Intentional Gratitude

Yep, it's Friday. Which means that most people are looking forward to unwinding after a long week. I don't usually feel like that on Fridays, but this week I do. So instead of moping and unwinding, I wanted to take a second for a bit of gratitude and say thanks for being here.

I appreciate that you decided to click a button or fill out a form that said that you wanted to hear from me. I have a lot of things to share with the world and I'm glad you've decided that you want to be shared with. I know that you have about 97 newsletters you've signed up for in the past year, and I feel lucky enough to grace your inbox and (potentially) your eyeballs (unless, of course, you just see the subject and delete, which I don't fault anyone for doing because I do that, too. ;-))

In the past few years, I've found that intentional gratitude has drastically improved my outlook on life. This is well-studied and you can search this (I'm intentionally not using the word "g**gle" because despite the fact that I still use lots of their services, I'm mad at them for their censorship of natural healing modalities such as chiropractic, acupuncture, etc., not to mention other questionable practices that they have). But it took me a long time (an embarrassingly long time) to realize that I didn't just need to send gratitude outward, but *inward*.

And I actually knew that, so I was intentionally being grateful for attributes about myself, my abilities, etc.
And then in unpeeling the onion that is my beliefs, values, behaviors, stories, and experiences and how I have come to call those things my"self", I realized that I needed to also just be grateful for my own self. (This is a phrase that my youngest is using these days - he wants to do things by his "own self" or tells me I can do it by my "own self".)

So when things can a little hectic, or panicky, or overwhelming, or concerning, or there's grief or sadness or any other big emotion that has me all in a tizzy of some sort, then I stop, breathe in deeply, and just *feel* grateful that I'm alive, present, and breathing. And then I send that gratitude to the beings around me.

So in this moment, I am feeling grateful to be alive, present, and breathing. And I am grateful that you are alive, present, and breathing. And reading. ;-)

Thanks for being here.

xox
Lindsay