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The Wisdom of a Long Life
An elder taught me these words to live by but the irony is that the words taught me that it isn't only elders with wisdom. I Am Grateful For These Words These last two weeks have been pretty challenging. It all stemmed from receiving harsh criticism from someone I consider an elder and mentor;…
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Heartfelt Gratitude For Your Mom
A recipe for Mother’s Day gratitude. Mom, Grandmother, Mother Earth, Like a Mom to Me This Sunday is Mother’s Day and what a beautiful time to reflect with gratitude on our own mom, grandmother, mother earth or those who are like a mother to us. Even if the person you want to express your…
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My Prayer is Noticing and Saying Thank You
Their prayer moved with them and through them as they danced. San Felipe Feast – a prayer They danced. Moving together to the pounding of the drums. One two one two one two one two. To infinity. The drums and the bare feet of the women and the moccasined feet of the men drove…
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Practice Choosing Those You Care About Every Day
They will feel your appreciation even if you don’t tell them. Gratefully I Choose You There is a great paradox with those we love that the more we have them in our lives the more we get caught up in the mundane details of day to day life and the less we show them how…
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Honoring Our Loved Ones Who Have Passed Away
Gratitude that is specific and from the heart. What a beautiful way to honor them. On Becoming Beautiful The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and…
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Hello, Nice to Meet You, I Am Grateful
It’s so easy to talk about what’s got me down but there it is, in abundance, so much to be grateful for. Introduce Yourself With Your Gratitude Today, go over to Our Gratitude and introduce yourself to the group. Instead of a standard introduction introduce yourself through gratitude. Who are you in the world and what…
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Earthing
Bare feet on the earth. We connect with nature. We breathe slower. We are grounded. This Week Let’s All Try This Carve out some alone time in your schedule. Walk outside. Remove your shoes. Stand on the earth. Feel the temperature underfoot. Feel the texture underfoot. Take five slow deep breaths. Notice.…
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Why I Drop F-Bombs in My Gratitude
Swear Words Are an Invitation I never realized that declaring, “We want to be fucking grateful,” would be such a siren song for so many people. I was just speaking from my truth. Yes, I say fuck. I wasn’t raised that way. (Sorry mom.) And I turn it off when I’m around children or…
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Was He Really Grateful for Doo Doo Head?
The boy scrawled those words on the gratitude board “doo doo head”. His family jumped to criticize but no one asked him what he meant. We Are So Damn Quick To Judge Others Yesterday I had the giant gratitude board at a community event celebrating love. It was beautiful with hundreds of people sharing…
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The Art of Being Soft
The bees buzzed around me with all their potential to sting. What will I do? Choosing Softness It can be so easy to convince ourselves that we have to be hard and tough. Even here in our gratitude collective a few weeks ago I was talking about fighting. In times when there is…
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Which Gratitude Is Better?
Is it better to express gratitude to a person you are grateful for or to write down your gratitude experience without directing it to anyone? He Put Me on the Spot I was talking to someone last week, a fellow entrepreneur, about gratitude. I told him about my gratitude practice and the work that…
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How to Inspire: From “Be Happy” to “I Am Grateful for ________”
Discovering Happiness During My Mid-College Crisis Something happened to me right around the time I turned 20. I called it my mid-college crisis and even though it was during the stone ages of the internet (back in 1995) I made a website about it. I questioned everything. Who am I? What am I doing with my…
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A Practice to Bring You Closer Together
Is There Someone You’d Like to Connect With? You know I’m always talking about how important noticing is as a first step to being grateful. That can be true for nature, our work or home, and also for the people we care about. Is there someone you would like to have a deeper connection…
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Shout It From the Sidewalk
When 1 gratitude becomes 1000gratitudes Obviously all of you are committed to gratitude. You know the importance of practicing gratitude. You are aware of all the good you are surrounded by and all the good you are. But not all of you have a written gratitude practice. Some of you practice gratitude through your…
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Seeing the World with Curious Eyes
A Deep Open-Minded Noticing Right now I am sitting in a hospital room with my girlfriend. She has an undiagnosed terribly painful condition which is a cycle of nausea and extreme pain that comes in waves of abdominal spasms. She yells out in pain her face pale and red, her eyes pleading for…
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Racism and Gratitude
Thank You, Martin Luther King Today as we appreciate Martin Luther King Jr. let's take an opportunity to acknowledge our privilege. Our gratitude practice is one way we can look at the privilege we have with humility and appreciation. Instead of defending ourselves saying we don't have privilege and instead of being so…
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Are You Saying Sorry Instead of Thank You?
Say It Like You Mean It I’m so inspired by this cartoon and concept. It resonates with me but I’ve had trouble incorporating it into my life. Mostly I realized I said sorry instead of thank you after the fact when I reflect back on my day. So here is my reflection of when…
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How To Express Gratitude for Loved Ones
What a Beautiful Way to Connect Writing gratitude is one thing but expressing it is quite another. Take your gratitude practice to another level by using it to connect with those who matter most. This doesn’t mean a simple, “thank you” when your loved one does something for you. This is about expressing detailed…
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She said, “The things that are happening to me are a function of my view of them.”
Freedom in Uncertainty I am preparing for the Dealing with Negativity webinar this Thursday and came across the work of Ellen Langer, Ph.D. She is a Harvard professor who has been studying mindfulness for forty years. She is quick to point out that she is not talking about mindfulness mediation and in fact instead of using…
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Open Your Mouth to Give
[su_box title=”Happy World Gratitude Day” box_color=”#ebeced” title_color=”#000000″]I’m posting this early so we have time to commit to doing something today in the name of gratitude. Share your ideas, experiences, photos and more in the Gratitude in Action – Let’s DO Something group. [/su_box] Your Vocal Chords Vibrate with Gratitude I watched the movie…