An Experiment in Gratitude

Welcome to my next experiment!!

Once again, I have taken time to notice what my brain offers me. This time I decided to spend some time examining those thoughts and questioning them.

In my last post I shared a letter from my future self.

I have spent the past month looking at the life I am creating for my future self.

What is her work schedule?

Who does she work with?

Why does she choose the things that fill her time?

What led to her state of general contentment, dare I even say “Happiness”, with her life?

Today I am starting a month of daily blog posts.

It is an exercise in showing up in a way that I want to not because it ‘means’ anything for my business, or even about me personally.

I am showing up in a way that I want to cultivate in my life and daily practice.

You get to be the unwitting participant/witness in my experiment.

With Thanksgiving this month, it is the easiest time of year to focus on gratitude. So to make it a daily practice and something I would like to continue throughout the year, I plan to write a blog post every day this month about something I am grateful for.

I will tell you now, some posts will be longer than others. Some might only be a couple of paragraphs. Some may include pictures. Who knows what this will look like?

But in 31 days it will look like 31 more blog posts (hopefully :).

I am allowing it to be what it is without expectation or judgment for myslef.

And at the same time, I am willing to offer myself grace if I mess up. That is not my intent (messing up) and I am fully committed to doing this daily, but I am willing to consider the “grace” route over the criticism and blame I have resorted to in the past for anything less than perfection.

Why gratitude?

It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

– David Steindl-Rast

I can’t even tell you how many years ago I heard this quote for the first time and it has never left me.

I fully believe this with my whole heart and now we live in a world that offers scientific evidence to back it up.

Gratitude can literally rewire your brain. The chemicals serotonin and dopamine that are released help us to feel good in the moment as well as developing a more positive outlook in general.

There are physical measurable side effects even beyond the mental health properties such as stress hormone levels which directly effect heart health.

In a world of so many things that go wrong and horrible things that happen around us everyday, I want to focus on all the miracles and wonderful things that are happening right beside me.

Coupling this practice of gratitude with coaching, both as the coach as well as the client, gives me the opportunity to create more of the life I want while developing my “gratitude muscles”.

It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

-David
Steindl-Rast

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I’m Michelle. I am learning how to minimize my overwhelm, perfectionism, and people-pleasing and I am ready to help you do the same. I’m a certified Life Coach and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Come with me and learn how.

I have spent time becoming an excellent coach. I have worked on my skills and myself to do that. I continue to do that each week. Not because I am not enough as I am now, but because I want to see what is possible for me to become.