How to Use Moments of Gratitude to Improve Your Life (and the lives of others)

Gratitude is both tender, like a tiny shoot of a plant rising up, and fierce, like that same shoot that managed to push its way up through densely packed, dark and heavy soil. 

Gratitude has been one of my faithful friends when other friends went silent, tunneled underground so I wasn’t able to reach them. Or maybe it was I who went underground and it was gratitude who lowered a ladder for me to climb up on.

Gratitude is one of the highest forms of energy available to us.

For these and many other reasons, today we began our time together in #Refresh2020 using gratitude and gratefulness as the focus of our first prompt.

It is a solid, deep and wide foundation for us to build upon as we move forward in 2020 with purpose and passion. 

When we make that determined decision to “do 2020” differently, we aim to do it better. We can learn from experiences of gratitude. We can grow from holding space for grateful moments to continue.

What we know now that we might not have known in January 2020 is this:

• Aspects of the world are chaotic. They may get even more chaotic, they may stay the same. We can’t say they will get better or worse or anything. We just know that around us, there is a whole lot of chaos and dissension.
• We don’t know when the pandemic will be over. We don’t know when a vaccine will be available. We don’t know when it will be safer for people like me – with health issues – to function similarly to how we did in the past. This is similar to war-time. People have survived in times of not-knowing-when for generation after generation. We can do it now, too.
• We don’t know how many more (metaphorical) shoes will drop. For now, I am considering it to be a centipede of many colors. I can admire the colors or I can go into my hole and complain about it or go into my hole and write a lot of stories about a centipede-free world. I would rather be out among the people, helping it to be a better world whether or not there are centipedes.

Our intention is to experience the rest of the year differently.

We are adding to our expanding knowledge about how to use gratitude as a tool. When we recognize the power of simply sharing and remembering experiences of gratitude causes us to be elevated to a higher level of consciousness.

When we continue to step into this awareness by taking aligned action, our personal satisfaction and rewards will be many. We will laugh more, get more tasks done with more ease – and we will lead a happier life.

Application: Take your list of five experiences you are grateful for and use them as creativity and conversation prompts.

Creativity Prompts

Video: Take 5 minutes and make a video telling the story of that moment of gratitude.

Writing: Take 5 minutes and write the story of that grateful experience. BONUS: Hand write the story in letter form and mail it to the people you were with who became “characters” in your gratitude story. Add individual thanks for each person. Here is an example from my list.

Conversation Prompt Tips: When you see a friend or family member begin to rant about how terrible living in this time of chaos is, let them wind down and start a new conversation about what experiences they are grateful for from 2020.

Warning: some will say “Nothing! There is nothing to be grateful for in 2020.”

In those situations you may turn and walk away (without a retort is best). Take a second breath and share one of your experiences. It’s an extra bonus if your gratitude experience includes them.

Intention + Passionate Action = Purposeful rewards

When was the last time you had a conversation with someone about being grateful, especially in 2020? How might you start that conversation?

Julie JordanScott is The Creative Life Midwife and one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Join us now in 2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. Click the graphic below to find out more and register to receive emails.

Join the conversation in our closed  Bridge to the New Year Facebook Group