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Posts tagged thankful

Try a gratitude mindfulness experiment

November 1, 2013 Written by Curt Rosengren

How much do you have to be grateful for in your life? Even if things are going sideways and life is dumping a big steaming pile o’ trouble on your head, you’d probably be surprised at just how much there is when you really pay attention.

The other day as I headed out to a coffee shop to do some work, I decided to do an experiment and spend the trip there noticing things I could be grateful for. What came out of it was simple, always-available gratitude practice I want to share with you.

None of what I came up with was earth-shattering. It didn’t leave me quivering in gratitudinal bliss (yeah, I know that’s not really a word, but it should be). But it did keep my attention focused on what’s positive and just how much there is to be thankful for when I make the effort to notice.

A partial list, from what I can remember:

  • My home – a place to stay warm and dry
  • My car – allowing me to easily get from here to there
  • The beautiful fall day
  • The colors of the leaves
  • Coffee
  • The fact that coffee was there and so readily available to me
  • The fact that I was noticing so many things to be grateful for
  • My health and mobility
  • The physical sensations in my body as my muscles worked to shift gears in my car
  • Music
  • Musicians
  • Coffee (oh wait, did I say that already? I think it’s worth another mention.)

I realized what I was doing was a kind of gratitude-based mindfulness practice. Since then I have been finding small pockets of time – a trip to the store, a walk in the park, doing the dishes – to play with the idea.

I love so many things about this practice, like:

  • It’s bite-sized. It’s small enough that you can immerse yourself and stay focused on gratitude for the duration.
  • It can be applied any time, anywhere. You don’t have to make a special time to sit and do a gratitude meditation, or write in a gratitude journal. You just do it as you go about your business doing things you would already be doing.
  • You can do it multiple times per day. The bite-sized nature of it means you can play with it again and again and again in any given day.
  • It helps build a gratitude habit. The more you focus on gratitude, the more you will find to be grateful for. This is a great way to condition yourself to notice gratitude opportunities.

Try it out! And when you do, I would love to hear how it goes.

(And if you need some help to get your noticing revved up, try these 17 gratitude prompting questions and 17 more gratitude prompting questions.)

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Gratitude Monday: What are you grateful for?

April 23, 2012 Written by Curt Rosengren

I’ve fallen off the blogging wagon the last couple weeks, and what better time to pick it up than Gratitude Monday morning. (Read more on the benefits of gratitude.)

So much to be grateful for.

The support of my parents

The support of my friends

A gorgeously beautiful sunny day (on top of several gorgeously beautiful sunny days)

The fact that I live ten minutes from a several hundred acre, wooded park

The critters that come to visit me

The fact that I’m still growing (and can even see the progress, sometimes)

The inspiration I feel about the potential impact of the Ripple Revolution

People who inspire me by their work to make the world a better place

Trees

How about you? What are you grateful for? I would love to hear three things (or more – I’m not limiting you!) in the comments.

Happy Monday!

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The bazillion benefits of gratitude

March 26, 2012 Written by Curt Rosengren

thank you
What if there were an easy way to improve your sense of well-being so you could feel happier and more content with your life? Somothing so simple, anyone could do it with next to no effort. And what if it could have a positive impact on your physical health at the same time? Best of all, what if there were extensive research to back up those positive results?

Of course, since I’m blogging about it, by now you have figured out that there is a way. And it’s not a magic wonderpill; it’s gratitude.

Enough research has been done on the impact of gratitude that it even caught the attention of conservative mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal. Here’s what a recent WSJ article had to say:

A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being.

Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly and have greater resistance to viral infections.

It’s like a wonder-drug! With benefits like that, how can you resist? Even if you don’t naturally feel grateful, it’s easy to train that gratitude muscle, just by making it a point to focus on what you’re grateful for.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of remembering to remember that we have things to be grateful for. It’s so easy for an awareness of all we’re blessed with to fade into the background.

Try this: At least once every day, stop and ask yourself, “What am I grateful for right now?” Challenge yourself to create a daily gratitude habit. Commute to work? Try kicking off your day by spending part of that time mulling over reasons to be grateful.

The more you focus on it, the more your mind naturally looks for reasons to be grateful. And the more you look for them, the more you notice them. And the more you notice them, the more grateful you feel.

[image by psd]

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Energize your life, Gratitude, Overcoming obstacles, Personal development
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Gratitude Monday: What are you grateful for?

March 26, 2012 Written by Curt Rosengren

thank you
It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to put my gratitude hat on, and I’ll hope you’ll join me! Each Monday, in a nod to what a positive impact gratitude can have on our lives, I focus a post on what I’m grateful for.

It’s too easy to get lost in both the challenges and busyness of life, and forget how much we really have to be grateful for. Even when things are going completely to hell, we can almost always find reasons for gratitude if we step back and look for them.

I had a spectacularly hard week last week. Rather than fluidly living my life, I was busy imploding. And I must confess, I kinda forgot the whole gratitude dealio.

I’m not fully past the challenges I was encountering at the time, but I have managed to find more solid ground to stand on. And from this vantage point, it’s doubly obvious how important it is to focus on what I’m thankful for rather than on what sucks. So on to the gratitude!

My parents just left this morning after coming up from Oregon for the weekend. Since I’ve spent so much time with them the last couple days, my gratitude for them is up front and center. I’m grateful that I hit the parental lottery and was lucky enough to be raised by them, and I’m grateful that I enjoy them so much as an adult. I’m grateful that they live close enough to visit easily (4 hours away), though I wish they lived a little closer.

Some other things I’m grateful for today:

  • Discovery Park (a several hundred acre wooded park about ten minutes from me)
  • Trees
  • Friends who believe in me
  • Amma
  • People who love the Ripple Revolution idea
  • Local farmers
  • People who are as inspired as I am by the idea of making the world a better place
  • People who inspire me by their efforts to make the world a better place

How about you? What are you grateful for today? Share three things in the comments (more if you can’t stop yourself). Go on. I dare you! And if you have a blog, why not add your own Gratitude Monday post? It’s not a bad way to start the week.

[image by vistamommy]

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Introducing Gratitude Monday: What are you grateful for?

March 12, 2012 Written by Curt Rosengren


Welcome to the premiere post of Gratitude Monday! It’s something new inspired by the power of gratitude to make a positive impact on our own lives, and the desire readers have been expressing to connect with other Ripple Revolutionaries – people who really care about making a difference, and who believe it can be a joy ride along the way.

Each Gratitude Monday, I’m going to post some things I’m grateful for. It might be just a short laundry list, or it might be a full-on description. And then I would love for you to chime in.

I invite you to do any or all of these…

  • Share what you’re grateful for in the comments (it could be as easy as a laundry list of three things – make it easy on yourself!).
  • Read what others are grateful for.
  • Share your thoughts.
  • Come back next week and do it again.

So on to my Gratitude List…

  • I’m grateful that I have friends who will reach out to me when I’m isolating in my cave and pull me out.
  • I’m grateful for that first cup of coffee in the morning.
  • I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend time every morning with an inspiring book.
  • I’m grateful for the scanner my sister and her husband gave me so I could scan the hundreds of family history photos I’ve accumulated over the years.
  • I’m grateful that I have friends who see me as I really am, not how I sometimes think I am.
  • I’m grateful that I live somewhere (Seattle) with so much natural beauty.
  • I’m grateful for the opportunity to see other people’s lives change for the better as a result of their interactions with me.

How about you? What are you grateful for? Please share – I would love to know!

[image by woodleywonderworks]

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