Gratitude is a buzzword we hear all the time. We hear it so much we often dismiss it. To be honest, it’s a trend I ignored until a mentor told me that a daily gratitude practice would transform my life. Since I trusted her and I wasn’t thrilled with the life I had, I decided to give it a try.
Today, a daily gratitude practice has become more than just a buzzword. After a year of trying to figure out what a gratitude practice could do for me and how it could help me grieve, it’s become a way of life.
Why a gratitude practice?
Now, when something goes wrong or I get upset, or I feel down on myself, I can ask myself one of the following questions. Where is the gratitude in this situation? Where is the gratitude in this moment? Or where is the gratitude in this challenge?
Gratitude is a daily practice that shifts your energy to focus on what you have rather than what you don’t. It is a reminder of how to be thankful for the gifts you already have.
It is a way of giving yourself grace. And, most importantly, it’s a way of receiving goodness when you need it the most.
What is a gratitude practice?
The gratitude practice I use is called I Choose Joy by Danelle Delgado. (It’s available on Amazon). The book has 365 pages to practice gratitude, goals, growth, and grace in just a few minutes a day.
I, personally, always start with grace. I remind myself that I am enough, that I deserve love and happiness, and that I have hope for a future full of joy. Then, I list 10 things I am grateful to have in my life right now.
Many days, it’s my son, my job, my family and friends but it’s also, hot coffee in the morning as the sun comes up, the quiet of a dark evening curled up on the couch with someone special, or the laughter that falls out of my mouth as I watch a funny movie. Grace is a gift you give yourself every day as you begin your practice.
Next, I list 3 goals that will move my life toward happiness. I include fitness goals, like getting to 100 workouts, or building enough savings to take the trip I want or making sure I go LIVE on Facebook once a week to help support my followers. You can choose whatever goals you’d like.
Tony Robbins talks about how important it is for us to make progress. It is the human condition to desire progress, and it is where we find meaning and purpose. Progress helps us focus on moving forward, rather than staying stuck in grief or disappointment. It’s a way to move your life in a direction that gives us hope for a brighter tomorrow. Goals are a symbol of hope we can choose to embrace.
The final section is for growth.
There is a gift that lives in spending thirty minutes a day expanding your mind and learning something new. It can be watching a YouTube video (like the ones on my Grief Inspired channel), listening to a podcast, or reading a book.
Growth is what you find when you teach yourself things you don’t know and give yourself information to shift your perspective in ways you may not have considered. It’s a way to grow who you are as a person and what you have to offer the world. I believe that we are each given gifts, ways we can serve the world by being who we were meant to be. Your job is to find those gifts and nurture them.
There is only one you, and it is your responsibility to learn as much as you can to become who you were meant to be in this world. That is why growth is so important.
Grace, gratitude, goals, and growth make up my gratitude practice. I feel so very grateful to have found gratitude (pun intended)! I will always be grateful to have found Danelle Delgado as a mentor because she has brought sheer joy into my life. And the magic is realizing that I couldn’t have done it on my own. We are not silos; we need support and guidance. We need other people along the way.
Consider giving yourself some grace on your grief journey and step into a gratitude practice. Allow your life to transform the way mine has. Set the intention today to add it daily into your life.
Grief doesn’t have to be an end. It can be a beginning. Start today with gratitude.
In hope and prayers,
Catherine McNulty
Founder of Grief Inspired
Overcome Grief – Grief Inspired
I think that this article was just what I needed to read. A little over a month ago I got news that my friend of 11 years had passed away. We initially met our freshman year in high school. After we graduated high school in 2015, we both went our separate ways, with her moving about 3.5 hours away while I stayed in my hometown. We kept in touch occasionally. About 6 months ago, a mutual friend of ours was having her wedding and we were both so excited to see each other. The entire wedding we spent catching up, taking pictures, dancing, and we had even discussed how she would take my engagement pictures (she was a talented photographer) since I got engaged last year. Receiving the news that she had passed away was absolutely heart wrenching, even more so when I later found out that she had committed suicide. With that news I admittedly felt instant guilt, especially since I had no idea she was feeling that way. She was a free spirit, easy going and had the best goofy personality. Her laugh was infectious and she lit up any and every room she walked into. I thought back to our last conversation, which was about 2 weeks before I received the news. I was asking myself why? What could I have done differently? I still ask myself these questions and I feel like I will continue to ask myself these questions. I’m glad that I came across this article though, to remind me that I am grateful for the time that I was able to spend with her and the memories that I will continue to hold close to my heart. Although I know this grief will last for a long time, today I find gratefulness that I was able to have a friend like my friend Sarah.