The BIG day is almost here -  have you registered? The Gratitude Project is going to be revolutionary and I hope you’ll take part in it! Imagine how much better your life, your business, and your soul would be if you took a few minutes every day to be grateful. For the past week, we’ve read posts from people of all walks of life - everyone has a different view on gratitude. What’s yours?

My good friend, Shelley Hawkins, MS, has another perspective on gratitude. As a Teacher, Author and Intuitive, Shelley coaches professional men and women who are ready to break through the inner obstacles that hold them back and keep them repeating the same frustrating patterns–in relationships, business, work, health, wealth and in who they are being—to create their soul-driven lives intentionally and LIVE their radical selves. To apply for Private Coaching with Shelley at The Self Connection™, click here. Subscribe to The Self Connection™ award winning Ezine and Monday Wisdoms™ for F.R.E.E. energy transformation and inspiration to support you in your soul-driven, intentional life. Coming soon, The Self Connection™ Live Yourself™ Breakthrough Experience. To connect with Shelley, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Gratitude Integrated©
by Shelley Hawkins, MS
One of the paradoxes of transformation is that gratitude for both what you love and the presence of what you don’t love are both a way of saying, “Yes”, to Life. The paradox being that acceptance, like forgiveness, is not condoning the condition; it is a way of evolving through it.

Gratitude is like driving your stake deep in the ground and saying, “this is where I stand”. You are validating your very existence, your cosmic necessity to and with the whole, and your ability to create with it. Your gratitude says, “Yes, I’m willing to participate with Life with my unique genius from what I know and where I am right now in the giving and receiving of Life.” It becomes the attraction for all that you desire and the transformation of what you do not.

That is not where I started with gratitude. Like most, I suppose, I knew to count my blessings, which evolved into disciplined thankfulness and the power of a positive attitude. A few years later came energy, gratitude lists to build my gratitude muscles, and other tools and disciplines to keep it flowing.

But it became most fun when it penetrated the surface, went beyond what I wanted to create, beyond politeness, beyond my disciplines, beyond avoiding “negative” emotion, and became an integrated way of being—not perfection, mind you—being.

Rachel Naomi Remen said, “Those who nurture the hidden wholeness in those around them become the architects of a new world.” The integration of gratitude acknowledges that wholeness, the invisible—or not so invisible—connections between all that is. Gratitude integrated as a way of being then becomes your path of authenticity, of creative intention, and of wholeness for yourself and a new world.

©2011 Shelley Hawkins, The Self Connection™, All Rights Reserved