Self Care Tips from The Sages’ Sanctuary — Day 4 — Start Your Day With Gratefulness
Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude — the best attitude ever for flourishing and thriving.
Let’s talk about Gratitude and build this into a short practice you can do daily to put another brick in your foundations.
This sense of gratefulness is all about appreciating what we have in our lives that nourish us in some way. Starting our day by thinking about all the things we have to be grateful for is a great way to set the tone. Practicing gratitude makes us focus on all the good and pleasant things in our lives. It doesn’t negate what is hard and may be unpleasant in your life right now but it orients your attention towards the nourishment which will resource you.
In other words, spending a few minutes early in the morning thinking about what we are grateful for, can improve our mood and our sense of being nourished for the entire day. That’s something well worth perusing and you don’t have to spend a lot of time on it. I spend maybe 2 minutes on it in my journal each morning and another minute at night as I drift off to sleep.
As you are waking up, or while you’re sitting at your kitchen table sipping your first cup of coffee, think about all the things and people you are thankful and grateful for. Focus your mind on anything positive that has happened the day before, or that you anticipate happening today. You can be grateful for the smallest of things. I wake up grateful that I have a warm and comfortable bed to sleep in and of course I’m always grateful for my cup of tea that helps me wake up and get ready for my day. I am grateful for the dear faces of my dogs as they catch my eye and I see their faces soften. Think about the people in your life that you are grateful for which could include parents, grandparents, spouse or significant other, children, friends, colleagues, a boss that gives you a job, pets, nature on your doorstep. Try to find something good about all important things in your life.
Another option is to just look around you. Look at your sunny kitchen, or the trees and birds that you can see outside your window. No matter what your living situation is right now, I’m sure you can think of things about it you are grateful for, even if it isn’t your ideal living space.
Make this grateful exercise part of your morning ritual. Focusing on it, and practicing it at roughly the same time each morning and, if possible, in a similar setting, will help you form a habit. And that’s the goal for the long run. You want to be able to practice being grateful effortlessly and without having to think about it. Getting to that point alone will have a huge impact on how happy and content you feel and how your flourishing and thriving will grow out of that.
Give it a try for a few weeks and take note of how your mental outlook changes by simply adding this little exercise of gratitude in the mornings. Before long, you will do it automatically and won’t want to miss this opportunity to acknowledge all the good things in your life.
Watch out for the Sages’ Wisdom tips every Friday as we make Fridays the start of our Self care weekends. By the way you can reach out to us anytime. :)
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This is a series for people who support other people such as coaches and therapists, pastors and carers.
People who are passionate about their work and their clients but struggling to find a way to feel as positive as they want to in our Covid world.
People who have realised that they need support too.
This is a time when most of us are scared. Nothing is known or predictable and we need to call on reserves of creativity, energy and hope to get by and get on no matter what.
We can do that — but we need to do it together. This is not a time to be a Lone Ranger, coping and getting by on your own. It is a time to reach out and ask for help, get help and give help — the foundations for flourishing and thriving.
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They, on their own will have an immediate effect on your mood and your outlook on life and work. Get off the hamster wheel and take some time for yourself with the webinars, learn, act and refresh, learn, act and refresh — that’s the way to start flourishing and thriving.
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