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Posts Tagged ‘gratitude’

Guest Post - Lessons of Gratitude

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Yesterday, I announced that we still have some inspiration posts on the topic of gratitude. Why should November get all the glory? We’re grateful in December, too! Rebecca Ramirez is a blogger at Everything Goes With Pink. She is a stay-at-home-mother to 3 daughters and is expecting her 4th daughter in January. She’s an educated mother who has a passion for writing about family life, her varied interests, and the occasional intellectual topics ranging from philosophy to social consciousness - it’s a good thing she’s a freelance writer! Rebecca is determined to raise her 4 daughters with all the care and dedication that they deserve, and is focused on helping them to be the best individuals they can be. Learn more about Rebecca by joining her on Facebook, Twitter , and her blog, Everything Goes With Pink.

Lessons of Gratitude
by Rebecca Ramirez
In this hectic, fast-paced life, it is easy to get lost in the inexorable negative experiences we will face. No person will escape some form of suffering in their life, and many people will continually experience suffering and hardships on what seems like a never-ending basis. Although we cannot always avoid these potentially personally devastating occurrences, what we can do however, is find it within ourselves to harness the power and wisdom to allow ourselves to experience gratitude, despite the situation in which we find ourselves.

While it also takes wisdom to find gratitude in many of life’s positive experiences, finding the silver lining of one’s raincloud can be quite the liberating experience. We do, in fact, already possess within ourselves the mental capacity to choose whether we will allow a certain situation to invoke a paralyzing sense of victim-hood, or whether we use the energy and convert it into a more favorable experience, be it on a psychological, emotional, or a spiritual basis.

One may not be able to avoid the platforms from which suffering presents itself, such as personal illnesses, detrimental acts of others, or the daily hassles of life, but this should not equate to our lack of control when it comes to how we respond to these events.

There is a lesson of gratitude to be found in all suffering.

While it may not always offer the immediate comfort one would hope for, there is still always room for finding a way to experience some form of gratitude. For the mother who has lost her child, no amount of gratitude can erase the pain, but in this experience, she can still look to the lesson of suffering and be thankful for the love she was able to experience that only a mother could understand. For the individual who is forced to deal with illness, it is in these moments of sometimes agonizing pain that we most appreciate the delicate frailty of life and the peace of mind that comes with good health. Should this individual persevere through their bout with a physical affliction, it is highly doubtful that much in life will be taken for granted.

It is through a lesson of suffering that we can grow to appreciate and have gratitude for the most important things in life. This wisdom of gratitude can transform our thinking on a daily basis, and we can grow to appreciate much more of the simple beauty that life has to offer us all.

Tags: gratitude, Guest Post, lessons
Posted in Empowerment, Guest Post | 2 Comments »

Guest Post - Gratitude for the Little Things

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

The Gratitude Project may be completed but I still have some very inspirational stories left to share! I love getting the chance to showcase new voices on my blog and I am so excited to introduce you to Debbie Mc Loughlin. She is the owner of Africa’s Blog, which can be found at www.africasblog.com. She’s a 30-something Soul African exPat living in Minnesota who enjoys blogging about life and whatever comes her way! As a permanent American resident, she has a unique view on life. Debbie is also a hockey player, hockey referee, CPA, CMA, MBA student, blogger, mommy to 2 fur babies (min pins) and is happily leaving in the mid-west with her partner. You can connect with Debbie through Facebook and Twitter!

Gratitude for the Little Things
by Debbie Mc Loughlin
As I’ve aged, and yes I’m only 31 but still, I’ve realized that in life there are so many things to hold dear, so many things to cherish and so many things for which one should show their gratitude. I’ve definitely learned that this gratitude thing should not only be thought of once a year during Thanksgiving week, but that we should really value all that we have on a daily basis.

I think we often sit and think of the things for which we should be grateful and we default to our families, our life partners, our children, etc. What I have started to do is to let these “big picture” individuals know that I am extremely grateful they are in my life, and for all they do or have done for me, as often as I can.

However, I now also take time out of my day to think of the “little things” I have in my life to show gratitude for. There are so many things and without daily (I try to do it daily) reflection time I wouldn’t remember to be grateful that I have remained injury free with regards to my playing/officiating hockey, that although my little dogs barking is annoying it means that they are healthy and love me enough to want to protect me, and that after a long hard day in the office, a friendly chat with a stranger on my way to the car can really brighten up the evening!!

These are just examples of the “little things” in my life, but I really do feel that our lives are much happier when we take time out of our busy lives to truly reflect on all that we in our lives that we really should be showing gratitude for.

Tags: gratitude, Guest Post, values
Posted in Guest Post, Productivity | 2 Comments »

Guest Post - Gratitude on Life’s Terms

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Today I want to introduce you to one of my dearest friends and mentors, ALisa Starkweather. She is the founder of the Red Tent Temple Movement, Daughters of the Earth Gathering, Priestess Path Apprenticeship, the Women’s Belly and Womb Conferences and co-founders of Women in Power; Initiating Ourselves to the Predator Within. She is a contributor in the newly published anthology, Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership; Where Grace Meets Power and is working on launching her new internet show, She Loves Life. She is featured in the upcoming documentary, Things We Don’t Talk About. This springtime ALisa is hosting a teleseminar among the wisdomkeepers to bring women and men together in a global dialogue of “It’s Time for a New Story”. According to ALisa, I am one of her “most beloved and treasured sisters on the path of life.” What a HUGE compliment! I’m so excited for her to share her wisdom today. To connect with ALisa, follow her on Facebook. You can also follow the Red Tent Temple Movement on Facebook. You can experience ALisa’s programs by visiting www.alisastarkweather.com.

Gratitude on Life’s Terms
By ALisa Starkweather

Life, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…

As a young teen I once read that if I woke up every morning and began to say thank you until sleep it would never be enough time to count my blessings. Now that was a gratitude lesson into wide-awake consciousness. Why? Because a couple of things dawned on me pretty quickly; the likelihood of following through with this practice of a chorus of thank yous echoing in my mind as a backdrop to my senses seemed a remote possibility. Also I did the math and realized that with my present viewpoint, I would run out of good things to say pretty quickly. That is, unless I changed my perspective on what I was appreciating about life. This pivotal moment however woke me up as a teenager to what we likely take for granted when we are not noticing the dawn, our ability to breathe, our constant beating heart, the vibrant colors or the things in my lifetime that I would not yet know were ephemeral like the abundance of songbirds, the honeybees, and with the birds and the bees, the ending of my virginity. By seventeen I became the single-parent mother giving birth to this magnificent gift of life while being on my own to discover where one finds good when life turns into hardships.

Yes as you can imagine, poverty, lack of continuing education, low self-esteem, depression became the internal dumping grounds in my psyche where my dreams were trashed. Did that ever happen to you too I wonder in some way? I would go there and pick over little chards of who I once was or wanted to be and bring them home again with a deeper sense now of what it means to find treasures in life in the most forgotten places inside. Gratitude was no longer a good idea for a spiritual practice or a learned courtesy of “hey thanks” but an actual means of survival where one remembers that no matter how hard things become to live at all, to breathe at all, to be part of this mad horrific beauty is everything…. everything. Unlike the generations to come, my life then was not about stuff that I materially desired but rather a simpler ground of do I have the courage and the faith and the will to live this day? Each moment of “thank you for this life and all the beauty, all the miracles, all the tiny triumphs” gifted me with the next ability to face hardship graciously and strengthened my resolve to live into the wisdom that would become my bedrock as the mature woman in my fifties today.

Little did I know then that by walking that path, anchoring to the wisdom of gratitude I would later be a teacher for women’s empowerment and on the path of the ecstatic wild woman where sleeping on the floor of a cave with dripping waters flowing off rock walls is a phenomenal experience that I say wholeheartedly, “Wow. Thank you. What an unforgettable night!”. Or dealing with whom many might consider a difficult personality in my work has me exclaim sincerely, “What a great woman. What a teacher for me to examine my own vulnerabilities!” I admit that sometimes I am like the baby of life who wants to spit out the mouthful of food that it spoonfeeds me while saying that it is yummy. I am not going to lie to you because you know as well as I do that it doesn’t all taste good. What is remarkable however that with choice, with finding our ground for digesting life on its terms, we have the opportunity to take the energy life gives us and do some amazing turn-arounds if we choose to.

Thank you for my mother’s criticism and shaming remarks that helped me to learn the importance of kindness and how to create safe containers for people to know unconditional love. Thank you for my father’s rage that taught me the importance of patience, tolerance and how not to blame or project on others when one is innocent. Thank you for disempowerment and the feminization of poverty that brought me to my work with women so that I could lift them up and ask them to believe in their power and their worth. Thank you for the places I have been violated as a woman because I found my compassion for others, my leadership, my strength, my courage and resolve to stand up and to fight for women and children around the world. Thank you for the ones I have loved and lost through cancer and illness because it has taught me to value every second that I have with anyone I have ever loved. Thank you biased media for the altering the reputations of brave global citizens who fight for their families and children because you taught me to discern for myself the goodness of who you diminish. Thank you for my broken heart and betrayals in past relationships that brought me to experience the truest of loves. Thank you for my son who is my master teacher of how to persevere. Thank you for living now at a time in human history when we are faced with our own extinction because it helps us all collectively to wake up and not take anything, even our tomorrows, for granted. Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Tags: ALisa Starkweather, gratitude, Guest Post
Posted in Empowerment, Guest Post, Personal Development | No Comments »

Lessons of Gratitude from My Doorman

Friday, November 18th, 2011

Meet Gerald. Gerald is the doorman of my Brooklyn apartment building. Gerald travels over an hour on the subway, six days of the week from Queens to Brooklyn to get to work, and then an hour back again many hours later. He gets back home close to midnight. His job is sometimes monotonous and also sometimes strenuous – lifting strollers up stairways, moving heavy boxes, opening doors even when it’s super cold outside.

And yet, despite all that there is always a smile on Gerald’s face. There’s always a spring in his step. And, he always remembers if you’ve gone away on vacation, or if you weren’t feeling well, or if your child has a birthday is coming up.

I am in awe of this man.

Not only does he take pride in his work, but he has shared with me that he is deeply grateful to be able to do his work, and that is what allows him to show up fully for the residents of my building.

Why is he grateful?
Simply, because he is. It’s his way of moving through the world.

He is grateful because he has a job in this economy. He is grateful because he gets to read the paper during his subway ride. He is grateful because he enjoys the residents of the building. He is grateful because he gets to watch the children here grow over the years from babies into young adults.

Gerald is grateful that he receives Christmas gifts from many of the families. He is grateful because the transistor radio and tiny little black and white TV at his doorman desk work. He is grateful because he doesn’t have to think about what to wear to work – it’s always the same uniform.

It’s his gratitude that shines through in his actions.

And here’s one of the best parts: Gerald makes a HUGE difference in the world. How? Well, when your doorman smiles at you and kindly asks how you’re doing as you leave your building. More times than not you’re naturally going to be in a better mood and take that out into your day. And when your doorman offers to help with your groceries or ask how work was, more times than not, you’ll continue to unlock your door and greet your kids with a smile. And then your kids are happier too.

In my coaching practice, I meet a lot of folks who are working on HUGE levels to change the world. They’re doing amazing things. They’re making a difference. And yet, often when they first come to me, they are unhappy. They expect the worst. Things aren’t going for them the way the want it to. They’re not enjoying life OR making a difference.

They just need to take a look at my doorman: he knows how to cultivate gratitude and feel it deeply to his core.

What do you sense might happen if you committed to feel gratitude deep in your heart, if you committed to decide that it’s more important than lack, if you committed to loving thoroughly all that you have? Imagine, just imagine, how YOUR life might be different if you made gratitude a priority. And imagine, just imagine, how the world might be different if you made gratitude a priority.

Pretty amazing, don’t you think?

Tags: appreciation, blog summit, Empowerment, gratitude, Gratitude Project, joanna lindenbaum, joy
Posted in Gratitude Project, Personal Development | No Comments »

Blog Summit - Day 7 - How to Transform Your Body into the Body of YOUR Dreams through Gratitude

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

I’ve been re-reading through all of the amazing posts that have accumulated throughout the Gratitude Project Blog Summit. There have been so many brilliant minds and I am so grateful to each and every one of them for their insight! We have two more days still of the blog summit which means the BIG DAY is so much closer! Have you registered? Take a moment to think about how this world might be better if we were all a little more grateful. We can accomplish a better world together, it all starts with the Gratitude Project!

Ever wondered what your body has to do with gratitude? My good friend, Amanda Moxley, brilliantly explains to connection between the two. Amanda is a Body Transformation Expert and Coach who first transformed her own unhealthy relationship with food, body image and body size from a size 14 to a size 4 naturally and without going to extreme measures. Amanda is a board-certified holistic health coach, yoga teacher, certified social worker (CSW) and an award-winning business owner. She is an avid world traveler, wife and mother. For free gifts and more go to www.AmandaMoxley.com. If you’ve ever struggled with your weight, body image, emotional eating, or self sabotage with food, Amanda’s “Get YOUR Ultimate Body in 30 Days Guided Visualization” and the “Love Your Belly Guided Visualization” will allow you to discover the SOUL root of the issue and get you on track to feeling radiantly healthy, energized and alive. Grab your free mp3’s here.

How to Transform Your Body into the Body of YOUR Dreams through Gratitude
by Amanda Moxley
How often throughout your day do you catch yourself thinking or feeling thoughts about not liking your body, or wishing it looked different, or beating yourself up about not eating the right thing, or being mad at yourself because you let yourself down again by not keeping your commitments and intentions to yourself or calling yourself fat or feeling frustrated because your clothes don’t fit?

Tune in to your inner dialogue today and measure on a scale from 1-10, 10 being your highest how much energy, feelings, thoughts and time you are spending on thinking negatively about your body, body image, size or food.

What’s your number? I’ve coined that number your Body Barrier™ number.

Using the POWER of gratitude, let’s channel your Body Barrier™ number into your heart’s true desires!

Love is the ONLY ABSOLUTE.

Love is the highest VIBRATION.

According to Heart Math Institute the heart is 5000 times more powerful than the brain. Transforming your body requires you to move deeper into LOVE and this can be easily done by being grateful.

Step 1: Think of the body part you may have disowned or that you deeply dislike.

Step 2: Sit in a quiet and safe place. Enjoy some deep nourishing breaths. Conjure up all of the unkind thoughts, feeling and emotions you express to your disowned body part on a daily basis.

Step 3: Think about a person in your life who you LOVE whole heartedly and unconditionally. It could be your child, sister, mother or niece.

Step 4: Imagine saying the mean things you express to yourself habitually every day of your life to your beloved.

Step 5: Can you do it?

Step 6: AH HA! Do you see now? You wouldn’t and couldn’t ever express any of the mean things you say to yourself daily (some of you for 20 plus years) to your beloved. So, why are you doing this to yourself?

Step 7: Place your hands on your disowned or deeply disliked body part and imagine you have white light in your hands, breathe this light into your body.

Step 8: Have a heart to heart with your body. Tell it you are sorry and that you never knew how mean you were being to it. Tell it you love it and will do anything to heal your relationship.

Step 9: What about this particular body part are you grateful for? Mentally or physically write down everything you are grateful for about this body part.

Daily Body Transformation Ritual
Every morning and evening when you are lying in bed, place your hands on your body and breathe love and gratitude into it. Mentally go through every reason why you are grateful for your body. Next, dedicate a special gratitude journal to your body and write 5 ways in which you are grateful for your body today. Please do NOT repeat the same 5 things every day! This will stretch your imagination and your appreciation muscles!

Your body was meant to be healthy and vibrant. Trust the simplicity of this exercise and watch your body transform before your eyes over then next month.

Radiantly yours,
Amanda

Tags: Amanda Moxley, blog summit, body reformation, Empowerment, gratitude, Gratitude Project, guest blog
Posted in Empowerment, Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Personal Development | No Comments »

Blog Summit - Day 7 - How to Be Grateful When Things Piss You Off

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Can you believe it’s already Day 7?! That means the Gratitude Project is almost here! I can’t wait to spend the top of each hour with you learn, teaching, and crafting a new way to be grateful! Want to spread the word? I’d love the help! Still on the fence? Take a look at the schedule I’ve set up to help us all experience different waves of gratitude here! I hope to hear you on the call!

Our first guest writer today is one of my favorite advocates of joy, Jennifer Zwiebel. She is an Intuitive Organizer, author, speaker and founder of A Place of Joy™: Inspired Organizing and Business Strategies for Creative Entrepreneurs. Jennifer guides clients to clear out both their inner and outer space, release chaos, and design systems that bring ease, joy and prosperity to their businesses and lives. Join the Place of Joy™ community at www.aplaceofjoy.com, and get started on your own path to clarity and joy with Jennifer’s powerful gift to you at www.aplaceofjoy.com/10minutemiracle. You can also connect with Jennifer via Facebook and Twitter!

How to Be Grateful When Things Piss You Off
by Jennifer Zwiebel
I’ve been consciously practicing gratitude for the last few years and I can see the difference in the way I feel, what I focus on and what I attract. I now walk down the street grateful for the shining sun, for the fact that I get to walk my son to school, for the miraculous baby I hold in my arms. I start my mornings being grateful for the gift of the day that lies ahead of me and end my day listing at least three things for which I am thankful.

This is not to say that there aren’t plenty of things for which I am not so grateful. There are the dirty dishes, the piles of paper, the loads of laundry… I’ve discovered, however, that while it’s less easy to appreciate the things that make you cranky, scared, or pissed off, that’s where the gratitude actually gets more rewarding.

You see, your mind can’t do two things at the same time. Your first instinct may be to get frustrated when something pisses you off, but when you choose to find a reason to be grateful instead, you refocus your mind and veer off in a new direction.

Let me give you an example. One morning I pulled aside the shower curtain and discovered that our bathtub was carpeted in hair. My husband had given himself a haircut and neglected to clean the tub. My first thought was, “Ewwww!” My second thought was, “Why didn’t he clean it up?? Did he not SEE the hair???”

I realized I was quickly heading into a morning full of frustration, and decided to redirect my thoughts. I latched onto the first one that came into my head: “I’m grateful he still has hair.” That worked for about 60 seconds, but then I started cleaning the tub and got all pissed off again.

So I worked harder to pull my mind back onto another track, and this time started thinking about how grateful I was that he’d stayed up the night before with our son who’d developed a fever. This led me to be grateful that he was such a good father, that I had him as a partner, that we were working together to raise our children in a loving, respectful way. By now the thoughts were flowing naturally, and both my mind and heart were in a grounded, grateful place.

This didn’t mean that I forgot about the hair in the tub, but it meant that I could (1) get past the anger and do what needed to be done so I could move forward, (2) tell my husband what I didn’t like and what I needed in the future in a calm way that enabled him to hear me, and (3) regain perspective and spend time being amazed at my real good fortune.

This practice may feel forced in the beginning, and your mind will likely revert quickly back to the initial not-so-grateful feeling. But if you’re willing to keep searching for something else to be grateful for, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your mind expands and fills with reasons to rejoice.

Tags: gratitude, Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Jennifer Zwiebel, Personal Development
Posted in Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Personal Development, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Blog Summit - Day 6 - Gratitude: How This Simple Feeling Improves Health

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

In just two days, we embark on an amazing journey - are you ready for the Gratitude Project? I am beyond excited for this day of gratitude and I hope you’ll join me! All it takes is 10 minutes at the start of each hour to phone in and practice important exercises that will really help you feel more gracious and grateful! Take a chance and sign up!

This afternoon’s guest writer is none other than Lynn Smith! As a health guru, she has a unique spin on gratitude - and it’s one that will help your health! Lynn is a women’s weight loss expert, providing weight loss programs that work to shift a woman’s beliefs about what is possible for herself. To receive tips for weight loss, articles and guidance, subscribe to her newsletter “Vibrant Living for Women” at www.healthcoachteam.com.

Gratitude: How This Simple Feeling Improves Health
By Lynn Smith
What if there was a simple way to improve your health that didn’t require dieting or exercise? Would you do it? There is and that simple way is expressing gratitude.

New research is showing that there is scientific evidence that gratitude produces health benefits. Two foremost researchers in the field of gratitude are psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami.

Emmons and his colleagues at the University of California at Davis are among the pioneers in research on gratitude, which is part of a larger movement called positive psychology. Positive psychology studies health-promoting behavior and the pleasurable parts of life rather than focusing on illness and emotional problems.

They found that people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded difficulties or neutral life events.

Those who kept gratitude lists were also more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals. Young adults who practice daily gratitude had higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to the group that focused on difficulties. The research keeps adding to the list of benefits that come from practicing gratitude.
The reason for this is because when we think about someone or something we really appreciate, and experience the feeling that goes with the thought, the parasympathetic—the calming-branch of the autonomic nervous system— gets triggered. The electromagnetic heart patterns of volunteers tested became more coherent and ordered when they activated feelings of appreciation.

Another study at the University of Connecticut found that gratitude can have a protective effect against heart attacks. While studying people who already had one heart attack researchers found that those patients who saw benefits and gains from their heart attack, such as becoming more appreciative of life, experienced a lower risk of having another heart attack.

There is evidence that when we practice bringing attention to what we appreciate in our lives, more positive emotions emerge, thus causing alterations in heart rate variability. This may not only relieve hypertension but reduce the risk of sudden death from coronary artery disease. According to Emmons, those who practice grateful thinking “reap emotional, physical and interpersonal benefits.”

How can you put this to use in your life?

It can be as simple as a “Thank you” to someone who did something for you. But if you truly want to harness this power in your life make a daily habit of writing down things you are grateful for. Emmons says the act of writing “allows you to see the meaning of events going on around you and create meaning in your own life.”

Set aside some time, maybe at the end of your day, to reflect and record. You may even want to buy a special journal to use.

Create a space and make this a daily ritual.

Tags: gratitude, Gratitude Project, Guest Post, health, lynne smith, Personal Development
Posted in Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Personal Development | 2 Comments »

Blog Summit - Day 6 - Make a List and Check it Twice

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Have you ever thought about what this world would be like if people were a little more patient and a bit more grateful? I’ve envisioned that world and so have all of our guest writers! This experience has been phenomenal so far and it’s making me really excited for the Gratitude Project on November 18th! Have you signed up yet?!

I want you to meet my new friend, Yolanda Michelle Hairston! While she currently lives in the Holy Land, Yolanda spends much of her time experiencing the world through travel! I’m excited to introduce you to her today because she has some very good points on how to be grateful in a meaningful way.

Make A List and Check and Check It Twice
Yolanda Michelle Hairston
When I was a young child, I loved to sing along to children’s songs by Hap Palmer. One holiday album had a song for Thanksgiving, and I used to sing it every day. Once, I even “surprised” my Mom by calling her to my room to see something, which was me, singing along to the instrumental version, with lyrics changed slightly to express my gratitude towards her for being such a terrific mother. Her tears of joy and gratitude touched me, and that amazing feeling of expressing gratitude and receiving it reverberate in my soul to this day.

Thirty-something years later, I don’t remember the lyrics verbatim, but they went a little something like this:
There are many things I am thankful for
And I know I’m not alone.
There are many things I am thankful for,
I can name them on my own:
I’m thankful for the earth,
I’m thankful for the sea,
I’m thankful for the friends I have,
And I’m thankful to be me.
That was my first introduction to the powerful experience of listing the things I have for which to be grateful. I love to make lists, as I find they help me not only focus, but they also prevent me from forgetting.

There are times in life when we feel insecure, sad, lonely, and frustrated, and like Mary J. Blige sang, “all [we] really want is to be happy.” If happiness begets happiness, how do we pull ourselves from underneath the dark cloud that sometimes hangs over us? Make a list and check it twice. List the many things you are thankful for, whether large or narrow in scope. Feeling lonely? List all of your friends and the nice people in your life, or the different ways you can go out and make new friends. Feeling insecure? List all of the good things about yourself, your accomplishments, compliments you have received. Feeling like your life sucks? List all of the ways in which it does not. Do not limit yourself or your lists; include the fact that you are able to write or to type if you are stuck, and branch out from there. Our working bodies are miracles that we take for granted, so be thankful and grateful for your body and all of its intricate mechanisms that keep you alive.

On one particularly horrible day, when I felt so down and blue, I made a list of all of my blessings for which I am grateful, and I ran out of paper. Such profundity in that exercise– the length of the list, the range of simple to grand things on the list, and the increase in joy and happiness I felt once I had completed it. I checked it twice, smiling along the way, and my soul felt that things were not so bad after all if I had so much goodness in my life. The gratitude list changed my outlook and my focus, and the sun shone a little brighter the next day.

What if you could only be granted tomorrow what you are grateful for today? Make a list and check it twice.

Tags: appreciation, blog summit, gratitude, Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Yolanda Michelle Hairston
Posted in Gratitude Project, Guest Post | 1 Comment »

Blog Summit - Day 5 - Find Time to Walk, Live and Breathe to the Beat of Gratitude

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Day 5 is running so smoothly! Tell me, what makes you grateful today? I’m grateful for all the people who have partnered with us and joined the Gratitude Project! It’s an opportunity to deeply key in to the power of giving thanks consistently for an entire day, and to walk away with an amazing box of gratitude tools that you can use for manifestation and prosperity whenever you wish. Take a moment to find out more here!

Today’s second writer is someone I look up to and admire! I am so grateful that she took time out of her busy schedule to join us! Paula Eder, PhD, founder of Finding Time is an internationally-known coach and published author who mentors heart-based entrepreneurs and small business owners, from the inside out, to align their core values and energy with their time choices and behaviors so that they make more money, create more freedom, and find more time. To learn more about Paula’s unique, Heart-Based Time Management System ™ and begin your transformational journey, sign up for her Finding Time Success Kit. Discover how you can find time for what matters most. Take a moment to connect with Paula through Twitter and Facebook!

Find Time to Walk, Live and Breathe to the Beat of Gratitude
By Paula Eder, PhD

Finding time to slow down, breathe deeply, and savor your moments is a daily challenge. And this can be especially challenging during the busy holiday season. I know the feeling and I am guessing that you do, too.

When life is buzzing with activity and your To Do List is overflowing with plans and tasks, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that your cup is filled right to the brim, too … filled with things you can feel grateful about!

The thing is, we just get so busy sometimes that we forget. We don’t see. We lose our heart-based connection to ourselves and our moments. If we sense that something is missing, we’re likely to just work harder and move faster, thinking that will help.

But it’s really the opposite that we need.

So here’s what you can do.

Pause and be still in the quiet. Breathe in and out. Feel your heart beat. Keep breathing deeply as you let this heart-based rhythm carry you inward. Know that this is the warm and sustaining engine of your being. Let yourself feel grateful for its steady and life-giving beat.

From that foundational place, let your gratitude expand outward. Let its light touch the people and events of your day. Perhaps a face from your past emerges … a teacher or friend who you remember with thankfulness.

Pausing to let yourself discover and move to the beat of gratitude is one of the most meaningful and rejuvenating gifts that you can give yourself.

But I would ask that you think of it as a responsibility … not a gift. That’s because living from a place of gratitude not only enhances your experience but also enables you to:

Be more present to the people and the moments of your life;
Have more energy and a more positive attitude; and
Get more done!

Not only is it important to experience your own feelings of gratitude – it’s also vital to express your gratitude. It’s like breathing in and out – you need to do both! When you walk, live, and breathe to the beat of gratitude, you bring with you a powerful energy. This energy is expanded, deepened, and enhanced when it is shared.

As William Faulkner wrote:

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”

So, to fully experience your moments, during the holidays and all year long, inhale deeply, savor completely, and exhale joyfully … you’re moving to the beat of gratitude. Give it a try, and I am quite sure that you will see a difference in your energy and your attitude as you travel this heart-based path!

Tags: gratitude, Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Intuition, Paula Eder, Personal Development, self improvement
Posted in Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Intuition, Personal Development, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Blog Summit - Day 5 - Grateful for Gratitude

Monday, November 14th, 2011

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

Tags: gratitude, Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Jenny Marie
Posted in Gratitude Project, Guest Post, Personal Development, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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