Happy Thanksgiving!

It was my last class with that seniors group before my first Thanksgiving in America, and something unusual happened. 

But before telling you about the unusual stuff, let me start by telling you how it usually is. 

I normally arrive 5 to 10 minutes before the class starts, go to the restroom and sit with the seniors that are already waiting for me. We chat a lil bit about the weather, my colorful outfit of the day and about how their week has been going so far, while we wait for the others to come. 

It’s time for the class to start. We tap in with our breaths, we take a moment to acknowledge how we are actually doing, to tap in with our truths that rises with the silence. 

The class follows a nice flow of breath, movements and ends up with a guided meditation. After the mind, body and soul have been looked out, we connect with the feeling of gratitude for one more day, one more practiced shared, and for all loving kindness generated at the end of the class. I greet them goodbye and move to the second class at the same building. 

Well, this time was a little bit different. I concerned everyone by arriving one minute late, the crew was already there waiting for me, and something came to my mind to share with them. I started talking about vibrations and how our bodies are affected by everything we consume – food, music, information, speeches, etc. 

To my surprise they engaged with the topic, started sharing and asking questions, so it became a class about our Pancha Koshas (five bodies – physical, energetic, mental, intellectual and spiritual), especially about the energetic one. I shared a bit about aura, chakras, the energy channels and how we can cope with its health. 

One lady then, with a serious disability on her spinal cord, shared that she can’t even feel her physical body, so to feel the energetic one was even harder. She started opening up about how she feels having to live everyday with that condition. 

One thing led to another and everyone wanted to share a bit of themselves. The great teaching came when we started talking about accepting the reality as it is. For a reason, we are going through some challenges in life, and what is there for us is to accept it. At their particular time in life, there’s nothing they can do to change their exterior reality. And that can be very overwhelming, among other things. 

But there’s something we always can choose – the way we look into the challenges of life. Of course we will be angry for not being able to move the body anymore, or feel sad for being stuck in a place we don’t want to be and we don’t have a choice. And among these feelings and emotions, we still have an option. 

We can face our reality with resistance or acceptance. And that, my friends, can make the entire difference for your inner world. When we believe everything is at its own place, that we are exactly where we are supposed to be, we can relax and find some peace there. We accept that new reality as it shows and try to make the best we can with it. Afterall, it is a human life – the only one on the planet that can develop self-knowledge and awareness of the Self. 

At the end, I shared with them how grateful I was for having the opportunity to be with them weekly, as they help me so much to go through my own struggles. Everytime I’m there I gain so much that all my troubles quickly go away. And, the only gentleman between us ladies, thanked me for bringing life to them. That made my day.

For the first time not a single movement with the body was made that day, but we all left that class with the feeling of being greater than the universe, with so much empathy generated for one another and the sense that we are all still making the difference in the world – at least in each other’s lives we are!

Hope you all can realize how much life still has to offer and that we have plenty to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gabi Gazzola