As I’ve written about before, I’ve been noticing the tangible impact of practicing offering blessings as I move through the world. One of the most important is the ongoing practice of blessing water. Water carries memory, as demonstrated in the work of Masaru Emoto, where he looked at the crystalline structure of frozen water molecules before and after they were blessed, as well as when they were sent love, gratitude, hate, or “you’re a loser”. It’s quite compelling research and, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a link to a YouTube video about water and memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOp-bxNug5A. There are many other related videos, as well, if you are interested.
Many people don’t believe that water carries memory, or that it matters if water is blessed before taken into the body. Many of us forget that our bodies are up to 65% water and, when we take into account the images that come from Emoto’s work, we can better appreciate why blessing water is an important practice for our overall sense of well-being.
I am also a proponent of expressing a great deal of ongoing love and gratitude for my body, as it’s the means by which I’m here in the world. I include my awareness that the water in my body will carry my love and gratitude within it as it circulates. Whether it directly affects my body, I don’t really know but, even with the inevitable changes that come with aging, I know I feel better when I actively engage this practice.
I live with three cats and each morning I bless their food and the fresh water I put in their bowls. This has become a practice that plays a central role in my morning routine and I find that it reminds me to bless my apartment and everything in it with a focused awareness I might otherwise forget to have.
For this week’s practice, I invite you to pay even more attention than you already do to the gift of water, and to the fact that water has memory, carries information, and responds visibly to our gratitude and regard. If you feel moved to do so, also include blessing bodies of water around you, anywhere on the planet, all over the planet—whatever appeals most to your form of practice. I’ve mentioned many times that whenever I turn on a faucet, I am deeply moved by the fact that drinkable water flows freely from it. I think about the source of the water and of all the people involved in making this gift available to me. I send blessings and gratitude to the water and everyone involved. It doesn’t take more than a moment—just bringing it into awareness and expressing gratitude—but it touches and colors my entire day. (The most constant words I find myself thinking and saying are “thank you—I am so grateful”. These words, and the bodymind state they invoke, have become my constant mantra…)
Doing this kind of practice doesn’t overlook the terrible things that are happening in our world. Rather, it offers a way to acknowledge and experience the complexity of wholeness, where there are both wonderful moments and traumatically upsetting moments, all unfolding at the same time. When we remember to bless and thank the water in our bodies and in our lives, we are honoring one part of this wholeness.
In doing this practice, please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion, as curiosity automatically opens us to our world and our experience. Curiosity moves toward, reaching out to connect with what comes our way. Also please remember to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise, which they just about inevitably do, and allow them to move on by without having to engage them in any way.