Karmic Muscle Group: Generosity and Commitment
Today’s Exercise: A Day Of Gracious Living
- Take a wide rubber band or a ribbon and write the word “grace” on it. Tie it around your wrist on your dominant hand. This is so you remember that today is a day of Gracious Living.
- For the entire day, when you see some who needs assistance, come to their rescue. Open doors for people, help them carry things, get them coffee.
- For a single day, put yourself into service to others. You will know that you are getting wrong if you are asking for people to serve you or you are saying “no” to requests made of you. [hr]
Training Note:
We tend to take care of ourselves. Even basic ordinary manners have fallen by the wayside. We do not hold doors open for people or help them carry things even when we are going to the same place they are going. An enormous mental shift is available when you consciously put yourself into the service of others. You will probably notice that you do not want to do it. It seems like it will eat up all your time or be a burden to you. The opposite is true. When you put yourself into the service of others, you get energized. Things go more smoothly fore everyone and your day flies by. Step out of your selfishness for a day and try it. (It does not matter how many kids you have or how tough you think your job is. You are bigger than you think.)[hr]
Karmic Benefits:
- Sharing The Daily Load: making life easier for others actually makes life easier for you. You might spend a few minutes here or there helping someone, but it makes their day easier, creates human connection and gets everyone thinking about contribution instead of taking. This mental shift from taking to giving can be intensely powerful and can set off a chain reaction of contribution.
- Making Grace Familiar To You: of all the human virtues, grace seems to be the one that is most neglected. Grace is the act of contributing without a reason. It is a give out of pure generosity of spirit. That is probably why you don’t see it very often. When our resources seem to be spread thin, a sudden and unforeseen contribution can help lift the load and energize the moment. More importantly, it allows you to confront your own stinginess. The real work, like all Karmic Workouts, gets done on you.
- Observer Your Unused Capacity: we all love to whine about how we don’t have enough time for our own needs and that we really can’t give ourselves away to others. This is a lie. You always have time for a minute here and a minute there to help someone carry a box or to open a door. A day of gracious living will wake you up to the fact that you can do way more for the world than you think you can. It gives you access to the power of your compassion and commitment.[hr]
Share Your Experience:
Leave a comment when you have completed the exercise.
