The Myth of Independence. Grooving with Gratitude.

The alarm goes off. My day has started.

I open my eyes and wake up, stretch my arms and legs, and get out of bed. I walk downstairs to the bathroom, use the toilet, brush my teeth, get dressed, go perform 15 minutes of yoga, then finish with a meditation. Afterwards I go into the kitchen to make a smoothie and move on to the rest of my day.

I am feeling pretty good. I'm so consistent with my morning routine, as I completed it once again all by myself.

Yet this simple morning routine, in the confines of my house, actually required the help of many people.

The independence I think I have and everyone else’s for that matter, is a myth.

In regards to my morning, it is true that I was the only one walking around the house in those early morning hours. Though the presence of others was clearly part of my morning ritual.

Was there someone else helping me get dressed?

Did someone help wipe my ass, brush my teeth, put my jeans on?

Am I royalty?

No. Yet, someone had to make my tooth brush and toothpaste, someone created and built the toilet that I sat my butt on, someone made the yoga mat for me to stretch on, someone built the blender for my delicious smoothie and someone built the floor in my house, where I sat down and closed my eyes to meditate.

None of these activities that I enjoy in the morning, along with my movements throughout the day can happen without citizens from around the globe giving their time, effort and know-how, albeit for money, so I can live a free and “independent” life.

I bring this up because one of the key components of living a healthy life both physically and mentally, is to remember to be grateful for what others have done and are doing for you.

Praising yourself too much for your independence can inhibit the feeling of gratitude and lead to an inflated acknowledgement of the self. This can distort what you think your actual contributions were towards a particular endeavour.

If we forget about all the support that we receive from others, we can fall prey to the attitude of “I don't need anyone’s help or I got this”

This DIY(Do it yourself) mindset clouds our perception of how interdependent we really are when it comes to our daily lives.

To transcend this myth of independence, we must shift our perceptions into a state of gratitude.

To be clear our efforts and actions do matter, yet it needs to be balanced with equal credit to the efforts of our fellow humans.

Gratitude is a powerful emotion and can come to our aid when we are feeling depressed ,defeated and disconnected from others.

Though the world can seem scary at times, we must remember that our fellow cosmic travellers are waking up every day and going to work to make life on this planet a more enjoyable and easier place to live, not only for themselves, but for others. Likewise we are doing the same or striving to do the same, through our efforts and the gifts that we share to the world.

So how can we all be more grateful?

Start by waking up every day and giving thanks for being alive. Remember if you are reading this you are alive:). Take in the amazing fact, that as vast as the universe is and as old as it is, you have emerged at this time to experience this life.

Take in the fact that you are reading this on a computer or smartphone which has become an important object in your life, that someone had to build for you. (Unless you are the person that built your own computer, though you did need parts that someone else created to make your machine operable).

Give thanks to the people from around the world, who spent their time making the clothes that you are wearing right now, unless of course you are in the comfort of your birthday suit right now.

When you are in the kitchen look around and see all the things from the glasses, bowls, plates, cutlery, napkins, to the stove, to the counter top, that was manifested from someone’s efforts, so you could enjoy it.

Look at the food in your fridge and in your cupboards, that travelled on a ship, plane, truck, and car so you could ingest it and aid your body in surviving the rigours of daily life.

Walk around your entire home and you will be hard pressed to find something that you created independently, that you did not have assistance with directly or indirectly from another person.

Go outside, look at the signs, roads, shops, schools and pools that were all built by someone.

The water, the land, the air, the food, the I-pad, the plasma television, your car, the clothes, the books, the jewellery, the schools and the planes that shuttle people around the globe and everything that I have mentioned above was created from a human that you probably do not know. Most importantly all of it came from the physical earth.

Earth, our home, is where we need to also spend time sending gratitude to, for everything that it has provided to us.

There are many pressing issues on the planet today that can overwhelm us, which I have talked about in previous writings and will talk about in the future.

Whatever you believe created this fine earth that we all call home, give thanks to that.

Life is challenging and yet amazing with all the things that we and our fellow humans have created

By keeping awareness on the interdependent nature of everything on earth, your mind will become more calm, your words more kind and your actions will be excited with more clear intent.

Leave the myth behind and become the fullness of who you are and give gratitude to your next breath, as you feel and experience this next moment on your journey.