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Read Deborah's latest article, Radical Gratitude: How to Turn Your Pain into Peace on Tiny Buddha. Click here  My journey to living in gratitude began in 2010. And let me say that up until that time, until I was age 45, I was a complainer, griper and a whiner, with absolutely no reason to complain! Luckily, I was saved from these very wasteful, counter-productive habits when I was given a blank journal one Thanksgiving season by a New Thought minister, who told us if we journaled 5 things we were grateful for 40 days our life would change exponentially for the better. She did this two years in a row, I dutifully wrote my gratitude lists and oh my god, my life did change. It worked! I let go of complaining and started focusing on all the good in my life, and there is plenty.
Thanksgiving is drawing ever so close, and maybe it is time to re-evaluate our understanding of this celebration, which is held in such high regard by Americans and Canadians alike. At this time of the year, most of us focus on being thankful, which is great, but we sometimes forget about the weightier and more spiritual concept of gratitude. The two terms are used interchangeably,
Here is a surefire way to bring down your stress level.
Whenever I nosedive into feeling worried or harried or completely stressed out, I have a surefire method to counteract these undesirable feelings. It works every time! It can be hard to start – I might tell myself I don’t have enough time, or it won’t work, but those are just feeble excuses. When I actually sit down to begin, this practice I’m about to share always helps my mood improve and become more Last November 2016, I was at the office of my holistic primary care nurse practitioner, Kathleen J., when she started the appointment by asking me how I feel. I answered, “Great!” and I truly felt that way. She frowned then, and had to let me know that according to the blood tests she had me take, I had Diabetes 2. I asked her if she was sure it wasn’t pre-diabetes as my sister had been diagnosed with that. She said no, the levels were much higher. I went into shock and dismay! She proceeded to tell me that Diabetes 2 IS reversible. And told me I
 Oh Great Spirit, thank you for the many blessings in my life.
Thank you for my friends and family, And the wonderful animals that have become part of the clan. Thank you for the work you grace me with. Thank you for the beautiful surroundings of nature I experience each day. Thank you for the lights in my world, lifting me up, motivating me, inspiring me to be more. I ask that you bless us all. Shower us with an abundance of your blessings. Protect and heal us physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Bless us with hearts that are filled with hope, faith, joy, compassion, kindness, and gratitude. And spirits of generosity. Minds that are filled with creative ideas and positive thoughts. Bless us with job security, new jobs, opportunities for promotion, and a steady flow of work and income. Bless us with financial prosperity and independence. Good friends, And a loving partner in a healthy, mutually satisfying, life-long relationship. Give us all that we need, For the highest and greatest good, And we will accept your many blessings With gratitude and love. Amen ____________________ Deborah Perdue, RScP Author of “Grace of Gratitude Journals” and “Grace of Gratitude Reflections” and “Path of Gratitude Coloring Book” all of these and much more at www.graceofgratitude.com 541 862-7021  Daily Gratitude Week of July 24
7-24 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”– Marianne Williamson (also attributed to Nelson Mandela) Some of my life I didn’t feel powerful, instead I felt powerless and dependent upon outside forces.  I recently received an email from someone saying she’s finding it difficult to live in gratitude in a challenging world. She’s stressed out and depressed by the news and the state of our country, and she wanted to know how I’m able to switch gears from being exposed to all the bad news and then going back to my place of gratitude.
I am not a news junkie and my advice to those who are is to either find a way to shut it down through meditation or a walk outside as soon as you get your daily dose of news before it impacts you, or if you find it difficult to do that, to stop making news part of your regular routine. You are the co-creator of your world. If you focus on the negatives, then you’ll pull in negatives. If you’re stressed out and worried, how effective can you be in living a life of gratitude? It’s not that I’m not interested in what’s going on, but I can be a hand-wringer and knowing this, I can only take on my world – my little circle of people I encounter in work, community and family. I’m in a very happy place most of the time, and when I falter, I’m much better about recognizing it and making a correction to stay the course on the path of gratitude. If I were to read the news each day, it would put me in a bad place. I pray for the world each day. I pray for our country. I pray for Mother Nature. I am committed to spreading the word about gratitude, teaching people to connect with their Angels and Spirit Guides, and teaching other spiritual courses. I’m devoted to putting light into the world. I believe if enough of us live our lives in this way it will change the world for the good. I pay no attention to the news, most of which is not trustworthy anyway, because it prevents me from doing the work I was meant to do. I’m sharing my thoughts about this in my blog for those who may have the same struggle. ______________________ Deborah Perdue, RScP Author of “Grace of Gratitude Journals” and “Grace of Gratitude Reflections” and “Path of Gratitude Coloring Book” all of these and much more at www.graceofgratitude.com 541 862-7021  Until recent years I was a people-pleaser. It was important for me to be liked by others, and if their acceptance meant my having to jump through hoops, well that was what I was willing to do. As I came to love myself more and more, I stopped this destructive habit in my personal life, but still found it painful to have difficult conversations in professional relationships. I just found it very hard to accept that I wasn’t pleasing everyone I was trying do a good job for. The more displeased they were, the harder I tried. I see a correlation between this dynamic and that of a child trying to win the love, acceptance, and affection of a parent. It was only recently that I realized when it comes to loving myself enough to be my own advocate, it has to cross over into all areas of my life.
I feel so blessed, because when I struggle with something, God doesn’t say, ‘Forget it, you’ll never learn this lesson!’ Instead, I am tested again and again until I’ve mastered it. Now I know some would think a loving God would spare us the pain, but I believe we are here to grow and learn. This life is school, and death is our graduation. And God is good to allow me to take the same test over and over until I don’t even consider it a test anymore. I had a chance to be retested recently when a client was unhappy with each attempt of mine to create something wonderful for her. I tried and tried and became frustrated by continued rejection, and then I came to a point where I realized this partnership just might not be a good fit for us. That happens, and it’s perfectly fine, so why was I personalizing it? As soon as I found this way to detach, I calmly explained I would not continue on with the project, she would only have to pay me for the work I had done so far, and I wished her well in finding the right person to bring her vision to life. I was surprised, and happy, when she told me I was the one she wanted to work with. So of course, at that point I felt I had to set some parameters for continuing on, which I did, and she accepted. It felt liberating to find a way to nicely say, “Enough” to someone. I learned two important things. I realized that part of the reason situations like this made me so upset was because I was upset with myself – frustrated at not being skillful in handling things like this, with my inability to do so leading to my being upset with ME! The second thing I learned was that it’s really just a matter of finding the right words to say and the right way to say it, so I’m advocating for myself in an unemotional and fair manner, leaving the other person’s dignity intact. And this was easy once I asked myself how I would want to be told. Thank God we never stop growing and learning. As I’ve stated and written many times, I am a work in progress. Neither God, nor I, are finished with me yet! Photo by Ryan Moreno on Unsplash ______________________Deborah Perdue, RScP Author of “Grace of Gratitude Journals” and “Grace of Gratitude Reflections” and “Path of Gratitude Coloring Book” all of these and much more at www.graceofgratitude.com 541 862-7021 |
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