Gratitude - Sanctuary Sundays

Hello! It means the world to me that you are reading my Sanctuary Sunday notes, and I hope they are helping you ease into your week with more intention and presence.

And this week’s topic is one of my favorites: the powerful, life-enhancing practice of Gratitude. Think of it as heart-centered mindset work.

I was at an event in New York City last fall, and a woman on one of the panels was discussing the challenge of the work/life balance. Her point was that we can have it all, but that there are sacrifices and it is hard. She made the comment, trying to be funny, that if one more person told her to practice gratitude, that she was going to lose it. And while it got a laugh, it broke my heart for her a bit.

You are always in charge of your thoughts and perspective. You can choose to learn how to redirect your thoughts, and an incredible way to do that is through gratitude.

Gratitude is how we shift our perspective and affect our interpretation of our life.

Gratitude is the connection point of your past, present, and future.

Gratitude is the catalyst to truly finding happiness.

Just like working out and building muscular strength and flexibility, when you intentionally set a daily or regular gratitude practice, that increases your resiliency and your ability to handle stress. We have to work on expanding our ability to feel good. Our bodies are used to being in a state of stress, so we have to offset that with activities that provide better energy.

There is a research statistic that shows that people who have a gratitude practice are 25% happier than the rest of the population! That is an incredibly powerful statistic, especially when we are dealing with so much chaos in our larger world and often in our personal lives. Any practice that can create that kind of return on investment seems well worth it to make it a part of your daily life.

Moments of Gratitude:

Here are a few easy ways to incorporate Gratitude into your daily life this week:

Commit to starting and ending each day with three thoughts of gratitude. In the mornings, give thanks for what lies ahead, your health, or your cozy bed. In the evenings, give thanks for the best things that happened that day, the people you saw, the kind acts you witnessed.
Choose to look for strangers that perform jobs that you truly appreciate, and send them the energy of gratitude from afar. Use your heart to send them thanks.
As you move through your day and week, choose to express gratitude at a much deeper level than just a “thank you for this yummy coffee/tea.” Think of the coffee farmers, the roasters, the delivery people, the coffee cup maker, and the countless others that had an impact on your ability to savor that cup. It’s actually amazing how interconnected we all are, isn’t it? What a gift.