“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
~ Thornton Wilder
I am a deep believer in sharing love and gratitude. In my personal and professional experience, I have used gratitude as a transformative tool to heal and empower. Cultivating gratitude every day has profoundly enhanced my life, my family’s life and my clients’ lives. During times of difficulty and challenge, gratitude has been my life boat.
When we intentionally look for things to be grateful for, we change our brain chemistry and rewire our neural pathways. Gratitude as a practice is the most simple and profound choice we can make to transform our mood, improve our overall health and wellbeing, and move us toward an optimistic view of our lives. Gratitude opens our hearts and improves our relationships.
I love the quote from an unknown author, “Be grateful for the tiny details of your life and make room for unexpected and beautiful blessings.” Living this aspiration requires only that we set aside time daily to acknowledge five things we are grateful for.
I invite you to stop right now and write down five things you are grateful for.
Another way to live the practice of gratitude is writing thank yous. The art of writing thank yous has been lost by some in these modern times when we may only send a quick email or text of thanks.
I facilitate a workshop called “Share the Love and Gratitude” where we explore the power and use of gratitude and then hand craft thank you cards. In the creative process, we reclaim this transformative practice and infuse each card with love, joy and gratitude. Imagine spending time deepening your practice of gratitude by committing to send one thank you card each day for the next twenty days. Start by writing a card expressing the gratitude you have for yourself and have that be the first card you send!
As George Elliston wrote, “How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it!” Choose to transform someone’s day by spreading kindness in the form of gratitude and be blessed to be blessing.
I invite you to allow gratitude to flow through you and focus on the blessings in your life, deepening your experience of the good in this world and elevating the quality of your life!
May you embrace a daily gratitude practice and reclaim the lost art of writing thank yous, while you nurture peace in the world from the inside out!
Sending you so much peace, love and gratitude,
Kelley Grimes, M.S.W.
Counselor, Author & Speaker
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“Be grateful for the tiny details of your life and make room for unexpected and beautiful blessings.” I love this and it’s comes InLine with what I decided to do throughout this month of November. Express gratitude for all I have. I am grateful for the gift of sight, taste,smell,touch,feel. So gratefulness for theses and more.
I love this Leila and that you are choosing to express gratitude for all you have! Becoming aware of all the blessings in our lives through our senses is so powerful and dedicating November for gratitude will support you in cultivating a powerful practice for the year to come! Thank you so much for your inspiring comment!
I love the feeling of having something tangible in your hands that expresses your gratitude. Great post Kelley, thanks!
I so agree Lisa! And what is beautiful about a thank you card is it allows the receiver to be reminded over and over when he/she reads the card. Gratitude connects us in such a powerful way and I am deeply grateful for you!
As a survivor of repeated abuse that led to PTSD, practicing gratitude became a huge part of my healing. I loved this and even cued a few reminders for this person who practices gratitude daily.
Thank you so much for sharing the importance of your gratitude practice in your healing and life Laura. I also have used gratitude to heal and recognize how critical it can be in transforming our difficult experiences into empowering lessons. I am deeply grateful for you!
I did I did “I invite you to stop right now and write down five things you are grateful for.” I love getting simply reminders daily that allow you to raise your own vibration to support others…thank you!
I can feel your high vibration from here Laura and love that you highlighted that the more we nurture ourselves the more we can support and serve others – spreading peace, love and gratitude in a world that desperately needs it! Thank you so much for your comment!
I love getting cards! Thanks for the inspiration to send gratitude cards, I will implement it with my clients.
What a lovely idea Rachel to share your gratitude for your clients! I am so happy to hear more ways of spreading love and gratitude in the world! Thank you!
What a beautiful reminder of an age old tradition that doesn’t seem to be practiced much any more. I am going to take time and write 5 thank you notes to people who I appreciate and just need to tell them.
How wonderful Debra! It is amazing how nurturing the practice of writing thank you cards is both for the writer and the receiver! Thank you so much for your comment!
What an inspired invitation, “Imagine spending time deepening your practice of gratitude by committing to send one thank you card each day for the next twenty days. Start by writing a card expressing the gratitude you have for yourself and have that be the first card you send!” I just bought several lovely notecards at my favorite thrift store and some Thoreau stamps, so I’m set to go!
Thank YOU. xoxox
I love that you are inspired by my invitation and that you are already to start! I am so grateful for your comment and your open hearted response! May your day be blessed with many other blessings Lore!
I write 5 things I am grateful for every day in my journal. As for thank you cards, when you take the time to take pen in hand and let the gratitude flow through the pen and on to the card, it conveys that thank you a hundred times over, way more than a quick email or text message. It means that the person was worth the time it took for you to buy the card, write it out and mail it. It not only says, “thank you,” is says, “you are so worth it.” Now if we can just get folks to sit down and write “real” letters again!
I totally agree and feel that way myself when I receive a thank you card. It has been a joy recommitting to this practice and I am excited each day to think of another person to share my gratitude and let them know who they are makes a difference in my life! Thank you so much for your comment Barb!
I did just as you said and took pause to write down five things for which I’m grateful. The result? An interesting a-ha for me!
Thanks, as always, for the inspiration. And, yes, I need to send a few thank-you notes!
I am so intrigued about your a-ha Sheila and am so thrilled you were inspired to pause and write down your gratitudes. I am so grateful for your comment and willingness to play! Thank you!
I just really, really am grateful for this post. So simple and yet so powerful. This quote I am holding to my heart: “During times of difficulty and challenge, gratitude has been my life boat.” And your “Share the Love and Gratitude” workshop sounds amazing!
Writing in my gratitude journal is my daily feel good practice. A must for my sanity and well being. This is such a beautiful nudge 🙂
Thank you!
xoxo, Z~
Communication and appreciation are so important. Love your post