Keep Calm And Get Your Gratitude On!
What are you grateful for in particular today? Write it down. I’m big on writing things down. It makes you really think and physicalize it by writing it. You might have more than one thing. But keep this list tight and important – so keep this one to the top 1, 2, 3 things that you’re most grateful for today.
Choose to focus on your list all week and each day practice showing gratitude to someone, anyone, at least once. It can be a loved one you call up and thank for being so wonderful. It can be a co-worker who brings you coffee, it can be the customer service person at Time Warner who normally you might be curt with because AGAIN your service has gone out, or how about the parking meter officer who has just given you your 3rd parking ticket that week! This is one I wish I would have practiced yesterday. It wasn’t the parking officer’s fault that the parking signs are like confusing textbooks and meters don’t always work properly in Los Angeles!
What if I could have been truly gracious and been grateful that the ticket she gave me wasn’t any larger and that I have a functioning car and money to pay the ticket and that this was a small price to pay to live in a city like Los Angeles? The woman was just doing her job and maybe I could have made an impact on her had I been kind and expressed gratitude to her for doing her job rather than acting like a person one step away from road rage. I know I would have had much more peaceful impact on myself and the rest of my day had I chosen to see things that way.
See what happens when you’re practicing Mindful Gratitude (and carefully reading street signs) this week and then report back and share with us if you’d like. Mindful Gratitude is a major epiphany-sparker and can change everything when it’s a way of life.
What I Am Grateful For TODAY: (Here’s my list. Yes, the things on your list can be mundane. They don’t have to be the “biggest picture” and most profound things for this exercise – they can be immediate, the things you truly are focused on TODAY.)
1. Living in Los Angeles and its amazing weather!
2. I get to go to New York this week and meet with people about my work and speak and teach people about epiphanies.
3. My health.
One week. No matter what issues or difficulties may arise around your list. Keep the gratitude on! And see what sparks…
