I think I am still working on living gratefully, but the little I have accomplished has shown me that it helps me keep things in perspective. The downs are not as down as I previously thought. The ups are more wonderful and I see more of them.
Of course it is harder to be grateful
when things are on the downslide
than they are when Life is smiling at me.
I’ve always been grateful when things are sunny,
but historically,
I could easily collapse into a suicidal depression
when the rough times came around . . .
I leaned toward the darkest side
of the dark side,
so I can honestly say that I’ve learned a lot
since I started learning to be grateful even during those times.
I still go down those rabbit holes,
but many fewer times than before,
and sometimes I go down them
dragging my cats and my husband,
my houses and my bounty
down there with me,
as the gratitude I have for them
helps to temper the terrors and fears
of what I am not grateful for.
I know I’ve mentioned this before,
but truth to tell,
I can’t say it enough
that keeping a steadfast gratitude journal helps immensely . . .
I also keep in touch with people who teach me . . .
you people here,
philosophers,
thinkers,
and spiritual beings
who share their teachings with me in books
Consciously Practicing Gratitude
has changed my life
more than I can say . . .
I tend to be a free spirit
and flitter around with what I feel like doing
whenever I can
and am not inclined towards discipline
or following the rules,
but with this Practice,
even on the worst of the worst days,
I open my journal and write,
and so far
it has kept me alive. ♥
I like to flitter around too, Sparrow, not loving discipline, nor lots of rules.
This Practice is different from discipline.
It draws me in and helps me to find my center.
Sending love. ❤️
In difficult times, gratefulness allowed to experience the hardship as something to come out some day some time out of the tunnel at the other bright side, some light was ignited when consciously taking the inner position of gratefulness, and if it was only to get the chance to face what possibly was needed to be faced in order to unfold into a more adult perspective or into a more wise kind of behaviour. So in short, gratefulness brought light into the darkness any time I found the strength to invite it nevertheless and so allowed to take one step after the other to some brighter moments, which gave relief, breathing in and then out with awareness and gratitude, for just to breathe in again.
In life´s up´s, gratefulness is felt as a deep bow to the grace of experiencing the “up” moment while being aware that it most probably will turn again into a “down” moment and that, without having experienced the very depth of the “down”, the very “up” might not have been that deeply appreciated as a precious gift of life to be experienced also in all its depth, fullness and heartfulfilling beauty, deep joy or peaceful moments of stillness.
Living gratefully helps me to keep things in perspective.
I feel my Mom wanting more of me than I want to give,
but the sky is blue, and the white spray of clouds lift me up.
It’s a matter of being able to shift my focus,
or at least being able to let the beauty in
and know that it is good.
Living gratefully gives me an expanded perspective and toolbox which is helpful for me when facing life’s “downs”. Living gratefully also helps me to become more aware of when I am “numbing out” and to more fully grieve the sorrows and rejoice in the blessings of life.
Life has a way of handing me what I need in rare moments of grace. Trent has been gone for two months and not surprisingly I have felt sad and untethered. Yesterday my son invited me to an ALL DAY cinematic meditation which I was not really up for.
But lo and behold somehow in the meditation of the 11 hour movie I made a decision. To fall in love with my life again. To fall in love with the world again. This is the gratitude practice I’ve been cultivating over these years – at work. ❤️🙏
I think you are beginning to heal,
dear Claire,
and you indeed
have been given what you need,
through your son . . .
this time.
I have never heard of this type of meditation
but it sounds wonderfully intense.
Believe it . . .
you are healing from your grief
without forgetting . . . ♥
That film director Tsai Ming-liang and the Walker series sounds very interesting, Claire Jay! Thanks for sharing about the beautiful effect the movie marathon had on you. Perhaps I will see if I can watch one of the series at some point.
Living gratefully centers me, grounds me.
I feel better equipped to handle life’s ups & downs from a place of gratitude. Everything just looks brighter when I remind myself how blessed I am.
🕊️🩷
I think of how thoughts, emotions, memories, and perceptions cluster together. When I practice gratefulness, I tap into an inner network of peace, joy, awe, patience, and so on. Gratefulness is a doorway to this interplay of light. Practice keeps it cracked open. Even if I find myself in some grittier inner network, like anger-frustration-irritability-helplessness-grief, gratefulness shines through the open door, and I know I can walk through.
there’s a verse – psalm 92:2: proclaiming your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night (להגיד בבוקר חסדך ואמונתך בלילות)
it is at times interpeted as that, that mornings are when it’s good. but night – is when it’s less easy. when there’s bad omens, events, anything.
when I’m grateful – i can sustain myself in this perspective. being able to be in a rather smiling (internally at least) position, even when things ain’t easy. They aren’t right now, to be honest. my love is beyond the ocean; I live in a place of war and atrocities; my financial situation can and should be better; and i can mope more. but being grateful reminds me that i can handle it because i was blessed with so, so much. that if i’ll forget these bounties, i will not enable myself to feel joy and wrose still to connect truly to god.
I see these ‘places of war and atrocities’
every day on the news,
dear Tzori,
and my heart breaks for the innocents like you.
I see them from the comfort of my home
and wonder how in the world
people survive this daily horror.
I hold you and those you love
gently in my heart
and am grateful that you choose to come here
and share yourself
with love . . . ♥
Sending love and strength to you in all these challenges, Tzori.
I have sometimes wondered if I would be capable of sustaining a gratefulness practice if I lived “in a place of war and atrocities,” and I am inspired that you continue to hold to it.
And I love the verse from psalm 92.2– thank you for sharing!
Tcori, it totally makes sense. We feel well rested after a good night sleep. The mind is relaxed. At night, we’re overtired and become more vulnorable. Knowing that sleep is on the way, as the old saying goes “It gets worse before it gets better.”
Building from the root goes a long ways. When Ngoc is around, it helps me be grateful for every moment I’m able to have quality time with her. When she’s busy with school or out of town, I’m able to have activities such as: football, basketball, and collaborative Vietnamese poetry. The executive game I’ve been playing has helped me navigate more difficult social situations and reduce string-pulling as well.
Living gratefully helps me see life differently. It helps me stay grounded, which allows me to pause before navigating what to do with life’s ups and downs, making better decisions and feeling supported as I go along the path.
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Living gratefully helps me have a more positive outlook on life, even when faced with difficulties. https://leveldevilnotatrollgame.io
Living gratefully, or at least trying to live more gratefully, has added a bit more equanimity and balance. It’s a practice and a tool in my toolbox.
I think I am still working on living gratefully, but the little I have accomplished has shown me that it helps me keep things in perspective. The downs are not as down as I previously thought. The ups are more wonderful and I see more of them.
Of course it is harder to be grateful
when things are on the downslide
than they are when Life is smiling at me.
I’ve always been grateful when things are sunny,
but historically,
I could easily collapse into a suicidal depression
when the rough times came around . . .
I leaned toward the darkest side
of the dark side,
so I can honestly say that I’ve learned a lot
since I started learning to be grateful even during those times.
I still go down those rabbit holes,
but many fewer times than before,
and sometimes I go down them
dragging my cats and my husband,
my houses and my bounty
down there with me,
as the gratitude I have for them
helps to temper the terrors and fears
of what I am not grateful for.
I know I’ve mentioned this before,
but truth to tell,
I can’t say it enough
that keeping a steadfast gratitude journal helps immensely . . .
I also keep in touch with people who teach me . . .
you people here,
philosophers,
thinkers,
and spiritual beings
who share their teachings with me in books
Consciously Practicing Gratitude
has changed my life
more than I can say . . .
I tend to be a free spirit
and flitter around with what I feel like doing
whenever I can
and am not inclined towards discipline
or following the rules,
but with this Practice,
even on the worst of the worst days,
I open my journal and write,
and so far
it has kept me alive. ♥
I like to flitter around too, Sparrow, not loving discipline, nor lots of rules.
This Practice is different from discipline.
It draws me in and helps me to find my center.
Sending love. ❤️
Me too,
dear Mary . . . ♥
Namaste, dear Sparrow.
Namaste,
dear Joseph . . .
the Divine in me
bows to the Divine in you. ♥
In difficult times, gratefulness allowed to experience the hardship as something to come out some day some time out of the tunnel at the other bright side, some light was ignited when consciously taking the inner position of gratefulness, and if it was only to get the chance to face what possibly was needed to be faced in order to unfold into a more adult perspective or into a more wise kind of behaviour. So in short, gratefulness brought light into the darkness any time I found the strength to invite it nevertheless and so allowed to take one step after the other to some brighter moments, which gave relief, breathing in and then out with awareness and gratitude, for just to breathe in again.
In life´s up´s, gratefulness is felt as a deep bow to the grace of experiencing the “up” moment while being aware that it most probably will turn again into a “down” moment and that, without having experienced the very depth of the “down”, the very “up” might not have been that deeply appreciated as a precious gift of life to be experienced also in all its depth, fullness and heartfulfilling beauty, deep joy or peaceful moments of stillness.
I forget about the breath sometimes,
dear Ose . . .
thank you for reminding me.
It’s just as important
as keeping a grataitude journal. ♥
It helps me stay present and dance with the Mystery.
I love this,
dear Carol Ann . . . 🙂
Living gratefully helps me to keep things in perspective.
I feel my Mom wanting more of me than I want to give,
but the sky is blue, and the white spray of clouds lift me up.
It’s a matter of being able to shift my focus,
or at least being able to let the beauty in
and know that it is good.
“It’s a matter of being able to shift my focus,
or at least being able to let the beauty in”
Yes!
Living gratefully gives me an expanded perspective and toolbox which is helpful for me when facing life’s “downs”. Living gratefully also helps me to become more aware of when I am “numbing out” and to more fully grieve the sorrows and rejoice in the blessings of life.
“…become more aware of when I am numbing out and to more fully grieve the sorrows and rejoice in the blessings of life.”
I say AMEN!
Life has a way of handing me what I need in rare moments of grace. Trent has been gone for two months and not surprisingly I have felt sad and untethered. Yesterday my son invited me to an ALL DAY cinematic meditation which I was not really up for.
https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/walker-marathon-8-10-25/
But lo and behold somehow in the meditation of the 11 hour movie I made a decision. To fall in love with my life again. To fall in love with the world again. This is the gratitude practice I’ve been cultivating over these years – at work. ❤️🙏
I think you are beginning to heal,
dear Claire,
and you indeed
have been given what you need,
through your son . . .
this time.
I have never heard of this type of meditation
but it sounds wonderfully intense.
Believe it . . .
you are healing from your grief
without forgetting . . . ♥
That film director Tsai Ming-liang and the Walker series sounds very interesting, Claire Jay! Thanks for sharing about the beautiful effect the movie marathon had on you. Perhaps I will see if I can watch one of the series at some point.
It increases my hope.
Living gratefully centers me, grounds me.
I feel better equipped to handle life’s ups & downs from a place of gratitude. Everything just looks brighter when I remind myself how blessed I am.
🕊️🩷
I think of how thoughts, emotions, memories, and perceptions cluster together. When I practice gratefulness, I tap into an inner network of peace, joy, awe, patience, and so on. Gratefulness is a doorway to this interplay of light. Practice keeps it cracked open. Even if I find myself in some grittier inner network, like anger-frustration-irritability-helplessness-grief, gratefulness shines through the open door, and I know I can walk through.
there’s a verse – psalm 92:2: proclaiming your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night (להגיד בבוקר חסדך ואמונתך בלילות)
it is at times interpeted as that, that mornings are when it’s good. but night – is when it’s less easy. when there’s bad omens, events, anything.
when I’m grateful – i can sustain myself in this perspective. being able to be in a rather smiling (internally at least) position, even when things ain’t easy. They aren’t right now, to be honest. my love is beyond the ocean; I live in a place of war and atrocities; my financial situation can and should be better; and i can mope more. but being grateful reminds me that i can handle it because i was blessed with so, so much. that if i’ll forget these bounties, i will not enable myself to feel joy and wrose still to connect truly to god.
Thank you all so much for your kindness and support. It is more than thoughtful. You are all amazing.
thoughts,prayers, and loving kindness to you Tzori.
I see these ‘places of war and atrocities’
every day on the news,
dear Tzori,
and my heart breaks for the innocents like you.
I see them from the comfort of my home
and wonder how in the world
people survive this daily horror.
I hold you and those you love
gently in my heart
and am grateful that you choose to come here
and share yourself
with love . . . ♥
Ditto
Tzori, thank you for sharing Psalm 92.2, wise words.
Sending you love. 🩷🙏🏻
Sending love and strength to you in all these challenges, Tzori.
I have sometimes wondered if I would be capable of sustaining a gratefulness practice if I lived “in a place of war and atrocities,” and I am inspired that you continue to hold to it.
And I love the verse from psalm 92.2– thank you for sharing!
Tcori, it totally makes sense. We feel well rested after a good night sleep. The mind is relaxed. At night, we’re overtired and become more vulnorable. Knowing that sleep is on the way, as the old saying goes “It gets worse before it gets better.”
Building from the root goes a long ways. When Ngoc is around, it helps me be grateful for every moment I’m able to have quality time with her. When she’s busy with school or out of town, I’m able to have activities such as: football, basketball, and collaborative Vietnamese poetry. The executive game I’ve been playing has helped me navigate more difficult social situations and reduce string-pulling as well.
Living gratefully helps me see life differently. It helps me stay grounded, which allows me to pause before navigating what to do with life’s ups and downs, making better decisions and feeling supported as I go along the path.