on my mind monday 12.31.12 - the gratitude issue

“To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.” -Albert Schweitzer

Rather than the usual On My Mind Monday post where I go through a bunch of articles that have caught my eye I thought I would write about gratitude.  Mostly because that's what's on my mind right now.  We're at that annual cusp from old year to new.  That time when so many people make resolutions, often unrealistic and undefined.  And by doing so set themselves up to feel bad about themselves later.

So rather that focusing on [insert your favorite resolution here] I thought it might be a good idea to think about gratitude.  And I wanted to share some of my favorite resources and share a couple of articles.  I won't lie and tell you that I live in that blissed out place that is continual gratitude.  I don't.  I sometimes struggle to get there, to get anywhere close to being grateful.  And yet I know I have to very much to be grateful for.

Sometimes we get overwhelmed, sometimes we get lost.  But I have come to believe that by remembering that concept of gratitude and by trying to pay attention to it I am happier overall.  And so I've collected some resources and I have in a gratitude file.  When I need a pick me up that's what I turn to.  I've also decided to try a new tradition.  Recently I saw a post with the picture up above.  It's a gratitude jar.  The concept is pretty simple.  Take a jar, put a gratitude label on it.  Then throughout the year add notes of whatever you are grateful for to the jar.  Come New Year's Eve 2014, open the jar and see what's inside.  I'm excited and looking forward to what this new year will bring.

As we transition to 2013 I hope that whatever the New Year holds for you it also brings happiness, health, joy, and peace.

How To Be Grateful To People We Don't Like - Learning to look at negative situations and focus on the good things we have can help us achieve a transformational shift. Admittedly this is not always easy to do, but sometimes having a resource we can turn to the guide us toward this can be helpful.

Gratefulness.org - A wonderful website offering videos, audios, articles, a virtual labyrinth, and virtual candles you can light. This is one of my favorite resources.

How Gratitude Can Change Your Life - A good article about gratitude with some information about how studies showing how it can improve your life.

Why Living a Life of Gratitude Can Make You Happy - A few suggestions for ways to add a gratitude practice to your life.

Stumbling Toward Gratitude - The end of this article sums it up well, " There are no miracles. … There are no long-term quick fixes for happiness, so if you become a more grateful person and you add [these] exercises to your repertoire, you’ll be different six months or a year from now."


And here's a video on gratitude that I found moving.  Thanks to my Aunt for sharing it just when I needed it.