Gratitude Practice
Hey Party People!
Well, if this isn’t the absolute BEST time of year! I am obsessed with the way my heart feels between mid November and the end of December. Family, love, friendship, faith and gratitude. Who do we talk to in order to extend the holidays all year round?!
Because Thanksgiving is coming up QUICK, I thought I would share with you two ways I practice gratitude in my life. I will be honest and say I grabbed these ideas from two other people, but they have been so helpful in helping me “work-out” my gratitude muscles.
The first is a practice I learned from listening to the podcast Awesome with Alison. If you haven’t taken this girl in to your life, you NEED her. She is incredible on all platforms, but my favorites are Instagram and her podcast (@thealisonshow on instagram). She talks self-help, how to love harder, be more thankful, get motivated when in a slump, how to look at the world around you differently… basically any advice you could ever needs, she tells it and does it like she’s your best friend in the world. I LOVE HER.
In one of her earlier podcast episodes, she talks about doing gratitude practices. Because moving your body helps you change your mindset, she advises finding an activity to do during the practice. You can take a walk, go on a run or dance it out. Yoga. Whatever works best for you. Pick your activity, then throw on a non-distracting song. This is important so you can focus. I like to choose songs that have no words so I don’t find myself singing along to them. As you are listening to your song, begin by taking five big breaths in and out for several seconds each. Then, as your mind relaxes, begin thinking of things you are thankful for. If you have to, you can start small (I am thankful for the shoes on my feet, I am thinking for the trees that provide air to breathe, etc). Start to list things off in your mind and think about why you are thankful for them. If you get distracted, that’s okay, just bring it back in with a new thing you are thankful for. Do this for the entirety of the song you picked. Taking these 3-4 minutes to move your body and practice gratitude is my quickest fix for a bad mood or being in a funk!
To recap:
Choose an exercise or a way to move your body.
Choose a song.
Breathe.
Choose what you are thankful for and why for the entire duration of the song.
That’s it! So simple, yet honestly life changing if you do it frequently!
Next up is a practice I learned from the ever lovely and motivating Rachel Hollis. Every person I know has read Girl, Wash Your Face (and probably has pre-ordered Girl, Stop Apologizing let’s be honest) so you may be familiar with this practice but if you aren’t… listen up!
Rachel also has a podact (Rise and Rise Together) and in one episode she talks about her five to thrive. I believe this practice is mentioned in there, but I may be wrong. She talks frequently, anyway, of doing this every single day.
Write down your goals in a format that assumes you already accomplished them (I am fit, I am the perfect wife, I make a million dollars a year, something along those lines), and then immediately follow it with things you are thankful for THAT DAY (I am thankful my son napped for 3 hours, I am thankful I slept in until 8:30, I am thankful my parents don’t have a kitchen so I don’t have to wash dishes, etc.). You want them to be things that effected you that very day in order to really focus in on your wins for the day.
That’s it! That single practice has changed my life and that is no exaggeration. Keep your eye on the lookout later this week for story on how/why this was so life-changing for me!
I know if you implement these (or similar) practices in your life, it will help you in innumerable ways. I have never met a person who was worse off by being more grateful <3
Happy Monday!
Ps. Enjoy this pictures of my cute family at the Pumpkin Patch!
