Awake, Aware, and Alert: A Practice
What happens at the start, in the middle, and at the end when we experience gratitude?
Stop.Look.Go
Highlights
Explore Stop.Look.Go through this curated collection of resources and practices.
Gratefulness has three steps: not missing the opportunity, appreciating the opportunity, and using or enjoying the opportunity. By this method we come fully alive, full of joy, which is what we are all longing for.
Br. David Steindl-Rast
Grateful living weaves greater awareness throughout all of our moments. Like other forms of practice, grateful living offers a way to approach, frame, and learn from everything that unfolds in our lives, allowing us to access deeper reserves of resilience and wisdom. When you commit to practicing something, you become its student. You become attuned to its presence and promise. The good news is that the path of practice is deeply merciful; there is no doing it wrong. There is only the gentle reminder and opportunity to return again and again to your intentions, perhaps just one more time today, or simply one delicious moment more than yesterday.
Br. David Steindl-Rast lays out a simple yet rich prescription for how to practice grateful living: Stop.Look.Go. Most of us know this maxim by heart from when we were children standing at the curb with an adult next to us. It helps us to harness our awareness, open all our senses, pay close attention, note the opportunities, and only then act purposefully. When we set out to meet the moments in our lives as if they are precious and truly matter, we cultivate attention, intention, and action: we stop, we look, and then we go. Following this rule preserved our lives as kids, and as adults it can help preserve our availability to the fullness of life.
Stop.Look.Go focuses us on cultivating three characteristics essential for a grateful life: presence, perspective, and possibility. When we stop, we become more present. When we look, we seek the gifts of a grateful perspective. When we go, we awaken possibility.
Excerpted from Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted
Digging Deeper
For continued exploration, dive into these additional resources on presence, perspective, and possibility.
Articles
The Grateful Life Is a Liberated Life
This essay shares how fear limits your perspective and how living gratefully offers a liberating…
Articles
Grateful Hope as an Orientation of the Heart
This essay makes a distinction between individual hopes and hope as an orientation of the…
Videos
Am I Worthy?
In this short film, Patrick Dougher shares his journey to find self-worth. He speaks about…
Practices
Awakening to Life Beyond Perfection
This guided visualization invites you to envision today as your last day, gathering the expectations…
