All posts by jan

Ten Ideas for Creating a Personal Gratitude Practice

Having a commitment to a practice of gratitude will transform your life. Both the science and anecdotal evidence has proven that people, who live from a sense of gratitude, sleep better, have deeper friendships and relationships, better health, are more resilient, have increased productivity and energy, and are just generally happier. I could go on and on with this list, and I will, but at another time and place.

Today I want share a few ideas for establishing a gratitude practice.

1. Let’s begin with the tried and true idea of keeping a Gratitude Journal. Sarah Ban Breathnach first introduced this transformative idea in Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. This practice involves writing down 3-10 things each day in a journal. You could chose to do this any time during the day, but it is often suggested to do this just before heading to bed. When we do so it seems to help us relax and fall asleep with a less troubled, worry-free mind.

2. Write a heart-felt note of thanks to someone. This could be a postcard or a note card. Send it to the people that you often take for granted or over-look, but who make your life better. Or for a really big challenge write a note of gratitude to someone who has challenged you, but who has helped you to grow in some way. This letter may or may not be appropriate to send. You will have to judge that. Whether you send it or not doesn’t matter, there is value in you having written the note and energetically putting that vibe out into the world.

3. Create an awareness talisman. This could be a bracelet which helps to remind you to stop and notice something for which you are grateful. You could even switch it to the other wrist each time you pause to connect intentionally with what your are grateful for. You could also keep a tally of how many times you made the switch each day as a kind of barometer of how you are doing at incorporating more gratitude into your life each day. I know for me I find this kind of personal challenge to be fun and motivating. I like to see if I can top my previous days tally. Another talisman could be as simple as a polished stone you keep in your pocket or on your desk. Your touchstone could be anything that has personal meaning and will assist you in remembering to connect with your gratitude.

4. Use gratitude beads daily to kinesthetically count your blessings…one blessing for each bead. This idea is adapted from the use of prayer beads within many different religious traditions to count the number of times they recite a mantra, chant, prayer, or devotion.

gratitude-hike — I am thankful for hiking trails

5. Go on a Gratitude walk or hike. This could be as simple as a walk around the neighborhood or my own personal favorite is to get out in nature at least once a week for a longer hike. There is nothing like taking a pause during the week to commune with nature. The exercise helps to release happy brain chemicals so that alone is good for lifting your spirits. Then intentionally focusing your attention in the direction of gratitude amplifies this affect substantially.

I like to take my camera to capture visually what I’m grateful for and include these images in my gratitude journal…it’s fun and satisfying. Plus, I have an unproven theory that combining both a gratitude practice and a creativity practice together will create a synergistic affect on our quality of life and well being. It wouldn’t surprise me if combining these two practices doesn’t increase these benefits substantially. Science hasn’t studied this synergy yet (least not that I am aware of), but they have studied each practice alone and have learned they each by them self have a dramatic impact on our quality of life. I’m definitely curious about this. For me personally anytime I can weave creativity in it is both more motivating and life enhancing.

6. Celebrate your senses. When we mindfully connect and use all of our senses it enhances our ability to also connect with our sense of gratitude. Perhaps you could combine a practice of daily gratitude with the ritual of sipping your morning tea or coffee. How could you involve more of your senses in simple routines you take for granted? Perhaps you could create a ritual during your daily shower where you thank all of the various parts of your beautiful body. When I let it–the warm soothing flow of water helps me to open my gratitude floodgates.

7. Write a gratitude haiku, poem, prayer or vow. Reread them aloud when you need to reconnect with your gratitude. You could use the photos you took during your gratitude walk to illustrate and/or inspire your words.

8. Mindfully commit to using the language of the heart. People who live in a mindset of gratitude pepper their language generously with words such as gifts, giving, blessings, blessed, fortune, fortunate, and abundance. Become aware of your own “language.” When you notice it’s heading in a depressed, woe is me direction, redirect your thoughts in a direction that lifts your spirits. Don’t beat yourself up about this…just notice and gently move your thoughts in a more positive uplifting and joy-filled direction.

9. Act as if. When you become aware of feeling down in the dumps and you want to feel better about the world use your body to redirect your mindset. Intentionally smile, give a belly laugh, turn on uplifting music and dance or sing. The body mind connection is a powerful thing. You may not feel like smiling when you begin, but your mind and emotions will follow your bodies lead.

10. Trade in your measuring stick for a walking stick and/or gratitude wand. When our eyes are always focused on our neighbors, what they have, how they are more talented and gifted, how life is easier for them. etc., it is impossible for us to have a mindset of gratitude. It isn’t physiologically possible for us to simultaneously experience feelings of gratitude and feelings of envy, criticism, or judgment.

I have some additional ideas for gratitude practices which I’ve played with, which incorporate more creativity. I think this makes them all the more effective in enhancing ones sense of well-being. I’ll be introducing these to you over time. So stick around.

This post is already “too” long. Didn’t want to overwhelm you with too much information. I’m probably too guilty of that tendency.

Anyway what do you think? What have you learned about gratitude in your own life? How do you practice gratitude in your life? Do you have a regular practice? What have you tried? What’s worked? What’s been a challenge? Or any other comments you may have?

Please leave a comment below. I’m always eager to learn and discover something new.

Knocking the Dust of the Welcome Mat

Creative resistance / willingness, Uncategorizedjan

As Gratitude and I have been “dusting and redecorating” here in preparation for reopening our doors I’ve spent a bit of time reading back through the archives.

I was pleasantly surprised there were actually some good nuggets in those early posts. However, when I reread my first put-out-the-welcome-mat post titled Smiles and Cartwheels I found myself with a rather sheepish grin plastered across my face.

For integrity and clarity sake I decided I wanted to write an update to this first post. You can read that original post here. It might help to put this addendum into some context.

So here I am sitting there rereading this post with this silly smile slowly creeping across my face as I realized Miss Artiste and Miss Just-get-r-done still don’t have regular open lines of communication established.

Just one chat isn’t going to cut it! Duh! Even occasional chats won’t do.

The three of us are a work in progress. I still find myself wrestling with these two voices in my head…working to find the balance in there somewhere.

One thing is for sure. Committing to regular chat sessions would likely help.

Yep! I need to recommit to this. And I’ve learned the best way for me to acknowledge my growth and willingness to make a stronger commitment is to “HeART-fully” embrace it. (i.e. Use art and heart to empower myself).

So partly to strengthen and inspire this commitment to myself and partly to have a fun image to include in this post I decided I had to pull together a quick artistic somethin-or-other.

Continue reading Knocking the Dust of the Welcome Mat →

Creating Time

Uncategorizedjan

In June, I was privileged to meet Marney Makridakis while on her book tour for her new book Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life

Oh and the weekend was extra fun, because I am one of several contributors to this visually stunning book, packed with insight and creative ideas for exploring our relationship with time.

Marney is the founder of Artellaland.com, the groundbreaking online community for creators of all kinds. She is a gifted speaker, workshop leader, coach, and mentor. I’ve personally been blessed by her extraordinary talents many times over.

In fact, it was while being a student of her inaugural session of ARTbundance Coach Training Certification, that Gratitude first found her way into my life and onto my sketchbook page. Marney and ARTbundance, an approach of self discovery through creativity, has been an importance influence Gratitude’s evolving story and journey.

If you’ve been feeling frazzled by feeling “there’s never enough time” Creating Time will open you to a whole way of thinking about time. You can purchase your own personal copy by clicking here.

And yep, I am an affiliate of Marney’s and I receive a small commission if you purchase through my link. But I also only recommend people who I truly believe in and have personally worked with. Everything Marney puts her hands on is top notch. I’m definitely an avid fan. She’s been a huge influence on my own work and an important mentor in my life.

Choosing my word for the year

UncategorizedChristine Kane, empowering choices, Word-of-the-yearjan

We are just over a month into a fresh new year and I’m finally sitting down to write about my word for the year. It’s a practice that I first learned about from Christine Kane. Her suggestion of simply choosing a personal word as the touchstone for one’s year, instead of writing down a list of New Year’s resolutions, which like most people, I likely wouldn’t keep longer than a couple of weeks, immediately resonated with me.

I thought to myself, “Oh I want to do that!”

And then because I tucked away this thought to come back to later I lost track of it until this year. Occasionally a worthy idea needs time to take root.

Have you notice how it becomes much more difficult to ignore a good idea when it keeps popping in over and over again to say, “Hi! Remember me!” This is exactly what happened this year.

After presenting itself multiple times in different places over several days I decided the universe was telling me to pay attention.

Several places where I frequent the buzz around picking a word was really hopping. I was eager to hop in and share my word too. But I had a small problem. I just couldn’t seem to settle on a word.

And I was seeing a lot of great words being shared by others and I still couldn’t find one that seemed to fit me. There were several really nifty words chosen by others I would have loved to have adopted for myself. But I didn’t get that toe curling zing when I’d try them on.

Finally one morning, after several weeks of this frustrating indecision, I found myself standing in front of the bathroom mirror talking to myself. I said, “Enough Already! Why can’t you just choose a word? Just pick a word! Just Choose! You don’t have to live with the word all year long if you don’t want to.”

And on the heels of this rant with myself my word suddenly revealed herself. Choose. Just Choose. My word for this year is choose.

” The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; The pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.” ~William Arthur Ward

For the Love of Books

UncategorizedAdela Rubio, detachment, empowering choices, Giving, Recycling books, releasing, small miracles, surrenderjan

I’ve had a long time love affair with books. Some might rightly call me an addict. I never counted them, but up until this past year it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they easily numbered in the thousands.

My husband likes to point out that when he retired from the Navy and we moved our “stuff” across country in a horse trailer from Mississippi to Oregon, the horse trailer weighed in at 14,000 lbs. and at least two/thirds of its contents was taken up by my books. It’s been fourteen years since then and of course the collection has continued to grow.

As I’ve mentioned in another post, one of our activities this past year involved simplifying, reorganizing, and getting rid of stuff. Lots of stuff! The big thrust of this effort was dealt with fairly quickly (over a few weeks time).

Well, the getting rid of stuff part anyway. Reorganizing our space hasn’t fully happened YET! That project has been carried over into the New Year. We are making progress in spurts it seems.

I got rid of boxes and boxes and boxes of books this past summer. But I still had a small pile of boxes stacked in the garage, and a larger pile stacked in an “extra” room waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. How is it that six months flew by while I pondered or avoided this decision?

These were books I wasn’t willing to just donate to the neighborhood thrift store. Some were collectible, some were vintage, but not especially collectible (the type that would likely be destined for the landfill or recycling bin), and some were “special” books I just wasn’t ready to fully part with for some mysterious reason.

Today these books finally found loving homes. Most went to a young family. But there were still two good size boxes left after she picked through them. The temptation was strong to just let them sit for another bit. But I knew how that would turn out.

No, today was the day I had decided to deal with them.

I’d then remembered a neighborhood antique shop where I had seen a section for vintage books, so on a whim I decided to see if I could find a home for some of them there. I wasn’t expecting the owner would want some of the newer ones.

When I walked in she initially said she still had five boxes waiting to find shelf space so she didn’t know. I explained I wanted to donate them. I just wanted to find my books a good home and not have them end up in a landfill somewhere. So she agreed to have a look.

The store owner nearly fell over when I set the box down on the floor and the book right on the very top was a vintage book of The Yearling. She had just a week or two ago came very close to purchasing a similar copy of this book so she could read it to her granddaughter. She reluctantly passed it by because the book was too expensive. Her own mother had read it to her when she was the same age. It had become one of her favorite childhood stories and a treasured memory, which she now wanted to share with her granddaughter.

She continued to look through the box and found several more books that she immediately knew other people in her life would love. One of her customers was excited by the collection of thirty Cobblestone Magazines.

In the end, the shop owner gratefully and enthusiastically took every single book. She said she would pass them along to family, friends, and customers who would appreciate and love them.

As she got excited about sharing the books with her loved ones I got a bit teary eyed and emotions of joy, gratitude and relief welled up. These old precious gems would continue to be loved, treasured, appreciated and valued. At least for now they had been spared from the fate of the landfill. It felt like a small miracle.

I wrote this much of this post yesterday. At eleven o’clock, when it was past my bedtime, I tucked it to bed in my draft folder so I could sleep on the title for it.

This morning I awoke to another small miracle.

I am participating in Adela Rubio’s 21 day FYE program. Along with her daily call she posts a short thought for each day. This morning’s thought ended with this:

As you surrender the need for everything, life paradoxically gifts you with everything. And nothing’s missing and there’s more…~Adela Rubio

Consider how you might activate this miracle in your life. What stacks of stuff could you release?

A yearly ritual

UncategorizedAdela Rubio, authentic essense, Connection, conscious community, free your essence, New Year ritualjan

I am feeling especially alive and awake this morning and it is early here. It’s still dark outside. But it’s worth getting up for this special, luxurious energy bath.

This treat has become a yearly ritual. Yes, I keep being drawn back every year to this conscious community, who delights in playing together, hosted by the dynamic Adela Rubio. I think this will the third year I will be hanging out with Adela and these other wise souls for 21 yummy days of dancing and exploring ones authentic essence.

If your wanting to:

Embody your power and brilliance
Access clarity and confidence in all your choices
Unleash your creative flow in everyday moments
and so much more

I highly recommend you check out this link and join the party. It’s a great way to start the day and an even better way to begin the New Year. Be warned though: This could rock your world and change your life!!! I know that it has mine. Thank you Adela!!

The Gratitude Book Project is available NOW!

Uncategorizedbestseller, The Gratitude Book Projectjan

And not only is the book now available, I was greeted by this awesome email this morning from Donna Kozik, the editor of The Gratitude Book Project !!!!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious news!

YOU, Jan, are now a
Bestselling Author on Amazon.com!

Yesterday at 7:02 p.m. Pacific time, our book became
the #1 bestseller in the category of

Books –> Health, Mind & Body — > Self-Help — > Success!

We also broke into the top 300 books being sold on Amazon — #204!
(Given that we were #180,000+ yesterday morning, that’s quite a climb!)

Here’s a screen shot of “our shining moment.” (You can see the #1 to
the left of our cover and below that how Mr. Stephen Covey became #2.)

The Gratitude Book Project #1 on Amazon
I got my copy and it is like snacking on a bag of potato chips where you can’t stop after eating just one, only in this case it isn’t full of empty calories that go straight to your hips. This “snack bag” of gratitude doesn’t just last one day and then its gone either, but it keeps on giving you tasty bite size morsels to savor all throughout the year.

Plus, when you get your copy here the proceeds go to benefit these four charities: Make-a-Wish Foundation, Women to Women International, Feed America, and the ASPCA .

Treat yourself to a healthy snack of gratitude buy the book today! You will be grateful you did. Warning though: Reading this book my cause you to ask yourself the question: “What am I grateful for?” Answering that question may change your life!

Walking Washington D.C.

Uncategorizedjan

The last time I was in Washington DC we were hindered by a car. We were mainly driving through on the way home from burying Buddy. So we hadn’t really made plans to be a tourist. With these combined impediments our stay was brief…a drive thru experience. We spent more time looking for a parking spot than we did seeing the sites so I remember promising myself I would return one day minus the car.

That was nearly twenty years ago. This time around we didn’t plan on being a tourist either. We were just coming for a weekend conference and flying back home without taking any side trips into D. C. Bunnie invited us to share her room and experience. Years ago we had set the intention to return and here was an invitation. How could we refuse this opportunity, now that we are both “self-employed” why not an impromptu trip?

So here we are in delicious D. C. walking and walking and walking some more. If you plan to do a lot of walking packing a good pair of walking shoes is recommended. We didn’t plan on this trip so we left our walking shoes at home and had to find a substitute at the Payless store down the street from our hotel. I do recommend walking Washington D. C. Your feet may wear out if you aren’t in great shape. By the end of each day my tootsies were whining and fussing at me. But you will see so much more of the city.

I also left my camera at home and packed extra light for this trip. Washing out stuff in the sink works. And I am finally learning to use the camera feature on my cell phone.

I am curious how many times have I attracted some gift or fulfillment of an intention into my life, but then let it slip away.

How often do we miss out on our most splendid opportunities because we either don’t recognized the gift when it appears or we believe we aren’t well enough prepared to receive it? We hesitate too long. We say no to shaking-up our predictable routines. We choose convenience over substance.

So here’s some of my take-a-ways from this spontaneous adventure in our capital city. Remain open to opportunity. Pack lightly. Walk more. Give life a chance to surprise you. Take a risk. Follow your heart.

Pintango Gelato, — Cooling off and sharing a sensational Gelato with Bunnie

Lincoln Memorial , — Resting my toosties at the Lincoln Memorial

Making Peace With the Out-of-Balance Paradox

Uncategorizedcentered and grounded, chaos, control, creative flow, focus, life balance, off kilter, out-of-balancejan

With the world spinning as fast as it does these days it’s easy to end up feeling a little like a kid stepping off a merry-go-round, dizzy, disoriented, and pulled off kilter. As kids we loved that dizzy spun-out feeling, as responsible grown ups we don’t have time for such nonsense. We want to be in control, have more focus, feel more calm and collected, and remain centered and grounded. And we’d prefer it all wrapped up in a tidy bow call work/life balance.

Here at our house we’re in the midst of remodeling and reorganizing our life and our space. So it’s not surprising to note that the crazy chaos connected with these projects has caused me to feel a little off kilter.

From experience I’ve learned this chaotic phase is often an essential part of the creative process. I’ve learned that holding on too tightly and trying to white knuckle my way through these periods is counter productive. I’ve learned getting there is easier when I point my feet downstream and let the creative current carry me where it will. I’ve learned it’s useful to reframe my experience from frustrating, scary, and uncomfortable to exciting, fun, and exhilarating. I’ve learned to call it an adventure.

It may seem counter-intuitive and a bit of a paradox, but true-life balance contains both the messy and the tidy. With this perspective I’ve found it easier to deal with the temporary discomfort of that all too familiar out-of-balance feeling. Do I get caught up sometimes in the tornado? Sure, I still find myself in the struggle sometimes. But I now know how to say, “Whoa! Stop!” I can then gently remind myself to take a deep breath and point my feet back down stream.

Kitchen Sink Enlightenment

Intention & AwarenessBeing Present, empowering choices, habitual thinking, meditation, mindfulness, ritual, sacred practicejan

I used to hate doing dishes. It was such a dreaded chore. To be honest there are still some days where I am less than enthusiastic about this chore. But then that is the problem you see. I’ve learned that when I THINK of dish doing as a chore it’s NOT fun. And I’m definitely for having fun.

So I got a bit curious, “Could I actually learn to not just tolerate doing the dishes, but could I learn to love this daily ritual?

“Awe YES!!! I believe I might be on to something!”

What if I reframed doing the daily dishes from a chore to a ritual…a sacred practice? I was intrigued by this idea, which seemed pregnant with possibilities. I mean, where and when did I learn to think of this daily routine as just a chore to tick off my list? I could choose to think about doing the dishes differently. I could invite a new experience. I could choose to show up with a smile instead of a frown.

It’s amazing what you can discover and experience at your kitchen sink. Here are a couple of things I’ve happily stumbled upon.

I’ve frequently found myself slipping into that magical meditative “zoned-in-place” where creative ideas and other Aha’s percolate up into my consciousness. Who would have guessed I’d find inspiration in dirty dishwater?

I’ve surprisingly found slowing down enough to actually wash the dishes rather than just popping them quickly and mindlessly in the dishwasher to be an all to rare blessing in today’s fast paced stressful environment. Taking the time to slow down and be fully present to this delicious sensual experience, to mindfully notice the simple pleasure in a sink full of yummy suds and the intimate warmth of the water caressing my hands has fed my soul.

I’ve learned even after having experienced many peak experiences at my sink it is too easy to become complacent and fall back into old habitual ways of thinking. All habits are hard to break. Thinking habits seem especially stubborn. I could choose to get down on myself for having slipped, but that is definitely not fun, so here’s what I’ve chosen to do instead.

I first need to become aware of my funky monkey thinkin’…I’ve also sometimes heard this called stinkin’ thinkin’. Becoming aware can be tricky, but it does get easier with practice.

I then ask myself an empowering question. Are we having fun yet? Asking the question in this way helps me to keep it feeling light and smile at myself. It helps me avoid the street marked Getting Down On Myself .

Finally, I recommit to choosing what I really want (i.e. to have fun & experience joy) by choosing a more exciting thought. What have you discovered at your kitchen sink lately?