“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
~ Abraham Lincoln

Grace can transform your brain. Simply by thanking these good things, making them aware of it and seeing them receive your thanks starts this flow of grace. It is true that mental activity can strengthen your pathways in your brain by what you focus on with your thoughts and feelings.

Changing Your Brain Pathways

In science, they refer to this as neural plasticity. This refers to the capacity of the nervous system to modify itself, functionally and structurally, in response to experience and injury. Boils down to the thinking, if you focus on happiness with your thoughts and feelings, you strengthen happiness pathways. With many situations creating financial and social stress, we can use gratitude to help eliminate our heavy feeling and find peace.

Happiness Through Kripa

We can create happiness through the practice of Kripa. This is a word from the Sanskrit, kripala. In order to understand its meaning, it depends how it is being used. It is an important concept in Hinduism that embraces the concepts of grace, blessing, and mercy. When used in meditation, it focuses the brain to think and feel gratitude for blessings in its life.

The practice begins by thinking of three things that brought you a blessing that day. These thoughts can be as specific as your family members or the beauty of the blue sky. Whatever you’re grateful for, be sure to make it aware to your gratitude through your thoughts and feelings. By using the warmth of your gratitude, it creates these changes in your body and brain. During this moment of thankfulness, see it receive your thanks. Now you’ve entered into the flow of grace.

The Wonderful Loop

As you enter this grace, the universe brings more things to you to be thankful. Now you’ve created a wonderful loop of gratitude. Since you are taking time each day to send gratitude to the things that you’re grateful for, you are receiving more situations to be thankful. “This method actually changes the pathways in your brain”, says Deepak Chopra.

In order for the loop to occur, it is important to feel the emotion and warm feeling in your mind and body. Visualize it, honor it, and feel the significance of the warm emotion. When you include this practice daily, you’ll see how the universe brings you more things to be grateful for during your day. Since you are putting your focus on the blessings in your life, you are allowing your brain to promote more happiness. Because you can’t think of a negative and positive thought at the same time, your brain is helping you enter happiness as you use this kripa method daily.