“Today I choose to live with gratitude for the love that fills my heart, the peace that rests within my spirit, and the voice of hope that says all things are possible.” – Anonymous
It’s easy to be grateful when things are going well. We count our blessings, and express gratitude for all the good we have. It takes effort when things are not.
In those moments when life challenges us, it becomes even more important to count the good that is still around us, even though we may not be fully aware of it.
Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, and the founder of positive psychology says “When we take time to notice the things that go right – it means we’re getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day”.
It’s a choice to take time every day to notice the beauty around us, things that are right with the world, even in the midst of a pandemic, even in the midst of one of the highest unemployment rates in our history.
What if amongst these hardships we could seek the good and express our gratitude for it, and shift our mindset towards happiness?
Warren Rustand, the Dean of Leadership at the Entrepreneur’ Organization (EO), a long time friend and mentor shared his 10-10-10 morning routine with me a few years back. He starts each day with 10 minutes of reading positive writings from a selection of well-known books, followed by 10 minutes of thinking positive thoughts and ending with10 minutes of journaling about gratitude.
Based on this learning, I personally have been using the Day One app to write down my own daily gratitudes. When personal tragedy struck a few years ago and I lost several family members over a short time due to illness, it was the gratitude journal that helped me heal. Even in the darkest of times, I could be grateful for the time we had together, grateful for the memories I was left with, grateful for the lessons they had taught me. Although I could not change the outcome of their illness, I could change my mindset.
David Steindl-Rast in his widely viewed Tedtalk talks about the connection between being grateful and being happy. He says we can be grateful in every given moment.
I’ve chosen to embrace the power of gratitude and have shared these learnings with my team here at Artisan Creative. We’ve started a gratitude Slack channel and each day share them with each other.
So today, at the start of our 10th week of Safer at Home I’m hoping you’ll also join me in expressing gratitude for all that you have.
This week my ten are:
- Grateful for health
- Grateful for weekly family zoom calls with family across the world
- Grateful for my pets and spending so much time with them at home
- Grateful for expanding my culinary skills
- Grateful for the jacarandas that paint LA a beautiful purple this time of the year
- Grateful for early morning walks in our neighborhood
- Grateful for the Artisan Creative team helping candidates who are looking for work
- Grateful for Yoga with Adriene!
- Grateful Southern California beaches are open again
- Grateful to you for reading this.
Will you please share yours?
with gratitude,
Katty
We hope you’ve enjoyed our 561st issue of our a.blog.