Gratefulness 2015

As Thanksgiving approaches in the states, as everyone prepares for the day set aside to give thanks, I am reminded how the force of gratefulness can turn every moment around. How showing thankfulness even when challenged can bring a sigh of relief. How finding appreciation in the simplest of things makes not-enough, a pure, unadulterated blessing. Those moments when the force of appreciation makes the seemingly impossible, possible.

I know these moments.

I’ve experienced the shifts gratefulness makes possible when it seemed nothing could possibly go my way. I’ve experienced the change in perspective gratefulness revealed to me when I chose to choose a better feeling thought. I’ve experienced the precious joy of life in moments when I couldn’t even imagine something good coming from a dark moment.

Gratefulness changed, and continues to change my life. It’s a rocking, timeless mind hack, an epic tool to create a winning game.

I offer you a list of some of my favorite quotes from my some of my all-time favorite people, quotes that spark(ed) awesome shifts within me, even as I gather them for you now, but at the end … oh, read all the way through because I’ve got a very special Gaelic treat for you at the end, with much grateful love in between.

May this list contribute to your grateful heart this holiday season … and always.

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” ~ Anthony Robbins

Gratitude and acknowledgment are essential components in creating and attracting what you want in your life. Through the expression of gratitude on a daily basis, you align yourself to receive all the good the universe has to offer.

By simply focusing your thoughts and attention on the abundance that is already present in your life, you will literally shift your energy to a positive vibration that will automatically and effortlessly attract even more to be grateful for. ~ Jack Canfield

“May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the Universe.” ~ Hafiz

Be in a state of gratitude for everything that shows up in your life. Be thankful for the storms as well as the smooth sailing. What is the lesson or gift in what you are experiencing right now? Find your joy not in what’s missing in your life but in how you can serve. ~ Wayne Dyer

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love—then make that day count!” ~ Steve Maraboli

A Question

A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth. ~Robert Frost

“With nothing to compare yourself to, aren’t you perfect!” ~Byron Katie

Gratitude Is Our Essential Nature. Gratitude is an inherent quality that resides within each of us. It’s both a feeling and an attitude. Gratitude begins by looking within and appreciating the value of one’s experiences. ~ Deepak Chopra

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.” ~ Brené Brown

I am grateful for the life that pulsates around me. I tune into the sensation of my body, the touch of the soft, wool sweater against my skin, the touch of my fingers against my leggings, the beating of my heart. I am grateful for this body that I inhabit. I tune into my thoughts as they float about in my mind, fading in and out. I watch them curiously wondering where they are coming from and to where they are going. I am grateful for my mind for allowing me to think, feel, create, wonder and reason. I tune my awareness to the center of my chest where my heart resides. I feel a sense of spaciousness and openness and am grateful for this resting place. I open my eyes slowly and gently and give thanks for this moment. ~Sharon Salzberg

“When before the beauty of a sunset or a mountain, you pause and exclaim, “Ah,” you are participating in divinity.” ~ Joseph Campbell

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur at some point, If this isn’t good, I don’t know what is.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” ~ Maya Angelou

I want to feel deeply, and whenever I am brokenhearted I emerge more compassionate. I think I allow myself to be brokenhearted more easily, knowing I won’t be irrevocably shattered. ~ Sylvia Boorstein

“An attitude of gratitude brings great things.” ~ Yogi Bhajan

“If you would stop analyzing everything and just look for things to appreciate, you would live happily ever after.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. ~ Melody Beattie

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love—then make that day count!” ~ Steve Maraboli

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John F. Kennedy

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is an opener of locked-up blessings.” ~ Marianne Williamson

A Gratitude Affirmation, ~Janice Lynne Lundy

Thank you.
Thank you for this breath,
for this life,
this beingness that is me, that is You,
that is the breath of all beings everywhere.
Root me in kindness.
Grow me with love.
Let “Thank You” by my refuge and my joy.

And in closing, my very favorite blessing from John O’Donohue. After you read it, listen in below, as the author extends this wish for me, to you …

Beannacht, (Beannacht means Blessing in Gaelic)

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.