Beauty, Gratitude, and the Open Heart

"?beauty on your earth is a shadow of the beauty of our heaven, and it's a bitter thing to have a blindness for beauty on earth, for it makes a longer teaching to see the beauties of heaven." Spoken by an Irish spirit in the book The Boy who Saw True (anonymous author).

I have been counseling individuals, couples, families and business partners for the last 35 years, and am the author of eight published books. Since my work is spiritually based, I have developed many ways of helping people open their hearts to love. Opening to beauty is one of those ways.

I have always appreciated beauty. Since I've been a small child, I've collect beautiful things - shells, rocks, wood, as well as works of art, and there are always lots of plants around. There is nowhere in my environment where there is not something beautiful to look at, both inside and outside in nature. When I walk through my home and the land around it, my heart fills with awe and love as I appreciate the beauty around me. I've done this so automatically throughout my life that it never occurred to me that many people do not open to beauty nor create beauty around them.

In working with some of my clients struggling to keep their heart open, I've mentioned focusing on an object of beauty, and have been surprised to find that many of them have no beauty around them - no plants, flowers, works of art or objects of nature. When they look around they see walls, appliances, computers and other buildings. Their left brain functions just fine in this environment, but what about the right - the creative, intuitive, spiritually-connected aspect?

I want to encourage everyone who reads this to consider feeding your soul with beauty. There is nothing like awe and gratitude for something beautiful to open the heart to gratitude in general. If you can love the intricate design in the bark of a tree, or the vibrancy of a flower, or the balance of a beautifully thrown piece of pottery - that might lead you into loving and appreciating the beauty of you and your own soul. It might open you to feeling gratitude for your life and the sacred privilege of experiencing your journey on this planet.

How much of your thinking time is spent being upset or unhappy about something? What if all that time was spent in gratitude for what you have and for the beauty around you? What if you were present enough in this moment to revel in the fact that you can turn on a faucet and have hot water come out? That you have food to eat and a bed to sleep on? If you are reading this, it is likely that you have a computer, which means you have more than most of the people on this planet.

Try this little experiment: find something of beauty - it can be as simple as a leaf, a flower, a photograph, a small work of art or the top of a tree out your window. Now let yourself completely open to the thing of beauty. Let yourself feel the beauty in your body - in your heart, your solar plexus, in your stomach, arms and legs, in your forehead. Let the beauty enliven your body and fill it with vitality. Breathe in the beauty and feel your body's reaction to it. Open to gratitude, thanking God for this experience of beauty.

Notice the peace and joy it gives you to be in this moment with this simple object of beauty. What would life be like if you spent more moments like this, in the present with beauty and with all you have? How much of your waking time is spent in this way?

Beauty and gratitude are soul foods. When you choose to open to them, you extend an invitation to love, peace and joy. This raises your frequency and opens the door to your spiritual Guidance. Your Guidance is always here for you, helping you on your soul's journey. Opening to beauty and gratitude, with a deep intent to learn about what is loving to you and others, will open you to your spiritual Guidance.

About The Author

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?" She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com. Phone sessions available.

MORE RESOURCES:

Tatenda Tavaziva#39;s journey to and at UMHB an inspirational story - Killeen Daily Herald

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500 $1 return airfares for inspirational Kiwis - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

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A ball of inspirational predictability - Surrey Now

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A new generation of icky, angsty, inspirational books for teens ... - Calgary Herald

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Marriage supporters#39; fundraiser brings inspirational film ... - Sioux Falls Argus Leader

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A new generation of icky, angsty, inspirational books for teens ... - Calgary Herald

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#39;Inspirational#39; Blackburn mum-of-seven dies, 34 - Lancashire Telegraph

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#39;Without a Quarter in My Pocket#39;: New Memoir Chronicles Cuban ... - MarketWatch

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Inspirational Speaker Teaches Students the Value of “Zing!” - St. John's University

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Moyes inspired by Robson - The Press Association

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_4165834,00.htmlcid=1256305246ei=_Q3ySL2ZKo6SygTAz-G_Bwusg=AFQjCNE3kxrXxSMZjinK1mN0XE7ANSnGIgimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=zLjUcasx3t0Jimgurl=img.skysports.com/08/08/218x298/David-Moyes-scratches-head-Everton-v-Portsmou_1156103.jpg width=59 height=80 alt= border=1brfont size=-2SkySports/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-0fd=Rurl=http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iB8HZ1uJELBAUWM6cQnV2ySL4DJAcid=1256305246ei=_Q3ySL2ZKo6SygTAz-G_Bwusg=AFQjCNFTToWVBBGWXht9ai_LxfmHjQ8JnQMoyes inspired by Robson/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fThe Press Associationnbsp;-/font nobr8 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1David Moyes has admitted he once felt he may have spent quot;too longquot; at Everton - but changed his mind after an quot;binspirational/bquot; talk from Sir Bobby Robson. b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-1fd=Rurl=http://www.clubcall.com/everton/moyes-admits-quit-thoughts-798707.htmlcid=1256305246ei=_Q3ySL2ZKo6SygTAz-G_Bwusg=AFQjCNHqsk2FPH43xy_Rb2DzWoMx12367QMoyes admits to quit thoughts/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrClubcall/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-2fd=Rurl=http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/54334/Sir-Bobby-talked-me-out-of-quitting-Goodison-Park/cid=1256305246ei=_Q3ySL2ZKo6SygTAz-G_Bwusg=AFQjCNEdFxsSrMFxGbZJrOFZmknu7nFLOwSIR BOBBY TALKED ME OUT OF QUITTING GOODISON PARK/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrDaily Star/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1256305246hl=ennobrall 168 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Inspirational - Google News

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