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Cultivate Tenderness
Don’t be afraid of your tender heart. It feels too vulnerable. It feels scary. But it is healing. Healing Ourselves with Gratitude and Tenderness I spent my entire life trying to be tough. I wanted to be seen as cool. I wanted people to think that there is nothing they could do to hurt me…
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The Wisdom of a Long Life
An elder taught me these words to live by but the irony is that the words taught me that it isn't only elders with wisdom. I Am Grateful For These Words These last two weeks have been pretty challenging. It all stemmed from receiving harsh criticism from someone I consider an elder and mentor;…
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Discover Your Own Special Light
Is your light dulled because you haven’t dusted it off? Your Own Unique Shining Light You have unique gifts. Gifts that the world needs. Gifts that are fulfilling to you and while they bring serve the world they also serve you as well. Dust off these talents, skills and abilities. Don’t keep them hidden…
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Seeing Gifts Everywhere
So many people shared this video with me I just had to share it with you. Appreciating The Little Gifts What a great video this is to remind us of the gifts we have that surround us every single day. I love his enthusiasm. He has that infectious child-like wonder. My gratitude is more…
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Hello, Nice to Meet You, I Am Grateful
It’s so easy to talk about what’s got me down but there it is, in abundance, so much to be grateful for. Introduce Yourself With Your Gratitude Today, go over to Our Gratitude and introduce yourself to the group. Instead of a standard introduction introduce yourself through gratitude. Who are you in the world and what…
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Why I Drop F-Bombs in My Gratitude
Swear Words Are an Invitation I never realized that declaring, “We want to be fucking grateful,” would be such a siren song for so many people. I was just speaking from my truth. Yes, I say fuck. I wasn’t raised that way. (Sorry mom.) And I turn it off when I’m around children or…
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Was He Really Grateful for Doo Doo Head?
The boy scrawled those words on the gratitude board “doo doo head”. His family jumped to criticize but no one asked him what he meant. We Are So Damn Quick To Judge Others Yesterday I had the giant gratitude board at a community event celebrating love. It was beautiful with hundreds of people sharing…
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The Art of Being Soft
The bees buzzed around me with all their potential to sting. What will I do? Choosing Softness It can be so easy to convince ourselves that we have to be hard and tough. Even here in our gratitude collective a few weeks ago I was talking about fighting. In times when there is…
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Gratitude Sharing Amidst a Storm
We sat quietly, taking cover from the desert sun, as the meditation began a storm blew through. The Smell of Onions Unseen. A Healthy Body. The Colorful Mountains. A Safe Place. We gathered. We, who are all about gratitude, sat together. We took cover from the dry desert sun in the shade, cooled by…
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Saying Goodbye with Gratitude
Oh man, the crying headache. It aches like nothing else. Pounding, pulsing, it has it’s own heart beat. Another Fucking Tragedy Here we are again. We are collectively mourning. Again. Our tears pour down our faces and we ask more of ourselves than we were meant to ask. Sometimes I wonder how I can go on.…
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100 Thank Yous from Judaism to Einstein
If You Said Thank You 100 Times It is Passover and as my friends shared photos of their Seder it reminded me of a Jewish teaching I heard. It calls for all Jewish people to recite 100 blessings every day. The story behind the tradition is: During the reign of Kind David, there was…
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His Words Stopped Me in My Tracks
All We Take for Granted I overslept this morning. I still have not adapted to the time change and my mornings have been challenging. I woke up at 8:30am. Jumped in the shower. Quickly threw on clothes. Got into my car and raced across town arriving with a minute to spare to my…
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A Practice to Bring You Closer Together
Is There Someone You’d Like to Connect With? You know I’m always talking about how important noticing is as a first step to being grateful. That can be true for nature, our work or home, and also for the people we care about. Is there someone you would like to have a deeper connection…
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Shout It From the Sidewalk
When 1 gratitude becomes 1000gratitudes Obviously all of you are committed to gratitude. You know the importance of practicing gratitude. You are aware of all the good you are surrounded by and all the good you are. But not all of you have a written gratitude practice. Some of you practice gratitude through your…
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Racism and Gratitude
Thank You, Martin Luther King Today as we appreciate Martin Luther King Jr. let's take an opportunity to acknowledge our privilege. Our gratitude practice is one way we can look at the privilege we have with humility and appreciation. Instead of defending ourselves saying we don't have privilege and instead of being so…
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Are You Saying Sorry Instead of Thank You?
Say It Like You Mean It I’m so inspired by this cartoon and concept. It resonates with me but I’ve had trouble incorporating it into my life. Mostly I realized I said sorry instead of thank you after the fact when I reflect back on my day. So here is my reflection of when…
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How To Express Gratitude for Loved Ones
What a Beautiful Way to Connect Writing gratitude is one thing but expressing it is quite another. Take your gratitude practice to another level by using it to connect with those who matter most. This doesn’t mean a simple, “thank you” when your loved one does something for you. This is about expressing detailed…
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Dealing with Negativity
Hey! You! Get Off of My Cloud Do you have some negative people in your life at work, at home, in traffic, online or pretty much everywhere? Yeah, we all do. Actually each and every one of us are negative at times ourselves. One of my exes was so negative at a time when I…
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We Are a Family – Gratitude Is Our Middle Name
Grateful Together – Let’s Unite in Action We are united by our values … Well at least one of our values. We all believe in gratitude. This I know for sure. Yes, we are different. We come from different backgrounds and we believe in different gods or no god at all. We live in different…
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Ask and Thank to Connect
Asking Without Shame One of the themes of the curanderismo class that I mentioned last week has been asking permission. Asking permission of the four directions, our ancestors, and mother earth to gather, to heal, to connect. Asking permission of plants to give of themselves to become medicine. This asking struck me as similar to…