Intentional Gratitude

Enrich your life in all ways by giving thanks!

Back in 2015, my lead magnet was a little e-book I created titled, “Intentional Gratitude, Enrich Your Life In All Ways By Giving Thanks”.

I’ve gone back a number of times with ideas about how to update it, to align with how gratitude, mine and others, may have evolved and expanded in the last nine years. Yet, after a read through, I decide against it.

Whether it’s seeing a picture of yourself or reading things you wrote 9 or 10 years ago, not all things have to be revamped to fit the present day. They can be classic and be a placeholder for that time in our lives.

My bias is that I believe the content is classic, tried and true. The very things I shared with readers in 2015 are things I still do today. Because it worked then and now.

Here is an excerpt!

Why Be Intentionally Grateful?

You may be asking that question.  And I ask in turn “Why not”?

Would it be possible your experience tomorrow, then the next day, and the day after that could be pre-disposed to being awesome?

Think again about that feeling of giddy anticipation of the upcoming concert or vacation?  Feeling that kind of good is not reserved only for the exceptions.

When we are clear about what it is we want to be grateful for.  When we can feel what it feels like to be grateful for that thing it influences where we invest our thoughts.

We can choose to find that goodness, the silver lining, the glass half full on any given day, and that includes Mondays.   Imagine that!

Point to ponder:  Let’s face it Mondays get a hard rap on being the start of a work week.  The official end of the weekend.  So ask yourself this question:

How could I be more grateful for Mondays?

And wait for the answer.

Yes wait.

Allow yourself some time to find an inspired answer, allow your subconscious to do an internal Google search of your mind.

The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand.  We listen to reply. (Author Unknown)

If your answer inspires you and its easy to feel grateful, then you have done yourself and Mondays a huge favour!  Well Done!

Okay, I’m so grateful for my clever word smithing about doing an internal Google search of your mind. I told you it was CLASSIC!

This weekend, Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving and everywhere in the world I’ve lived I have sung the praises of this particular holiday, because of how it makes me feel.

We don’t dress as pilgrims as our American neighbours do, I grew up in a farming community where Thanksgiving marked and celebrated the end of harvest, crops and gardens. One year, I did wear my dirndl, when we lived in Germany, while celebrating the fact that the fresh turkey I ordered was in fact butchered (Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch).

I make all the foods, as they were done as I grew up and strive to be intentionally grateful—while doing it.

Because it is a lot of work.

And sometimes that work feels [extra] a lot, so when it feels extra, I get intentional.

• I focus on how grateful I have been for the thanksgivings of the past.

• I focus on my gratitude for those who will join the feast this year.

• I imagine what it feels if I didn’t bake the homemade buns or pinch the perogies, and know inherently that I would regret not doing it.

• I hear the laughter, conversations and clinking of silverware.

• I conjure up the smells of all the food.

I immerse myself in all the senses to get to the peak FEELING of gratitude in all ways to be able to create community in my home.

It makes the prep work easier, because my heart feels full imagining how full we all will feel and be when we gather.

Being grateful on purpose has allowed me to get out of my own way, get into my heart and out of my head—on more than one occasion.

And has honestly enriched my life in all ways.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are in the world!

Sherry

P.S. Get your Classic copy HERE for FREE for a limited time!