Gratitude Turns What We Have Into Enough

 

 

There are so many ways to express our love. Gratitude is a beautiful way of sharing love. I find that gratitude can move me quickly into a space of thankfulness for all I have, be it a healthy body, a loving family or a roof over my head. When I am pushed, pulled or nudged into my grateful space it makes me see our world as beautiful and I want to shout out my love for the beauty around me! 

I remember as a child when I had a bad dream my mom would come into my room and sit on the side of my bed.  She would help me move my thoughts from the bad dream to places of butterflies and all things magical and sweet. It would so quickly put me back to sleep.

I think of gratitude in the same way - a way to move into all things magical and sweet. When we take the time in our day to be grateful for all we have and those in our lives that we love, we change the way our day moves forward…truly. It is not the easiest to do always, but if we can make the effort to be disciplined for even two weeks changes can show up in a myriad of ways. 

Writing your Gratitudes daily is something we have all heard about, most likely done, and will continue to fall in and out of as our lives take on exciting adventures or day to day chores!

Here are few ways to keep yourself on track: 

  1. Write out a small list of gratitudes and place them on the wall at the end of your bed or someplace that you will see them once you awaken. You can even put up pictures of those you love and are grateful for….it only takes a few minutes and if you do this daily you will find your day starting with a sense of peace.
  2. Say your gratitudes before getting out of bed in the morning.  Upon waking in the morning and before letting your mind run into all the things you have to do - try this practice. Pick three or four people in your life that you are grateful for, bring them into your mind’s eye.  As you see them, think of all the ways you are thankful for their beauty and presence in your life. Do each person daily - you will find that these gratitudes will come to mind when you see them and it is a great feeling for you both!
  3. Start a Sister’s gratitude...have you ever done a daily gratitude with your family, friends or working sisters? This is one of my favorite and most memorable exercises in gratitude. A friend started my first sister gratitude and there were four of us in total. We all committed to sharing a daily gratitude with each other for 2 weeks - it was beautiful, deep, and heart expanding. It was as lovely to receive and read their gratitude filled emails as it was to write my own! I highly recommend doing this one if you can.

 Sharing our gratitude with those we love is a simple, powerful tool for teaching gratitude. Our loving gestures speak loudly and I believe it is a giant step to making big changes to our beautiful world. As the Chinese proverb says: if you want to correct the world, first you must correct the state; if you want to correct the state, you must first correct the family; if you want to correct the family you must first correct yourself.

By changing our attitude thru our acts of gratitude, great changes can happen in others. I am reminded of this when I remember how a smile from a stranger can change my day.

Just taking a deep breathe can remind us of the importance of our daily existence and we can enjoy the moment of gratitude with a quiet silent appreciation that can make our day more peaceful and present.

 Enjoy life….be grateful.

Love & Gratitude,
Debra


2 Responses

Jacqueline
Jacqueline

December 04, 2015

I’m loving this! Thank you!

Donna Wesp
Donna Wesp

December 04, 2015

Love the post! Gratitude takes the Grr out of attitude! :)

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