Habitual Gratitude

Today I am grateful for smooth-writing pens. I am also grateful for my dad and the difference he made in my life. I always think of my dad on this day, February 28, his birthday. We miss you and we love you. Early mornings are typically my favorite time of the day. The house is quiet. I am refreshed from sleeping. I have always been a morning person. I don't see that changing. I enjoy the time with our dog Oliver, that first sip of coffee, a morning workout, and more. When there is a lot to be done, whether work-related, family, writing or other, I will sometimes wake up earlier than my usual early. My brain engages and starts ticking off all the things I need to do, and the sleeping is pretty much done. There have been many mornings like that this school year, and most days this week were like that. I like my early mornings, but too many of them exhaust me. I am a little exhausted and tapped out this morning, but one thing gratitude practice allows me is enough energy to ...

Today I am grateful for my job, my co-workers, the students and parents I get to work with. I am also grateful for the week's end during a very busy week. Yesterday I wrote about "the expansive exploration of spirituality." The quote below from Galileo is fitting: "The Sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen  a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."   (Galileo Galilei) That is the essence of expansive spirituality. The amazing energy of the sun and a little bunch of grapes ripening. A God or Higher Power who can do all things but still takes time to remind me of my priorities. Exploring my gratefulness is also an ongoing spiritual expansion. It does indeed unlock the great fullnes of life. 

Today I am grateful for the spiritual growth I have had and continue to have. I am also grateful for smiles-my own and those of others. Spiritual health is an area that used to confuse and frustrate me. At times I didn't care and I equated spirituality with religion, which I was tired of. At other times I wanted answers to tough questions. I wanted to understand what it took to find spirituality. Like many other things in my life, about the time I stopped trying so hard is about the time I started knowing my soul, the base of my spirituality. Today I don't consider myself a religious person. The rituals and the regimen seem too narrow to me. I like an expansive exploration of spirituality. It is good to start from a place of humility. I take less for granted--things like my physical health, my recovery from addiction, the gratitude practice that encompasses all of it. But some of the practices of my religious upbringing are a valuable part of my spirituality today. One of...

Today I am grateful for the peace that can be found in silence. I am also grateful for a closet full of clothes. Thoughts and prayers for my brother-in-law Clay as he recovers from extensive surgery. Emotional health has to do with feelings, the whole range of feelings. Life will give us plenty of ups and downs, triumphs and struggles. Emotional health means I acknowledge that range and honor the variety. Painful emotions are just that-painful. But if we never knew pain, how could we appreciate joy? Some will go to great lengths to avoid pain or protect others from pain, and in actuality create more pain for everyone around them. Emotional pain is a powerful motivator. It can tell us it is time to leave an unhealthy relationship. It can tell us it us time to get sober and make healthier choices. It can tell us acceptance is the answer. Some will search endlessly for joy and happiness and miss the joy and happiness right in front of them, here and now. We shouldn't have to c...

Today I am grateful for people who care about me and people I care about. I am also grateful for healthier thought processes. Mental wellness has to do with my thought processes and my thoughts. Are my thoughts negative and defeating or are they positive and forward-moving? Can I think clearly or do I get hung up on a few thoughts and keep replaying them? Are my thoughts calming me or agitating me? These are all useful questions. When it comes to my thoughts, I used to be my own worst enemy, and then some. I got really good at beating myself up. I finally learned a key lesson-whether you think you are worse than others or better than others, those are both functions of ego. (And even though I hated myself on some levels, I also had self-righteousness that told me I was right and someone else wasn't.) It has taken training, effort, and time to shift my thoughts from less healthy and irrational ones to more healthy and rational ones. The work continues, but I feel confident say...

Today I am grateful for my physical body-scars and imperfections, working limbs and joints. I am grateful this earthly vehicle allows me mobility and an active lifestyle. It promises to be a full week and I will need plenty of energy to move through each hour, each day as the week goes on. Much of the busy pace has to do with work. The student group I advise is sponsoring Wellness Week 2015 this week. The group has done this for several years now, bringing focus to and raising awareness about overall wellness. Focal points range from eating healthy, to stress reduction, to depression awareness and suicide prevention, to exercise. Teens and people of all ages can benefit from consideration of how our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are interrelated. I likened wellness to a 4-legged stool in  this post  a year ago. It is something I have come to know and appreciate more in recent years, and for me it is all tied together with gratefulness. So today let's ...

Today I am grateful for our living room recliners and sharing time with my husband Darcy there. I am also grateful for the time we spent on our front porch yesterday afternoon-sunshine and 23 degrees was inviting enough for us. On my gratitude walk yesterday, I started composing the blog post you read yesterday, thinking about what I could write and how I could say it. I was getting ahead of myself and had to bring myself back to the present moment a couple times. The point and purpose of gratitude practice is mindful presence. I have to continually hone this skill. Even in the midst of honing it. At least if I am going to get off track and wander outside the present moment, it is better to be thinking about gratitude in some capacity rather than the other thoughts that can rob me of any peace and serenity. I used to be good at creating a pretty negative stream of consciousness that reeked of self-pity and self-hatred. I wasn't good at catching myself composing at those times, ...