Today I'm struggling. Struggling In September. Anybody else with me on this?
Then this morning, I heard Dr. Jody Carrington talk about the practice of gratitude. And it gave me pause: Am I practicing gratitude well? Oh sure, I routinely jot down the three things I'm grateful for in my Gratitude With Attitude journal, when I remember. But how am I doing at making gratitude a verb?
So if it's a practice, that means I need to stay with it,
just like my exercise routine, just like my healthy eating habits campaign, intentionally carving out time so it's not left to chance.
And if journaling has lost its pizzazz, then it's time to jazz it up. Maybe I could use VoiceThread to grab an audio of my gratitudes. Or use my camera app to record a clip to send to someone. Of course there's always snail mail to get a hand-written note off to someone for a kindness or just because.
I could create something in the kitchen for someone to express my gratitude. Or dedicate my next workout to them. Or share my gratitude by praying over a friend during my next art project, a practice I've started when I'm knitting baby hats for newborns and praying for the child's mom and their family.
I'm thinking I can garden with gratitude.
Or in the pool, a gratitude with every swim stroke.
And get this: I can even be thankful in traffic.
The key here is to make it a practice by weaving it in to something that we're already doing or by dedicating a certain time or place to stop what we're doing and just get grateful. On purpose.
Here now, some posts I've found with more rich food for thought
to fuel my Gratitude journey:
And like that, the struggle isn't as strong.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going outside for a gratitude swim,
thankful for you, dear reader.
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