and how a gratitude practice can bring more joy to your life. The definition of gratitude is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. Benedictine monk, Br. David Steindl-Rast, suggests that two qualities belong in our basic definition of gratitude. The first is appreciation: You recognize that something is valuable to you, which has nothing to do with its monetary worth. The second quality Br. David mentions is that gratitude is gratis: freely given to you. Robert Emmons, perhaps the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, also argues that gratitude has two key components: “First, it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.” In her book, Living in Gratitude: A Journey That Will Change Your Life, Angeles Arrien writes: “Gratitude is essentially the recognition of the unearned increments of value in… Read More »
When Life Hands You Lemons…
There are some disappointments in life, some really HUGE ones, that are tragic and trauma filled. Then there are others that are just part of life, that feel so unfair and are not fun and are just pure and simple, really disappointing. How do you handle disappointment? Do you crawl up in a ball and not get out of bed? Or do you feel it deeply and turn those lemons into lemonade? There are so many ways to handle the ups and downs of life. Some things happen that are truly unfair and unfathomable (child loss, war, injustice). Others – it’s just life handing you something out of your control that you need to figure out how to deal with. We experienced a bit of a heartbreak last weekend. We had a wonderful, music filled event planned for months now. Childcare set up, work schedules changed, tickets bought, food and… Read More »
Thankful Yoga
Yogis and teachers like to teach about gratitude and being thankful this time of year. We create classes and activities that are based on these concepts. While we do try to show gratitude and be thankful all year round, I love that this class can be used to do just that. I taught it for the last few weeks to the preschoolers and modified it for the school age kids. I’m going to make sure to do this one at least once a season, we can never show too much gratitude for what we have and can always use the reminder. Thankful Yoga Sequence for Preschoolers: We start off talking about how lucky we are to have what we have, bodies that work, good food, homes, etc. Does everyone? Nope. You can go deeper into the concepts I’ve shared, or keep it brief. I’ve just shared the basics and wanted… Read More »
