Thank YOU for this. I’ve recently begun doing this again after a gap. It’s so helpful. I’m glad it’s giving you the space to find stillness and peace and everything else it does to help your journey 🙏🏻
Ah yes Sophie - I have the same reaction to the word Gratitude or Grateful .... I think of thankfulness instead but it's early days, I haven't developed a practice yet. Thank you for this encouragement 🙂
Give it a go, Helen. Just three minutes. See where it takes you. If it doesn't feel right for you, it doesn't matter and you could just set a timer and write for three minutes instead... 🌞
Also I just wrote my morning thank you, Helen, and realised that writing 'I'm thankful for...' feels quite different for me than 'Thank you'... Isn't it interesting, how a few small words can change the feeling of something so much? Something to play with. I like the word thank-ful.💜✨
I have been told that one cannot feel thankful and fearful at the same time. I don’t know if I believe that, but I do find that when I give myself over to expressing my genuine feelings of thankfulness, it does shift my focus. And shifting my focus, when I give my whole heart to it, seems able to conquer a good many “negative” feelings for me - including fear, but also anger, and perhaps most helpfully, shame. In fact, it’s such a potent antidote that I sometimes feel like I need to be careful with it -- with sadness, in particular, sometimes I just feel like I need to sit with it for a while before I’m really ready to move through it. And then, yes, thankfulness makes a good oar with which to gently move myself through that pain, to a place where life can feel firm and warm again beneath my feet. I love thanks🙂❤️
I know what you mean about the word ‘gratitude’ - there’s something very regimental about it, somehow. Rigid. Impersonal. Abstract.
I still have a gratitude journal but had been starting most entries with ‘Thanks be to God for....’. Quite often these days it will be a list, but there’s usually far more than 3 items which is what I was struggling to find in the beginning.
I think the more I do my thank you practice, the more I notice and the easier it becomes to see all the things I'm thankful for. Thankfulness just opens this up for me so much more than the word 'gratitude.' But I think this just shows that we are all so different and words can be so personal - we feel them in our bodies. I know people who find 'I'm gratful for...' just as helpful.
Thank YOU for this. I’ve recently begun doing this again after a gap. It’s so helpful. I’m glad it’s giving you the space to find stillness and peace and everything else it does to help your journey 🙏🏻
So helpful. Sending you love, Hilary.💜
Ah yes Sophie - I have the same reaction to the word Gratitude or Grateful .... I think of thankfulness instead but it's early days, I haven't developed a practice yet. Thank you for this encouragement 🙂
Give it a go, Helen. Just three minutes. See where it takes you. If it doesn't feel right for you, it doesn't matter and you could just set a timer and write for three minutes instead... 🌞
Also I just wrote my morning thank you, Helen, and realised that writing 'I'm thankful for...' feels quite different for me than 'Thank you'... Isn't it interesting, how a few small words can change the feeling of something so much? Something to play with. I like the word thank-ful.💜✨
Spirals will always bring us somewhere
I have been told that one cannot feel thankful and fearful at the same time. I don’t know if I believe that, but I do find that when I give myself over to expressing my genuine feelings of thankfulness, it does shift my focus. And shifting my focus, when I give my whole heart to it, seems able to conquer a good many “negative” feelings for me - including fear, but also anger, and perhaps most helpfully, shame. In fact, it’s such a potent antidote that I sometimes feel like I need to be careful with it -- with sadness, in particular, sometimes I just feel like I need to sit with it for a while before I’m really ready to move through it. And then, yes, thankfulness makes a good oar with which to gently move myself through that pain, to a place where life can feel firm and warm again beneath my feet. I love thanks🙂❤️
I know what you mean about the word ‘gratitude’ - there’s something very regimental about it, somehow. Rigid. Impersonal. Abstract.
I still have a gratitude journal but had been starting most entries with ‘Thanks be to God for....’. Quite often these days it will be a list, but there’s usually far more than 3 items which is what I was struggling to find in the beginning.
I think the more I do my thank you practice, the more I notice and the easier it becomes to see all the things I'm thankful for. Thankfulness just opens this up for me so much more than the word 'gratitude.' But I think this just shows that we are all so different and words can be so personal - we feel them in our bodies. I know people who find 'I'm gratful for...' just as helpful.
Also: just noticed - we like exactly the same music 😍