I was chatting with a friend the other day. They were saying that they wished that their teen-age child expressed more gratitude for their life. I asked if they practiced daily gratitude with their child, and they said no because, “gratitude is not something that can be practiced. It is something that is felt." It is a feeling that wells up from within.

I have never thought of gratitude as simply a feeling, and after thinking about this for a couple of days, my current working concept of gratitude is "feeling, thinking and experiencing gratitude is a cultivated skill." In my personal life, I have to practice gratitude, and in this practice, I am continually opening up my body, mind and soul to more gratitude. I also employ the saying, "fake it till you make it" to help me in my gratitude practice. For example, when I do a meditation, I bring my hands to my heart and I send out the intention to think and feel gratitude through my heart. Through this symbolic action, I am laying down a pathway of gratitude and I am also connecting to how gratitude feels in my body.

Over time, I've learned that the more I practice gratitude, the more that internal feeling of gratitude wells up inside of me!

How do you cultivate and feel gratitude?

In-Joy!

Kate

Gratitude List | My Daily Ten

Most days I make a list of 10 things that I am grateful for. I try not to repeat things so that I dig a little deeper and discover how many different things, big and small, I can feel grateful for. I encourage you to try this too!

Here is my list from today.

1) Good driving conditions

2) My daughter coming and talking to me

3) A client brough me chai spices and black tea from India (2nd batch came out great!)

4) My husband fixed the 4 wheel drive

6) The nice lady on the phone

7) My sheets completely dried in one cycle dryer cycle!

8) My husband moved the extra mattress out of the way

9) The smiles from the baristas when I walked into the coffee shop

10) The yummy macchiato I drank

11) The Mooji meditation that is helping me sleep