The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
More on Science,
Spirituality
and Gratitude By Matthew Fox 12/08/2025 |
In
Saturday’s DM, we meditated on gratitude by way of an excellent article by Thom Hartmann. Best known for his prophetic writing than his writing about his inner life, I for one appreciate his courage and candor in sharing his spiritual practice with us. Clearly, his prophetic and mystical work come together very organically. |
In his article, “The Radical Power of Gratitude to Rewire Your Brain and Life,” he demonstrates how contemporary science supports his spiritual practice of gratitude. Says he, I always suspected that this daily practice of gratitude helped keep me sane in these insane times, but now I’ve discovered there’s actual science behind the mental health impacts of it.* When we focus on appreciation, |
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our
brain “dials down the production of cortisol, our body’s primary stress hormone.” In addition, research at Indiana University has found that practicing gratitude can actually “change the structure of your brain, especially in areas linked to empathy and emotional processing.” This to me is especially interesting because empathy has become a bad word for anti-democratic activist billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel who tell us we should drop the concept
altogether. |
Maybe they should take walks into nature like Louise and Thom Hartmann do to learn some amazement and appreciation—the Via Positiva. And thereby, empathy and its cousin, compassion, which as Meister Eckhart makes explicit includes justice. Thus, the Via Transformativa. |
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| Maybe learning how to relate
better to one another—empathy and compassion as starters born of the Via Positiva of gratitude—might be an important thing to teach in a reborn educational system. Does gratitude even make it into our educational curricula? If not, why not? |
Let it begin at home. As Hartmann puts it, these changes ripple out into nearly every aspect of life. People who practice gratitude regularly report sleeping better, probably because they’re replacing anxious thoughts with appreciative ones before bedtime. Those practicing gratitude
also report stronger relationships—no doubt because brain regions involved with social bonding and empathy are nurtured by gratitude. They also spill over into the Via Creativa–including improvements in problem solving and thinking creatively—“a thankful mind is also a more flexible one.” So how do we develop gratitude more
fully? One way Hartmann recommends and science supports is to keep a gratitude journal. This will help “reinforce positive neural pathways”, training your brain to focus on the good in your life. |
Another way I propose is to read the creation mystics, as I indicated in my Saturday DM. Thus Julian of Norwich reminds us that “the first good thing is the goodness of nature” and “the goodness in nature is God” whom she calls “unending goodness” and an “endless goodness” And “to behold God in all things is to live in complete joy.” |
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And what the scientist and mystic Nicolas Cusa in the fifteenth century taught, that all religions will one day unite around wisdom which is “a supreme and powerful beauty.” Pausing through the day to notice and appreciate positive moments can help reshape
one’s neural circuitry. The effects of gratitude practice “appear to be cumulative and long-lasting.” Positive changes in brain function persist months after one begins the practice. A more optimistic outlook on life develops even in the midst of the trials and tribulations of the day. Cultivating our sense of gratitude “might be one of the most powerful tools we have” for training our brains to notice what’s right. |
“Oprah on the Best Time to Practice Gratitude.” @OprahDaily | In my recent book on the antichrist movements of our time, the
Conclusion chapter is entitled: “Be a Camel and Escape the Allurement of the Antichrist.” In it I urge people to resist the seductive power of the antichrist archetype by becoming like a camel, that is to fill up at watering holes of the Via Positiva in order to make it across the desert of the Via Negativa in our time. |
“To
battle necrophilia, we must at dark times that seem like end times like ours become like camels who fill up at oases of biophilia and joy.” In the video for today’s DM, I will share an article from the American Brain Foundation on gratitude entitled, “Does Gratitude Rewire Your
Brain?”** |
Queries for Contemplation Do you practice gratitude—the Via Positiva—regularly? How are you acting like
a camel and filling up at oases of joy and biophilia? How are you assisting others to do the same? |
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| To view today's video, please click the image. You will be taken to today's post on the Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view and post your Comments. In the sharing that follows, a kind of community is developing around the DM. If you can't reach today's post on the website directly, click HERE. If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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| Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist An Important Conversation with Matthew Fox and Gil Duran Did you miss this two-session series with its powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and |
authentic spirituality? This is your
chance to add it to your library of classics to be watched, re-watched, and contemplated. Fox explores the archetype of Christ and Antichrist as it plays out in our world today but also in artists of old. He draws from the teachings of Jesus and Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and other mystics and visionaries, illuminating the stark contrast between life-giving and life-destroying spiritual energies. Purchase HERE. |
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Celebrate the traditional feast of the Black Madonna and the Immaculate Conception when Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox joins award-winning singer/author Alessandra Belloni and music director John La Barbera in a 90-minute online event, “Honoring the Black Madonna as Our Lady of Freedom (Madonna della Libera),” in which they share the wisdom of the Black Madonna and her healing powers for our times when both democracy and Mother Earth are
in peril. Alessandra will also talk about her book Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna and present a 10-minute excerpt of her movie |
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Join Matthew Fox in a free 4-session Online Lecture/Discussion/Q&A event, “Creation Spirituality and the Celebrating & Healing of Mother Earth & Ourselves,” co-presented by the Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin and Matthew Fox Legacy Project. Wednesdays, January 14, 21,28, February 4, 2026, 4:00pm-5:30pm
PT January 14 - Creation as an Original Blessing and the Springboard of Awe and Wonder January 21 - Sacred Mother Earth: The Holiness of Creation and Recovering the Cosmic Christ January 28 - The Cosmic Mass, and the Stations of the Cosmic Christ: Reinvigorating Liturgy and Rituals February 4 - Jesus as a Teacher of Democracy and the Renewal of Education and Values through the “10 Cs” Register HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new 6-month program of mystical wisdom for a new world. In this 6-month immersion program with Matthew, you’ll explore what it means to be a modern mystic and prophet, integrating this sacred knowledge into your life through the authentic teachings of Jesus and other wisdom keepers. This journey births what Matthew calls Christianity 2.0 — based not on dogma, but on a spirituality that recovers the sacred sense of original goodness. By Application only - apply
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Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May 25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred
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MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
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Join Matthew Fox for a transformative 4-part series that brings together some of the most provocative spiritual leaders, thinkers, and activists of our time. Together, we’ll explore the deep spiritual roots of this political moment and uncover pathways toward
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