A NATURAL GRATITUDE
When in unpredictable times, in a culture steeped in artificial feelings, I want to cultivate a natural gratitude.
One that’s healthy, organic, authentic and alive.
A calming gratitude that swaddles me in grace.
A sudden gratitude is like a fresh appreciation—sweeping through the dusty rooms, breathing life back into an aging body.
A timely gratitude I forgot I really needed, like a long-lost answer to a prayer I once uttered. A prayer that lived inside me since before I can remember. A prayer coming home to an age-old hunger.
Don’t let me be enticed by faux thankfulness, one that covers up and disguises my true state of being. One that’s pushed into place or forced into repeating. One that’s conditioned to maintain a perpetually thankful attitude, so that we’re blinded to wake-up calls, red flags, or warnings forecasting danger, denial, or abuse.
Real gratitude is better, swelling up and brimming over, spilling out to soothe the worried places, summoning hope to the surface and making room for belief.
Let me write letters to Gratitude, so my spirit can commune with a place of abundance in the midst of scarcity.
Will you join me in exploring the range and different kinds of Gratitude?
Count your blessings, if you’re led to. Count them like stars in an infinite galaxy and be revived and uplifted.
Let gratitude catch you off guard, when you’re worn and least expect it, and be encouraged, be strengthened, be surprised, and renewed.
Practice recognition in the act of giving thanks. Acknowledge your feelings and include honest reasoning, too. Understanding becomes the learning; gratitude won’t take away the hardship and life will entail seasons of grief, but appreciation will give you secrets that only you’ll know what they mean.
Be authentically grateful and let no movement or doctrine, relationship or superstition, by-passing avoidance or positivity pollution, dictate how you ought to be. Gratitude will not scare you into a permanent disposition because you feel indebted to remain. Gratitude will tell you the truth.
Give it some time and find out what happens when you recognize what's real and good and honor it with thanks.
Last April, I introduced you to The Digital Detox for Mothers with Shayna Strauss. Due to its success, I’m excited to announce Shayna will be facilitating another 30-day Digital Detox workshop beginning on Sunday, September 22.
If you’re a mom, please consider giving yourself the gift of receiving nourishment, enrichment, and most of all, guided support from someone who not only lives the path you’re traversing, but is trained in multiple practices, in addition to health and wellness expertise. Shayna Strauss is an amazing mentor and coach. This weekend she will be offering an exciting opportunity to step away from your screens as she guides you into a deepening, engaging interaction with a waiting world all around you.
In Shayna’s words:
“I created the Digital Detox for Mothers because I needed to change my own relationship with my screen. Despite my best efforts, I kept slipping back into habits that weren’t serving me. I realized I wasn’t alone in this struggle and longed for a space where I could find accountability and support. When I couldn’t find one, I decided to create it.
Some of the most notable benefits I’ve experienced on my own journey with digital minimalism:
1. Improved Sleep: In the first week alone, I averaged 10 hours of solid sleep each night. Without the habit of reading the news on my phone before bed and stoking my hypervigilant flames, I could finally feel my tiredness and honor it by going to sleep.
2. Decreased Anxiety: I’ve noticed a much greater sense of ease and openness to life. Instead of ruminating on global crises, I’m more attuned to my immediate environment and can experience the safety right here. From this more resourced place, I feel better equipped to respond to causes close to my heart.
3. Deeper Connection with Family: My increased presence with my family has led to more playfulness and joy in being together. As well as less frustration as I no longer feel like I’m being interrupted since I've stopped “just checking something on my phone for a minute.”
4. Surprising Connections: I’ve been surprised by my natural desire to connect with people throughout my day—whether it’s at the grocery store or the gym. Without consuming a news feed to meet my social needs, I have more bandwidth to engage with those I encounter.
5.Better Focus: My focus is back! I read 5 books in the first month as my hunger for knowledge which I attempted to fill with scrolling and media consumption is now being satiated through reading (like the good old days).
And that’s just the beginning, this list goes on!
In our first session, this Sunday, we’ll dive into what really drives our screen use—when do we reach for it, what are we seeking, and what might we be avoiding? With guidance, you'll create a personalized plan to reduce unnecessary tech use for the month of October and implement best practices to make the transition smoother and more sustainable. Most importantly, you’ll refocus your energy on the relationships, activities, and habits that have been overshadowed by screen time.”
Please follow the link below to receive more information and contact Shayna for registration:
GRATITUDE & GRACE
Gratitude gives us an ability to see with abundant grace. But it’s not always natural to see with worried eyes, or from a spirit worn from wear.
If you would like to be ushered into the soft center of grace but don’t know where to begin because of the overwhelm of your circumstances, or you can’t find a way in, or you’re not done landing other emotions just yet — know that gratitude doesn’t need to be forced and it’s alright to allow yourself to engage the order of your individual process. Do what feels right for you and not how the culture might be modeling.
When you’re ready, start small and closeby. Begin with the nearest things at hand. Take in the value of your breath. Consider the courageousness of each scar. Revel in the honesty of every line etched upon your skin. Feel into the resiliency of your beating heart against the flesh of all you’ve been through.
One-by-one, let these contemplations guide you beyond the entryway of validation and into a precious, powerful, vulnerable and relevant, determined life of real gratitude.
With love,
Susan
After spending so many years filled with disappointment and frustration about being me, I finally started paying more attention to and giving voice to a very natural appreciation and thankfulness that I realized had always been there within me. And as I did so, I learned that it really is possible to be thankful for this life even when it seems to be filled with so many problems and disappointments.
Now, my often repeated prayer of thankfulness is simply this:
"I give thanks for all that I have,
For all that I am,
And for all that I will become."