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Self-Soothing: a gratitude ritual
Self-Soothing is Self-Love in Action Create a Self-Soothe Kit I have been making great use of a self-soothe kit I made last year and I would love to share that with you. I was guided to make my kit by Vanya Garabedian, LCSW who uses it with her clients who are in recovery from addiction. …
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Have You Thanked Your Water Today?
Drinking in Water. Drinking in the Universe. Drinking in Gratitude Water is sacred. But how often do we drink it without a thought? Mindlessly stirring it in to our food as we cook? We are taking an element into our body. An element that we can’t live without. An element that connects us with the…
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For the Love of Nature
The gratitude that nature brings. Mindfulness in Nature I have been experiencing a lot of nature for the past week. Amazing drives through Colorado and New Mexico that remind me to slow down and notice the natural world. The beauty. The textures. The colors. The shadows. The movement. All that is alive all around me.…
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When You Stop Searching
A note for me that might just be what you need to hear too. You Are OK The spirit in you is shining bright. You don’t see it though. Your focus is elsewhere. Everywhere. You are searching. Sometimes slow sometimes frantic. For the right way. For more time. For what’s next. For validation, distraction, meaning.…
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Breaking Out of Your Expected Patterns
What helps you break out of the expected? Stop and Gasp at the Roses My roses are abundant and thriving in my back yard. I have been going outside to admire them in the morning light, during the hottest time of the day, and not in the evening. I just can’t get enough. The curves…
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Thank You – You Can Go When You’re Ready
Lessons in Attachment Goodbye, My Sweet Lita My dog, Lita, left this world on Thursday after six weeks (that I knew of) battling cancer. For the last three weeks I was pretty constantly worried about her but I started to worry that she was not letting herself die because of her loyalty to me. So…
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A Recipe for Feeling Alive
Acceptance and Appreciation Throughout What Makes You Feel Alive? It is such an individual thing. What makes you feel alive and what makes me feel alive are probably vastly different. But as I hold my animal companion through her last days I have been thinking a lot about how often it is the simplest things…
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Out of Hiding
The weight of those things we hide from the world. Wanting to Be Her I was writing a final paper for one of my classes and we were talking about whiteness as the default and as the ideal. At first I was writing in an academic tone and citing research but then something kept bubbling…
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The Experience
An audio download to experience gratitude. Expanding into Your Body This week we will get out of intellectualizing about gratitude and swim into the experience of it. The audio download guides us through the experience of gratitude through our senses, noticing the world around us and expanding into our bodies. Enjoy! The quality of life…
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Meditation and Gratitude
Quieting Your Mind to Make Space for Gratitude Find Quiet to Find Gratitude Sometimes gratitude hits me out of nowhere like a punch to the throat. Leaving me overwhelmed and choked up with emotion. Other times it is a whisper of a thought that taps at my attention. Noticeable but just barely. Often when I…
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Escape Into Presence
When I Worry Sometimes I Look for Gratitude and Only Find Worry I write out my gratitude every night before bed. It is a wonderful routine that usually involves reflecting on my day with a positive lens. There are times when my positive lens doesn’t work or I can’t seem to find it and I…
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But Is It True?
The only gratitude rule that matters. Until The Truth Came Out Last night I was writing my gratitude and I was a little distracted. That was my first problem. I’ve learned that the key to practicing gratitude is to be present. So I took a few mindful breaths and began again. But then I got…
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See Things Differently Feel Things Differently
Reframing aka Reappraisal and Emotion The Practice of Changing Our Minds Gratitude is a powerful tool for reframing or reappraisal which is simply intentionally seeing something from a different perspective. The benefits of reappraisal can not be understated. It helps us to: have empathy communicate more effectively with people who are different than us open…
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Is Negativity Realistic?
Bell Hooks calls it absolutely disenabling Negativity Stops Me in My Tracks I am currently reading All About Love by Bell Hooks where I came across a wonderful passage exploring negativity, positivity and taking responsibility. Because we have learned to believe negativity is more realistic, it appears more real than any positive voice. Once we begin…
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Today We Practice Self-Care
Nurturing, Caring, Healing We are on our fifth of six weeks of focusing on our inner selves to be the change we wish to see in the world. This week is all about self-care. Stop running around buying this and that, doing this and that, saying this and that, eating this and that. Just stop for…