Every moment offers an opportunity to appreciate our blessings in this human life — our minds and bodies in (relatively) working order, a roof over (some of) our heads, the rain and sun and earth nurturing and sustaining us…

Gratitude for our loved ones, our friends, our communities. Gratitude for our challenges, helping us learn and grow and illuminate areas of our unconsciousness. Gratitude for the tiny, the vast, and everything in between.

This practice is powerful, practical, portable. You can try it in the shower, on your commute, before your first bite, during a conversation... even in a moment of pain, anger, anxiety, or confusion.

In my journeys with depression, I have found gratitude to be a vital, crucial, liberating tool for healing.

We will cultivate this practice through group inquiry and games!

I look forward to exploring with you.

Bio: Andrew Chaikin has taught dharma, meditation and mindfulness in many settings: prisons, the wilderness, corporations, the US Congress. He is passionate about bringing heart-based wisdom into everyday life.

He leads a weekly group in SF called Heart Camp, works with adults and teens at Spirit Rock, and leads the meditation and yoga program at the SF County Jail. As musician Kid Beyond, he pours heart and soul into modern rock and electronic music.

Andrew is a Spirit Rock-authorized Community Dharma Leader, and a certified teacher of Search Inside Yourself, the mindful leadership program born at Google. A practitioner in the Theravada tradition since 2001, he has studied with wise, wonderful teachers throughout the US and Asia. His paths of practice and service are guided by Sally Armstrong.

www.heart.camp
www.kidbeyond.com