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Self-Soothing: a gratitude ritual
Self-Soothing is Self-Love in Action Create a Self-Soothe Kit I have been making great use of a self-soothe kit I made last year and I would love to share that with you. I was guided to make my kit by Vanya Garabedian, LCSW who uses it with her clients who are in recovery from addiction. …
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For the Love of Nature
The gratitude that nature brings. Mindfulness in Nature I have been experiencing a lot of nature for the past week. Amazing drives through Colorado and New Mexico that remind me to slow down and notice the natural world. The beauty. The textures. The colors. The shadows. The movement. All that is alive all around me.…
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Loving Attention
love is the quality of attention Choosing Love with Our Attention Love. Falling in love. Choosing love. However you go about it the act of love is so much about paying attention. Generous with our attention. Our gaze elevating what we see into a thing of beauty. Finding that beauty and not only resting our…
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A Recipe for Feeling Alive
Acceptance and Appreciation Throughout What Makes You Feel Alive? It is such an individual thing. What makes you feel alive and what makes me feel alive are probably vastly different. But as I hold my animal companion through her last days I have been thinking a lot about how often it is the simplest things…
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Out of Hiding
The weight of those things we hide from the world. Wanting to Be Her I was writing a final paper for one of my classes and we were talking about whiteness as the default and as the ideal. At first I was writing in an academic tone and citing research but then something kept bubbling…
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The Experience
An audio download to experience gratitude. Expanding into Your Body This week we will get out of intellectualizing about gratitude and swim into the experience of it. The audio download guides us through the experience of gratitude through our senses, noticing the world around us and expanding into our bodies. Enjoy! The quality of life…
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What Are You Welcoming into Your Life?
Yes. This is what I want more of. Please, Come In I like to think of my gratitude practice as a list of what I'd like to see more of in my life. By saying "thank you for being here" I am also saying "thank you, come again". And it feels like it works because…
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Grateful to Notice
Let’s put down our phones and pay attention. Appreciating and Honoring Through Our Attention Last week one of our members shared a post to our FB group about gratitude as a result of paying attention. (Thank you, Forest!) And as you all know I am all about the three part gratitude process: Notice, Appreciate, Share. That…
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A Life of Giving Thanks
A day like the one before. Or is it? We Don't Have a Day of Thanks. We Have a Life of Thanks. Sometimes my days and weeks go by in a blur. One day seems to be virtually identical to the one before. Work, read, write, eat, repeat. But then each night I sit and…
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Celebrating the Wins
Wins large and small. The Day after an Election and Other Days Too When we see the results of an election there are almost always wins and losses. These larger wins and losses are a great example for the itty bitty wins and losses that we experience on an average Wednesday. It can be so…
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To Have Not or to Have
Celebrating what we have through gratitude. Today It can be so easy to look forward with worry or anticipation. To look back with regret or nostalgia. But today calls for your attention. Today is here. Today is real. And even when we are present in what is real today it can be so easy to…
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Feel Your Feelings
Don’t skip the heart of it all. These Feelings Are Real I beg of you to sit with them. These feelings that are alive in you right now. Whatever they are. However they feel. Just be here now with them. What are you noticing in your body? Where do you feel sensations? Where do you…
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Mindful and Grateful
As long as I talk about gratitude I will never stop talking about noticing. Don’t Miss Out on This Moment I have said it before and will say it again: We can’t be grateful for something we don’t notice. I know that seems obvious. It really does. But still we are scattered. Busy. Worrying. Planning.…
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There Are No Words
… {Gasp} Sometimes gratitude fills you. Completely. So full that your heart just seems to expand more and more and more. And your skin can't possibly hold it all in. Those moments of gratitude are so big that everything else slips away. And we are fully enveloped in the blessing in front of us. Years ago…
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Finding Gratitude is Creativity
To see all around you differently. A Reality That Wasn’t There Before Sometimes gratitude just spontaneously emerges. Other times I decide I am going to be grateful and choose to find gratitude that wasn’t there before. Either way I see the parallels with creativity. Isn’t creativity the same way? Sometimes we just spontaneously add that…
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Ever Feel Like You Aren’t Doing Enough?
Small Matters That Post-Inspiration Paralysis A few of you replied to the email last week to tell me how much you loved what I wrote. You were brought to tears. You were inspired. You want to do it. Really. Sing your big and beautiful swan sang. Make your mark. Feel proud of yourself. Go big.…
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Aah Relaxation
Kick your heels up. Sink into the gratitude that only relaxation brings. We All Deserve a Rest Give yourself the gift of relaxation. Because you need it. Because the world needs it. Take the time that you can whether that is a long weekend or a lingering cup of tea. Do what you can to…
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Blooming
What can we do to make the environment right for gratitude? Petals Opening up Towards the Sun The lilies in my pond open up each day, petals open towards the sun, when the sun is high in the sky. Then they close up tight in their buds protected as the cool weather of late afternoon…
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Giving Weight
I see you. I value you. I hope you’ll stay. Welcoming In Last week was all about releasing. Letting go of that which no longer serves us. This week let's honor all of the things that we wish to welcome into our lives. The objects, the beliefs, the thoughts, the values, the people, our bodies,…
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Awesome Things
Awesome things about this and that. All around. Look for the Awesome We know complaints can be so natural and easy. We also know that we often don’t realize how grateful we are for something until it’s gone. So let’s get ahead of this thing and look for a few awesome things in each of…