In Saturday’s DM, we meditated on gratitude by the use of a superb article by Thom Hartmann. Higher identified for his prophetic writing than his writing about his internal life, I for one admire his braveness and candor in sharing his religious follow with us. Clearly, his prophetic and mystical work come collectively very organically.
In his article, “The Radical Energy of Gratitude to Rewire Your Mind and Life,” he demonstrates how up to date science helps his religious follow of gratitude. Says he, I at all times suspected that this day by day follow of gratitude helped hold me sane in these insane instances, however now I’ve found there’s precise science behind the psychological well being impacts of it.*
Once we concentrate on appreciation, our mind “dials down the manufacturing of cortisol, our physique’s major stress hormone.” As well as, analysis at Indiana College has discovered that working towards gratitude can truly “change the construction of your mind, particularly in areas linked to empathy and emotional processing.” This to me is particularly fascinating as a result of empathy has change into a nasty phrase for anti-democratic activist billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel who inform us we must always drop the idea altogether.
Perhaps they need to take walks into nature like Louise and Thom Hartmann do to be taught some amazement and appreciation—the Through Positiva. And thereby, empathy and its cousin, compassion, which as Meister Eckhart makes specific consists of justice. Thus, the Through Transformativa.
Perhaps studying easy methods to relate higher to at least one one other—empathy and compassion as starters born of the Through Positiva of gratitude—could be an vital factor to show in a reborn academic system. Does gratitude even make it into our instructional curricula? If not, why not?
Let it start at residence. As Hartmann places it, these modifications ripple out into practically each side of life. Individuals who follow gratitude frequently report sleeping higher, most likely as a result of they’re changing anxious ideas with appreciative ones earlier than bedtime.
These working towards gratitude additionally report stronger relationships—little doubt as a result of mind areas concerned with social bonding and empathy are nurtured by gratitude. Additionally they spill over into the Through Creativa–together with enhancements in downside fixing and considering creatively—“a grateful thoughts can be a extra versatile one.”
So how will we develop gratitude extra totally? A method Hartmann recommends and science helps is to maintain a gratitude journal. This may assist “reinforce constructive neural pathways”, coaching your mind to concentrate on the great in your life.
One other manner I suggest is to learn the creation mystics, as I indicated in my Saturday DM. Thus Julian of Norwich reminds us that “the primary good factor is the goodness of nature” and “the goodness in nature is God” whom she calls “never-ending goodness” and an “countless goodness” And “to behold God in all issues is to dwell in full pleasure.”
And what the scientist and mystic Nicolas Cusa within the fifteenth century taught, that every one religions will someday unite round knowledge which is “a supreme and highly effective magnificence.”
Pausing by way of the day to note and admire constructive moments may also help reshape one’s neural circuitry. The results of gratitude follow “seem like cumulative and long-lasting.” Optimistic modifications in mind operate persist months after one begins the follow. A extra optimistic outlook on life develops even within the midst of the trials and tribulations of the day. Cultivating our sense of gratitude “could be one of the highly effective instruments we’ve” for coaching our brains to note what’s proper.
In my current guide on the antichrist actions of our time, the Conclusion chapter is entitled: “Be a Camel and Escape the Allurement of the Antichrist.” In it I urge individuals to withstand the seductive energy of the antichrist archetype by turning into like a camel, that’s to refill at watering holes of the Through Positiva with the intention to make it throughout the desert of the Through Negativa in our time. “To battle necrophilia, we should at darkish instances that appear like finish instances like ours change into like camels who refill at oases of biophilia and pleasure.”
Within the video for at this time’s DM, I’ll share an article from the American Mind Basis on gratitude entitled, “Does Gratitude Rewire Your Mind?”**
*Thom Hartmann, The Hartmann Report, “The Radical Energy of Gratitude to Rewire Your Mind and Life,” November 27, 2025.
**American Mind Basis, “Does Gratitude Rewire Your Mind,” November 26, 2025
To learn the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click on HERE.
Banner picture: Gratitude for the fantastic sky. Photograph by Peggy Anke: on Pexels.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you follow gratitude—the Through Positiva—frequently? How are you performing like a camel and filling up at oases of pleasure and biophilia? How are you aiding others to do the identical?
Associated Readings by Matthew Fox
Julian of Norwich: Knowledge in a Time of Pandemic—and Past, pp. 101f.
Christian Mystics, p. 159.
Trump and the MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ, p. 90.
Meditations with Meister Eckhart.
Ardour For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 151-165.
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas, pp. 41f.
Sheer Pleasure: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 57-188.
Unique Blessing.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion.
