Action Required
Today I am grateful for my freind Sheila, on this, her birthday. I have known her for 35 of those birthdays and she is a blessing in my life. I am also grateful for the opportunities to practice mindfulness and presence.
I will talk more about the writings of Glennon Doyle Melton, but today I want to talk about the importance of taking actions to practice gratitude. Those actions are what allow me to enjoy mindfulness, the full awareness of the moment I am existing in and what surrounds me in that moment. That can be a tall order for me, but practice has allowed progress.
I can't just think about being grateful. I need to take out my gratitude journal, pick up my pen, open the journal to the right page, write down two things I am grateful for, mention some prayers and special intentions, close the book, put it back where I store it, put the pen back too, and close the door.
I can't just think about my next "Habitual Gratitude" post. I have to sit down, get the computer out of sleep mode, log in, start composing key by key, word by word, do some previewing, make some changes, corrections, and revisions, preview some more, publish, and log off. And often that is after I have started a post the previous evening, or have jotted a few things down in a notebook I carry in my purse.
Another small example of how I practice both gratitude and mindfulness is when I write an email to a certain group of people. I email them about three times a week, focusing on recovery from alcoholism in ourselves and others. I could do a contact group, or just hit "reply all," but instead I start a fresh email, type each of their names in (there's just 9), and as I do, I think about that person and what I am grateful for, or I think about their pain and their challenges and I get out of myself a little more. I think about how grateful I am to have support in my own recovery.
Little actions. Small steps. Big rewards. Mindfulness is a gift that I desire, but often still find elusive.I will keep working on it and I encourage you to do the same. Have a good day, one moment at a time.
I will talk more about the writings of Glennon Doyle Melton, but today I want to talk about the importance of taking actions to practice gratitude. Those actions are what allow me to enjoy mindfulness, the full awareness of the moment I am existing in and what surrounds me in that moment. That can be a tall order for me, but practice has allowed progress.
I can't just think about being grateful. I need to take out my gratitude journal, pick up my pen, open the journal to the right page, write down two things I am grateful for, mention some prayers and special intentions, close the book, put it back where I store it, put the pen back too, and close the door.
I can't just think about my next "Habitual Gratitude" post. I have to sit down, get the computer out of sleep mode, log in, start composing key by key, word by word, do some previewing, make some changes, corrections, and revisions, preview some more, publish, and log off. And often that is after I have started a post the previous evening, or have jotted a few things down in a notebook I carry in my purse.
Another small example of how I practice both gratitude and mindfulness is when I write an email to a certain group of people. I email them about three times a week, focusing on recovery from alcoholism in ourselves and others. I could do a contact group, or just hit "reply all," but instead I start a fresh email, type each of their names in (there's just 9), and as I do, I think about that person and what I am grateful for, or I think about their pain and their challenges and I get out of myself a little more. I think about how grateful I am to have support in my own recovery.
Little actions. Small steps. Big rewards. Mindfulness is a gift that I desire, but often still find elusive.I will keep working on it and I encourage you to do the same. Have a good day, one moment at a time.
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