Gratitude Practice

 A friend asked me recently for hints on how to establish a gratitude practice and I was startled to find that she was thinking of only writing.  So, here are some quick thoughts on creating a gratitude habit.

• Connecting any sensation to gratitude counts (touch, taste, vision and smell are my favorites)

• Fostering appreciation counts (one cannot express authentic appreciation without feeling gratitude)

• Experiencing the feeling of gratitude grows easier with practice, like a muscle that gets stronger

• Verbalizing and writing are great too and let you concretize with language what you're grateful for

• Customize a gratitude practice for yourself, everyone is individual on what feels both easy and good

Here are some quick examples, all of which are things I do regularly:

- Touch a tree trunk and feel gratitude for the beauty of nature

- Greet the sun with a smile each morning and let it warm the closed eyelids (it makes a lovely, red glow if they get warm)

- Purr at the feel of flannel sheets

- Close my eyes to relish the taste of cacao

- Snuggle pets

- Write "three good things" emails to my best friend each day

- Make a note in a "fun journal" about a top fun thing for the day (I got one of those 5 year journals and I'm trying this for the first time.)

- Write or verbalize notes of appreciation for other's actions 

- Relish a qi gong movement or a breath practice that feels so good

- Send a daily meme to my college kid and feel that moment of love

- Cherish the wonders of a hobby that I love (for me it's barbershop singing, but it could be gardening or a sport...)

- Notice beautiful things in one's soundings with joy (recently my winter amaryllis have been blooming, but I also notice regular things like cherished art on my walls)

- Recite favorite poems that thrill (I have less than a half dozen that are memorized, but I love every one of them)

- Visit with favorite literary characters (Isn't it wonderful that there are characters like Anne of Green Gables and Atticus Finch in this world?)

- Inhale favorite scents (rose/chamomille hydrosols, lavender/spruce essential oil added to baths, and the smells of foods/drinks like cinnamon toast and rooibos tea are some current favorites of mine)

- Enjoy clinical tapping... definitely a full body smile for me

And, for establishing new habits, I haven't found any guidance more useful than that of James Clear in his book "Atomic Habits".

(Lots of gratitude visiting Mt. Falcon this weekend)