Gratitude Challenge

Sierra Vista Herald ^ | Dr. Maria Church

[SandRat]

Gratitude is one of my favorite topics, and I have written blogs, articles and book chapters about the virtues of thankfulness. As we approach Thanksgiving, I cannot help but revisit this topic. It warms my heart to see the 30-day gratitude challenge many people have taken in this month. I see tweets and Facebook posts with gratitude expressed each day for someone or something in their lives. Woohoo!

I would love to see the challenge extend another month, quarter or year commitment to keeping a gratitude journal or gratitude board in your home or office. Challenge yourself to find elements of gratitude in the mundane or laborious tasks we do on a daily basis. How about a super-challenge of finding what you may be grateful for with a testing individual. In that difficult situation, try to see the spirit in them; or how you might be grateful for the lessons you are learning from that difficult person or situation. Forgiveness is a powerful door to open the flow of gratitude.

You know how much I love the use of acronyms, so here is one for gratitude:

Giving and

Receiving

Abundance and

Thankfulness

Intentionally

Together and

Unconditionally

Directed toward

Everyone

When we are in a state of gratitude, we give and receive love and abundance. We are thankful for the intentional way we choose to live our lives. This awareness brings us together to direct unconditionally our love and gratitude to everyone.

[Auntie Mame]

I recently restarted writing in my gratitude book most every day. Yes, I already had one but my last entry was in 2012! I found it, blew off the dust, and moved it to my bedside table.

What I’ve found since I’ve again started writing in my gratitude book is that as I go through my day I’m noticing things I’m grateful for all the time. For example, as I walk down to the mailbox I’ll think, “I’m grateful for the fragrance of that jasmine. I have to write that in my gratitude book.”

Of course, I forget what all those thoughts were the next time I get my gratitude book out, but one of the things this gratitude exercise has done is change my thinking completely.

Where in the past as I walked to the mailbox I might be thinking something stupid, or worrying, I’m now actively noticing things to be grateful for, ostensibly so I can write them down later.

It’s a huge shift in my thinking all through the day, not just those few moments I’m writing in my book.

Every thought of gratitude is one less thought of negativity or worry.

The little exercise of writing down things to be grateful for spills over into my entire day!

“Gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty.” — Doris Day