It starts with thinking and soon I am being
This Christmas, think about each and every person you are giving a gift to. What are you grateful for about this person? What have they brought into your life? What have you learned from them? What do you love about them? As you are wrapping their gift think about all the ways you are grateful for them. Now put it into action and write them a simple card (or even just a gift tag) that shares one thing you are grateful for about them.
When you think gratitude and live it by putting it into action, you are being grateful. And we all want to be grateful. If you lose your grateful way, just stop and realign yourself with grateful thoughts and action.
I have been doing the thinking part, contemplating all the ways that I am grateful for each person I am giving gifts to. It is a beautiful flip of gratitude. Usually at this time of year my gratitude is about receiving gifts and feeling grateful for the gift. While I am still grateful for the gifts I receive what I want to highlight and build up are the people in my life not the things in my life.
What I have yet to do, but am now committed to, is putting my gratitude in action by sharing a few words of gratitude to each person I give a gift to. What a beautiful way to end out the year. What holiday traditions will you infuse gratitude into?
[su_quote cite=”M.J. Ryan”]Gratitude makes us feel bursting with delight, just to remember the gifts we have received. Thus we are doubly blessed when we receive something: for the gift itself and later, in recall, for the miracle of having been given it.[/su_quote]
This Week’s Gratitude Question
[su_button url=”http://www.ourgratitudecollective.com/activity/” background=”#178fb3″]What are you grateful for about each person you are giving a gift to?[/su_button]
My Gratitude Experience Last Week
I always share my gratitude online so that means that I use a keyboard to type in my gratitude. But sometimes that just doesn’t work for me. One day last week I was not feeling it but I am committed to my practice so I started by drawing. Then I creatively crafted my lettering of “I’m grateful for”. After that by gratitude started to emerge one little bit at a time and I ended up with five things I was grateful for. I felt like the front door was locked so I just when for a little stroll and eventually ended up inside.
Forgotten Gratitude
Last week I was also grateful for sharing in the delight of a woodpecker’s sounds … Resisting temptation and choosing the path that is better for me … Getting dressed up together, we are a team in so many ways.
A New eCard
The Gratitude I Shared Last Week
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| Sun | 12/21/2014 | What a great day … celebrating Christmas with my Montoya family … I’m grateful for receiving a beautiful hand-carved book stand … Party-hopping and ample time to connect with family, friends, and more friends … Beans and chicos, posole, stew, oven bread and homemade jerky … Lots of laughter … A photo to remember. |
| Sat | 12/20/2014 | I’m grateful for extra time in the car for kisses … Thouthpaste … Water … Free organic chocolate with almonds … Two steps closer to my uke. |
| Fri | 12/19/2014 | I’m grateful for reading positivity sitting alone in the quiet of morning … I’m grateful for a break to the quiet with a honking skein of geese flying over my house … I’m grateful for a timed thermostat so I can once again wake up to a warm house. Good morning. |
| Thu | 12/18/2014 | I’m grateful for hearing Allisun’s voice … Fun memories that came to me from a song … Nicole feeling a little bit better. |
| Wed | 12/17/2014 | I’m grateful for winning the door prize, my lucky streak continues … An exciting planning session and perfect timing to connect with just the right person to put one part into action right away … I’m grateful for being warm and cozy tucked under a blanket … Silent touch screens instead of buttons … Talking about how fucking grateful we are to be ourselves and cuss if we want to. |
| Tue | 12/16/2014 | I’m grateful for cutting myself some slack on this busy week … Joyful Christmas prep … Driving towards such an amazing sunset for quite some time … A local business option for the exciting instrument purchase I have been dreaming of … New life forming in the bodies of the most beautiful inspiring women I know. |
| Mon | 12/15/2014 | I’m grateful for being overtaken by sleep … A 12-hour workday coming to an end and being flexible to the changing circumstances … Having the energy to be productive after work including making a healthy dinner … Sweet sleep. |
| Sun | 12/14/2014 | I was delighted to run errands together and then to come home and bake … In gratitude for being one step closer to the new instrument I plan on purchasing … In gratitude for a beautiful day … Candied pecans … Doggie jackets … Giant cups of water when I have taken in so much salt and sugar … Waking up before my alarm to a creative urge. |
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My gratitude journey started in May 2011 and continues to this day. Thank you for being a part of it!
A daily gratitude practice is simple. Write down three things you are grateful for each day. Download your free GratitudeGuide.
My clients focus on gratitude and learn from their successes to make the positive changes they want in their lives. You can to. Call me to set up our first meeting 505.333.9336.
Created by Antonia Montoya[/su_note]