Existential Gratitude

Today I am grateful for "good enough" stepping in to push overdoing and perfectionism out of the way. It is liberating and I have more to learn about it. 

I also continue to learn more about the richness of gratefulness and concepts like Tragic Optimism that I write about earlier this week. I encourage you to read the Atlantic article "The Opposite of Toxic Positivity" linked in that post, or re-read it.  

The article also includes reference to and a quote from Kristi Nelson, Executive Director of A Network for Grateful Living, one of my favorite websites for reading and practices surrounding gratefulness.  I especially like what she says about the human tendency to forget previous suffering and get complacent in our present circumstances. It is one of the reasons I need to make grateful living practices part of my daily routine.

The term "existential gratitude" is also mentioned in the article and is similar to tragic optimism. It means being grateful for all of our human experience, not just the easy parts or the ones that bring pleasant emotions. 

Gratitude is more fleeting and tied to a certain action or gift given. Gratefulness is an orientation to life, a mindset, a way of looking at the world every day, not just on the days that are going the way we want them to.

Our existence is not always tidy, despite our efforts to make it so. Life is messy, ugly, beautiful, amazing--sometimes all at once. Wow! 

Existential gratitude is about honoring our own and others' existence. It allows us to do far more than simply exist, because it taps into the present moment and it brings grace and humility to guide us in the next moments. Onward!