Tag: Gratitude

Do You Doubt Yourself? Life Lessons from Great Authors

I ran across a description of one of my enemies... DOUBT! Author Jacqueline Winspear wrote: "Doubt. Was it an emotion? A sense? Or was it just a short stubby word to describe a response that could diminish a person in a finger snap?" And while I most times write my blog and how it relates to the art of writing, I had a thought.  THIS COULD APPLY TO LIFE [AND HOW WE LIVE IT]  AS WELL! I've written before about my being in good company.  Regardless of whether we writers are obscure or famous, we all doubt ourselves and our work.  What if Henry Charles…

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Open

By B. Lynn Goodwin. I know I've shared a gratitude list here before, but I always think of November as gratitude month. Maybe that’s because it’s the month of Thanksgiving. Or maybe it’s because so much in nature goes dormant, but I get to keep going on. This used to be the month when my high school actors performed the fall play, sometimes a drama and sometimes a comedy, but never a musical. Later my college students were putting together the student directed one acts in November, working frantically to have them ready to perform during the first two weeks…

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Today’s Brilliance from Erik McShirley

There are lots of sad, depressed, and/or angry people out there, but who says you have to be one of them? Easier said than done, you say? I've said that line a thousand times myself. But it's been proven that you are healthier if you have a good attitude. So why not do something relatively small, compared to things like marriage, or going to the moon, if it helps your health? (I mean that changing your attitude is small and good.) Try using humor to lift your spirit. If you want, try a joke book, or a comic book (the…

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A Gratitude List

I'm in a unique and special free-writing group. Our rules are quite simple. We follow Natalie Goldberg’s practice of doing timed writings. I bring in prompts, which are sentence starts like the ones in my book. One woman reads one, while another woman sets a timer. When it goes off, we go around the circle, reading what we wrote. We don’t comment. Sometimes we respond to each other’s writings during the next round of writing, offering sympathy, understanding, and occasionally offering advice, if it is requested. After eight years, I think of these women as my writing sisters. We’ve seen…

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Hidden Blessings

Gratitude is the answer, no matter the question. When life throws you a curve ball, be grateful that you have the hands to catch it- for there is always blessing in every circumstance, even if we can’t see it in the moment. On this past Easter Sunday I was reminded of this, as I had a skiing accident. Not being one to complain or be a baby, I got back up and skied down the rest of the hill after skiing way too fast and wiping out into a snow bank. Two days later when I was convinced to go…

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The Best Year Ever

By Sheevaun Moran. If you're sitting at your desk or on the sofa reading this, know that having the best year ever is entirely possible. The possibility of an entire year can last far beyond the first two weeks after New Year's but you will have to do a few things to make that happen. Most of them are as simple as brushing your teeth and done as regularly as brushing your teeth. Receive yourself the gift of knowledge that your body is giving you the signals about an issue or situation. Give what you want most – if you…

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Can Gratitude Come Naturally?

"My thoughts of joy and peace are fleeting. Usually I am thinking and thinking. Unable to stop and smell the flowers. Although I do work on feeling grateful. Do you think it will start to come naturally?" ~ Linda Linda, any time we start a new practice, it takes a bit of time before it becomes a natural process. Our brain is literally wired the way it is because of the thoughts and  habits that we have formed in our past. The good news is, we can rewire it at any time simply by consciously changing the way we think.…

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Gratitude: The Fastest Way to Where You Want To Be

The greatest gifts, the most meaningful lessons and the most intense personal growth in my life, have come from the conscious practice of gratitude. I've found that no matter where I am in life or where I want to be, the fastest way to get there is with an attitude of gratitude. There is always a reason to be grateful, for when we appreciate and celebrate what we already have in our lives, our hearts open, our blessings multiply and we discover a greater capacity for generosity, cheerfulness, and contentment. A few years ago I had an experience that demonstrates…

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Post a Note – Sentiments That Stick

By Michele Howe. I was telling a good friend how much I had been appreciating reading two books on gratitude - the kind of gratitude that is not dependent upon having good things happen or experiencing favorable circumstances. In other words, developing an attitude of gratitude that “sticks” no matter what. This friend (whom I am always so grateful for…) recommended another book on the same theme called 365 Thank Yous by John Kralik. The timing of this book was perfect because this author, a lawyer, discusses his 15 months of sending out 365 thank-yous to different people who touched…

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A Mother’s Day Tribute- 100+Tweets of Gratitude to Mom

Happy Mother's Day! As a tribute to all of the great mothers, @InspireMeToday reached out to our friends on Twitter and asked this question... What's the #1 thing that your mom taught you, that you are the MOST grateful for? Just reading the tweets as they arrived, I smiled, laughed, shook my head in agreement and most of all, felt warm inside with the outpouring of such love for our Mamas. Enjoy it and share it with you mom or anyone else you know who has a mom. :) Here's what more than 100 folks who responded had to say....…

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Abundance or Vision… Which Comes First?

Sometimes I wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg. Recently I had an experience where a woman, Sue, visited our home and saw our vision board hanging in our bedroom. Sue was the wife of a contractor who was doing some repair work at our home and stopped by to visit with her husband. Sue works as a cleaning lady and in her mind, had already categorized us as "rich people".  I know what that's like, for I spent my childhood and the early part of my adult life thinking that I too was separate from the abundance around…

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Grateful to be “Home”!

I'm so grateful to be able to share with you that finally, we've found HOME, in Whitefish, Montana. Wooohooo!!! After more than six months of looking, some part of me is fulfilled knowing that I can unpack and just "be". For those who have been following this blog, I owe you an apology. I disappeared for the last month, as my days were filled with packing, moving and unpacking. After months of "frustration and fascination", we moved into our new home last week. We bought a home that was owned by a bank, having been foreclosed on more than a…

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Cornocopia

My Thanksgiving Gratitude List

On this Thanksgiving Eve, I am feeling very blessed. I took a few moments to make a list of what I am most grateful for and wanted to share it with you, in the hopes that you'll be inspired to create your own "Gratitude List". It's always good to remember how much we all have to be grateful for... Happy Thanksgiving with love! My Gratitude List (not in any specific prioritized order): My husband and our family Koda, our amazing dog, and his unconditional love and affection Deep friendships Our amazing InspireMeToday.com community Hot chocolate (can you tell it's -9…

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Friendly Reminders from a Montana Huckleberry Patch

Living in Montana definitely has its perks- especially this time of the year- during huckleberry season. A few days ago, my son, his girlfriend and I went into the mountains of Montana in search of huckleberries. We drove for a few miles up a dusty, dirt road, then parked the car and hiked into the woods. For those not familiar with huckleberries, they grow on bushes usually not more than 18" off the ground and produce a somewhat tart berry, most closely resembling a blueberry. As usual, I couldn't help but relate this experience- in this case berry picking- to…

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10 Tips to Get Through Hard Times

Each morning as we wake up we have a choice to determine the direction of the day. We can go into default mode and wake up fearful and worried about things like how am I going to pay the bills, heal this relationship, find a job, etc..... or we can make the conscious decision to choose the kind of day we'd like to experience. Many times the events of the day happen so quickly, we get caught up in the drama and we truly feel that we don't have a choice. Things just happen. Bad things happen to good people.…

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Just Be Grateful

Each morning when we wake up we are given the most important choice of the day- for it sets the tone for the entire day. We can choose to wake up worried about bills and the drama of life, or we can consciously shift our energy and perception and count our blessings. It's impossible to focus on both at the same time. Gratitude is the fastest way to move from where we are to where we want to be. Gratitude alone holds the power to shift our energy to one of possibility. Gratitude holds the key to creating the future…

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Celebrate What Is + Expectation of What Will Be= An Amazing Life

I believe in the possibility that comes from celebrating what is. I also believe that when we add expectation to the equation, magic happens and incredible things happen in our life. Each morning we wake with a choice. We can choose to focus on everything that isn't going right and stress over how to make things better, or we can focus on what is already right in this very moment and grow what's possible from there. When we focus on what's not right, we often feel guilty, stupid and less than who we really are. It's easy to beat ourselves…

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This Too Shall Pass

We have an incredible opportunity to learn things in life by simple paying attention to Nature. For me, today was one of those days. I woke this morning remembering something Dr. John Dimartini shared with me in our interview. He said that when he wakes in the morning, he won't get out of bed without first shedding a tear of gratitude. As soon as I woke up this morning, before I ever opened my eyes, I lay there in bed thinking of this and listed the many things I was grateful for. I also had a list of "to do's"…

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How Are You Today?

If I were to ask you, "How are you today?", the overwhelming majority of you would say, "I'm fine". Our society has trained us to think that is the right answer. But when you think about that response, it has little meaning. I believe that when someone asks "How are you today?", they are looking for a way to start a conversation. Sometimes they sincerely want to know . The problem is the question has lost it's meaning and people expect you to answer with "I'm fine, thank you". A few months ago I wrote a blog sharing how I…

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Perspective- As Compared to What?

Yesterday we took Koda, our big white fluffy fur ball of a dog for a hike in the newly fallen snow by our home in Montana. Being a Samoyed, Koda loves the snow and went bounding into the forest and fields jumping, rolling in it and playing in every way possible. I had to laugh at his unbridled enthusiasm. What struck me the most was our big white furry dog was no longer white- he was cream colored against the backdrop of the stark white snow. I smiled and wondered how many other things in my life I automatically judge…

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Thank You For Being Part of Our Community

Dear Friends, My blog today is a bit different in that it's a personal letter from me to you. Let me start by saying, "Thank you" for being such a valued member of our InspireMeToday.com community. I personally appreciate your support. I wanted to talk with you today about several things that we've been working on for the last few months. Recently you might have noticed a few minor changes to the site where we implemented your recommendations for improvement. We asked, you answered and we responded. We greatly appreciate your input which allows us to constantly improve our site…

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