratitude. Thank You!

Sat Nam

Siri Adi