Day 5 of the Gratitude Project Blog Summit is already here - can you believe it?! We’re only a few days away from the Gratitude Project (11/18) - have you signed up? When you cultivate gratitude, you experience your life in a positive, trusting, and confident way - are you ready to take this journey? I think you are! Join us and sign up!

I’m so excited to introduce a brand new voice to my community! Jenny is a Spiritual Healer and Teacher, in Australia. In the pursuit of her own healing, firstly of a physical nature and later emotionally and spiritually, Jenny started the search to find the answers to heal herself over 10 years ago, when she had a healing treatment with a Reiki Master. As Jenny had always had a passion for wanting to help others in some way, she became interested in healing on a wider scale. She went on to become a Reiki Practitioner and her journey was well on the way. The need to learn more and find the Holy Grail to healing saw her study many forms of energy healing, including Spiritual Surgery (a.k.a. Zenna Healing), Reconnective Healing®, Medical Intuition, Crystal Healing, Thought Field Therapy, Angel Intuitive as certified by Doreen Virtue PhD, ThetaHealing™ and most recently Tamara Healing. Jenny now believes that the first step to healing is Self-Love and incorporates everything she’s learned to bring about the most positive outcome for healing to take place with her clients. Jenny also runs regular Guided Meditation/Psychic Development classes, Goddess Playshops and offers Distance Healing to those who live afar. She can be contacted through her website www.soulinspiring.com. You can also connect with Jenny through Facebook!

Grateful for Gratitude
By Jenny Marie
A few days ago I was asked to write a post on Gratitude as part of a Gratitude Blog Summit being held in the States. At first I felt honoured to be asked to write something for this event and then the thought came to me ‘what is expected of me’ - did they want me to write what I’m grateful for or write what gratitude means to me. The response was that it was basically up to me and to consider my post a piece of art. So in the end I decided to write my usual daily Gratitude Blog but include some information about how and why I got started writing a Gratitude Blog and the benefits.

Well it didn’t happen overnight, that’s for sure. I believe the concept of gratitude first came to me many years ago - I’d say it would have to be over 10 years ago, when I had a baby and I was watching the Oprah show. Oprah talked about gratitude and I cannot remember exactly what she said but it obviously struck a chord with me. The one thing I do remember she said and what I started to practice, was to write in a journal each night before going to bed, at least 5 things I was grateful for.

Now, being a quite negative person myself, I felt this would be a great thing for me to do. I believe I had already embarked on my spiritual journey at that point so I was absorbing whatever enlightening information I could get my hands on and I saw this as a step in the right direction for me. So I purchased a diary and began to write each night what I was grateful for. Sometimes it was easy and sometimes not so easy, it really depended on what had happened that day. I didn’t realise it at the time, but now I see that when it was difficult, and to this day this can still happen to me now and then, you are not truly being grateful, but going through the motions of just writing what you’re grateful for, just for the sake of writing. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had a boring day at home or a lousy day at work, there is always a gift in whatever your day has brought you. And this is the gift in writing what you’re grateful for - seeing the silver lining or the learning’s in each day, if it hasn’t been the best day or rejoicing in the wonderful experiences that have blessed our day. All in all, they are all blessings.

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” - Lionel Hampton

After a period of time, writing in my diary all the things I was grateful for, I found that it changed my life in a positive way. I became more aware of the gifts in life. I became less negative in my outlook to life and family noticed the difference - I believe it caused a ripple effect of positive vibes. I also found that the more I was grateful for what I already had in my life, I attracted to me more things to be grateful for. Abundance in many ways flowed to me.

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears” - Anthony Robbins

After a period of time, I fell off the gratitude wagon for whatever reason. I guess life got in the way or more likely a traumatic experience pulled me away from this life I was now enjoying. Many years went by and I came to the conclusion that I was not happy. I had fallen back into the negative patterns I had once banished from my life with constant reminders from my then partner. I questioned how I could have let this happen. At this time I had started to read a Facebook friend’s gratitude note she wrote each night and posted on Facebook. She did not always have the best days, suffering from constant migraines, but she always appeared to find something to be grateful for. She was my inspiration and the turning point for me to get back into being grateful once more for my life. And for starters I am grateful to her for getting me back on the gratitude wagon.

Of course when I got started again in writing what I was grateful for, I didn’t want to fall off the wagon again, so I decided to put it out there for everyone to see, just like my good Facebook friend was doing. I already had a website which included a blog function, so I decided to write a daily blog and I called it Attitude of Gratitude. I felt this would keep me accountable, after all, once people started to read it, they would expect it every day. I found after some time, I also inspired others to write a gratitude journal or blog which greatly pleased me. It must be close to 2 years now that I have been writing this blog. The first year I wrote every day, unless I was away from my computer. When I was back in front of my computer, I would include all the things I was grateful for over those days I couldn’t submit my blog. To this day I still write my Gratitude Blog. I admit there are days when it is difficult to write as I’ve had the lousiest day or the most boring or laziest day. On those days I dig a little deeper to see the blessings, but they are always there and that is something in itself to be grateful for. And I’ve gone through periods where I haven’t written for a few days as I have been too tired after staying up late doing some work, but on those days, I still say a prayer before bed, voicing my gratitude to the angels, Creator and my guides for the day I’ve had. The Gratitude has put me back on track with my life and I have become more positive in my outlook, attracting more positive people to me, more positive experiences and a happier and healthier life. Now that’s something to be grateful for

My advice is - just start now… be grateful, and if you can, write it down as this makes it more real and something you can look back on with how far you’ve come. It may take a while to see the benefits, but the benefits do come in your outlook to life and how life gives back to you in so many ways. Yes, it’s not always easy, we are all human after all and we can have what seems like the worst days sometimes, but you will be surprised how you will realise that there are blessings, even in the most terrible days. These are the days we discover that we have grown the most and we then find we appreciate the joys in life all the more.

Today I am so happy & grateful for the opportunity to write this gratitude post for the Gratitude Blog Summit. I feel honoured and truly blessed for this experience.

I am grateful for making the effort to write this post first thing after rising this morning so it can be emailed in time.

I am grateful for the opportunity to sleep in after a late night.

I just learned the other day that there is a rare condition where people continuously feel hungry - their brain does not give their stomachs the signal that they are full. I am grateful for my stomach letting me know that I am hungry this morning and that when I have eaten, my stomach tells me when I’ve had enough. There are so many things we take for granted each day and it’s these stories you hear that make you treasure your life all the more.

I am grateful for a beautiful sunny day outside and the sound of birds welcoming the morning.

I am grateful for being me, as there is nobody else quite like me and I have many gifts and talents to share with the world, which I am just beginning to discover now.

Happy Gratitude Blog writing everyone. Once you start, you will never look back - it will change your life forever!

Love, light & inspiring blessings,
Jenny Marie xx
Soul Inspiring